Dixies Ladies Bar Mixed Media By Jerry Di Falco

Year:

Medium:

Mixed Media

Size - (USA):

11 W x 15 H x 0.1 D (inches)

Size - (metric):

27.9 W x 38.1 H x 0.3 D (centimeters)

Theme:

Cityscape

Edition:

Original

Artwork ID:

635772

PDF Copy:

Artwork Info Sheet (PDF)

Artwork Description:

The artist lost access to his etching studio because of the Viral Outbreaks of 2020. As a result, he took one of his art proofs of an earlier etching and enhanced it with water base media. He created this one of a kind works at a picnic table in a local park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The etching, part of his New Orleans series, shows the building at 701 Bourbon Street at the intersection of St. Peters Street. The structure is also featured in another DiFalco etching that shows the building when it functioned in the 1930s as the POM POM BAYOU GROCERY. This zinc plate etching was based on drawings that DiFalco executed, which were all inspired by a Walter Cook Keenan photograph from 1949. This photograph is from the Walter Cook Keenan New Orleans Photographs Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Media included etching ink, RivesBFK white paper, methyl cellulose, and Thai mulberry bark paper. The STUDIO TECHNIQUES employed were Intaglio, Drypoint, and Chine Colle. The dimensions for the zinc plate measured six inches wide by nine inches high, or 15.24cm by 22.86cm, which is also the overall size of the image. The paper print measures 11.2 inches wide by 15 inches high, or 28cm x 38.100cm. DiFalco published and hand printed the etching portion at The Center for Works on Paper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is a part of the Fleisher Art Memorials campus. Fleisher is an operational component of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dixies Bar of Music moved to Bourbon Street, where it continued to attract lesbians, gays, straights, and an eclectic mix of local and nationally known patrons. Dixie, or Yvonne Miss Dixie Fasnacht, and her lover Irma lived in an apartment upstairs from the club. At the suggestion of Louisiana author and club regular, Lyle Saxon, Dixie and Irma commissioned Xavier Gonzalez to paint a 35-foot mural for the bar. Gonzalez filled it with 66 well known entertainers who visited the bar. Celebrities featured in the mural included Lena Horne, Xavier Cugat, Louis Prima, Benny Goodman, Salvador Dali, Helen Hays, George Gershwin, Kate Smith,, the Dorsey brothers, Hazel Scott, the Ink Spots, Paul Robeson, Paul Whiteman, Jack Benny, the Andrews Sisters, Connie Boswell and Dorothy Lamour.

Artwork Keywords:   New Orleans, French Quarter, Inner City, Painting, Etching, Jazz Bar, Lesbian Bar , Original Mixed Media

Materials:   Mixed Media