Realistic art from pop to now at NOLA museum

Other areas are "Realism Into Abstraction," ''Handmade Sleight of Hand," and "Special Effects: The Real as Spectacle."

It took a team of eight to 10 men with heavy machinery to get the table and chairs off of flatbed trucks, out of their crates and into place.

Other work is less obvious. A pair of low-power binoculars might be useful to see the details of Susan Collins' "Forever Young," which looks like junk boards and rags but was fashioned from fine woods, mother of pearl, and precious and semiprecious metals and stones including silver, gold and black diamonds.

That's only one way the exhibit raises questions about value, Lash said.

"If I invest hundreds of hours into something, is that a measure of value? There's certainly a number of artworks that make this argument that time is as much a measure of currency as anything else."

Some, like Suda's meticulously replicated "Weeds," are deliberately hard to spot.

"He's an artist that truly understands subtlety," Lash said. "Each leaf is made of wood and painted and crafted so well that it looks entirely convincing. It's a feat of craftsmanship. But it's deliberately placed in a corner, out of the way — just as weeds grow out of the crevices. I love the fact that you have to be attentive to see it."

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Online:

New Orleans Museum of Art: www.noma.org

www.walkerart.org/

www.mcasd.org/

http://blantonmuseum.org/