Franklin Adams Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1933 - d. 2008

There are certain artists whose practice moves beyond the confines of any particular discipline, possessing sufficient assurance and fluency to cross the boundary of so-called fine art to explore the fertile territory of architecture, graphic and interior design and the collaborative arena of set design.That all their work is informed and enriched by this creative cross- pollination is frequently the reward for their courage and curiosity.

Franklin Adams is one of these artists. Since the beginning of his professional career in the late 1950’s, he has undertaken significant projects in graphic design, such as the book design for Richard Schechner’s legendary production, Dionysius in ’69, set design for the Delta Festival Ballet and for numerous theatrical productions for New Orleans’ Le Petit Theâtre du Vieux Carre, the Contemporary Arts Center and Southern University and has been the architect for such commercial venues as Mignon Faget, Ltd.He has also designed exhibitions for The New Orleans Museum of Art, including The Treasures of Tutankhamen, 1977, for the Louisiana State Museum and for the Newcomb College Gallery, now the Carroll Gallery.And no account of Franklin Adams’ career could be complete without mentioning his instigation and participation in the ‘Happenings’ that took place in New Orleans in the late1960’s.The seminal events, produced by Alan Kaprow, Ken Kesey and the ‘Merry Pranksters’ and others in New York and California received national attention in the art world and beyond and were the first attempt by American artists to blur, even erase the boundaries that allegedly separated theater, dance, the visual arts with attendant divisions and a spontaneous embrace of seemingly random actions.Richard Schechner, then of the somewhat infamous and critically acclaimed Tulane Drama Review was a collaborator and members of Tulane’s theater department and the Newcomb Art School were among the participants, as was Jean Seidenberg and other members of New Orleans’ art community.Douglas Crimp, a now stellar art critic and scholar and founding editor of the journal October, was also a participant in at least one of these events.

The trajectory of Franklin Adams’ career is especially noteworthy now, as New Orleanians
assess our battered city, with its still undeniable and unique beauty and charm.What we must remember is that even two months after Katrina’s ravaging of the city, New Orleans’ art community was more alive, more diverse and more populous than the art scenes in far larger and wealthier cities such as Denver and San Antonio ever are and that it has been the commitment
of artists like Franklin Adams that has made it so.