Visitors pose for photos in front of the oil on canvas painting Dixie's Bar of Music at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in New Orleans, Thursday, May 10, 2018. The 29-foot-long painting that caricatures more than 60 musical celebrities of the 1940s is back in a New Orleans museum. The painting covered a wall at Dixie's Bar of Music, a haven for gays during a homophobic era. It's been in storage since 2005's Hurricane Katrina but is now the focus of a new display at the museum in the Old U.S. Mint. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A mural painting that caricatures more than 60 musical celebrities of the 1940s is back on display in a New Orleans museum .
It's by Xavier Gonzalez, an artist whose work is in major art museums. This piece was commissioned to cover a wall at Dixie's Bar of Music , which was an early haven for gay patrons in New Orleans.
The Louisiana State Museum is celebrating its return Friday to the New Orleans Jazz Museum, where it's shown along with the clarinet played by bar owner and bandleader Yvonne "Dixie" Fasnacht.
There's also an LP by the bar's pianist, Dorothy Sloop. She was called Sloopy, a nickname that reportedly inspired the 1960s pop song "Hang on Sloopy."
Sloop's portrait is on the canvas, along with musicians including Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra.
A detail of the oil on canvas painting Dixie's Bar of Music is seen at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in New Orleans, Thursday, May 10, 2018. The 29-foot-long painting that caricatures more than 60 musical celebrities of the 1940s is back in a New Orleans museum. The painting covered a wall at Dixie's Bar of Music, a haven for gays during a homophobic era. It's been in storage since 2005's Hurricane Katrina but is now the focus of a new display at the museum in the Old U.S. Mint. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Associated Press
Visitors walk past the oil on canvas painting Dixie's Bar of Music at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in New Orleans, Thursday, May 10, 2018. The 29-foot-long painting that caricatures more than 60 musical celebrities of the 1940s is back in a New Orleans museum. The painting covered a wall at Dixie's Bar of Music, a haven for gays during a homophobic era. It's been in storage since 2005's Hurricane Katrina but is now the focus of a new display at the museum in the Old U.S. Mint. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Associated Press
A detail of the oil on canvas painting Dixie's Bar of Music is seen at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in New Orleans, Thursday, May 10, 2018. The 29-foot-long painting that caricatures more than 60 musical celebrities of the 1940s is back in a New Orleans museum. The painting covered a wall at Dixie's Bar of Music, a haven for gays during a homophobic era. It's been in storage since 2005's Hurricane Katrina but is now the focus of a new display at the museum in the Old U.S. Mint. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The Associated Press