Why hasn’t Atlanta, Georgia, become a hub for the visual arts the way some of its Southern sister cities, like Dallas or Miami, have? Despite a rich tradition of producing some of our most beloved contemporary artists—Radcliffe Bailey, Shara Hughes, Lauren Quin, and Roe Ethridge, to name just a few—the answer is surprisingly simple, and tragic.
In 1962, Air France flight 007 took off from Orly in Paris bound for Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, only to crash a few minutes later. Of the 131 people on board, only two flight attendants survived. The following day, Andy Warhol painted 129 Die in Jet!, which imagined a cover of the New York Mirror commemorating those lost in the crash.
A full 106 of those passengers were among Atlanta’s most esteemed and dedicated arts patrons, returning from a trip sponsored by the Atlanta Art Association to engage with museums in London, Amsterdam, Zürich, Rome, Florence, Lucerne, and Paris.
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