Museum of Fine Arts Houston Summer Events Calendar

Opening in July

In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet
July 13 – October 19, 2008
Audrey Jones Beck Building
Inspired by the possibilities of painting in nature, rather than in the studio, artists traveled to the rugged Forest of Fontainebleau near Paris from the early 1820s to the mid-1870s forging innovations in art that would resonate for generations to follow. There, among the rural villages and the vast and varied wilderness, they laid the groundwork for Impressionism, influenced the development of landscape photography, and raised early advocacy for nature conservancy. In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet opens July 13, 2008 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, following its spring presentation at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. The exhibition of 112 works will be on view through October 19 in the museum’s Audrey Jones Beck Building.

Houston Collects: African American Art
August 3 – October 26, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Organized by the MFAH, Houston Collects: African American Art will examine the institutional and private efforts at collecting, documenting, and preserving African American art during the 20th and 21st centuries in Houston. Themes represented in the exhibition will include early crafts and self-taught artists; academic circles in Houston and the South; masters of the Harlem Renaissance; the Civil Rights movement; African-American abstraction; Houston masters; and the New School. The exhibition will present approximately 120 works that will document both the wealth of works found within private Houston collections as well as the commitment to collecting African-American art demonstrated by both Houston museums and academic institutions. Beginning with the first gift to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, of a work by an African-American artist, Flight into Egypt by Henry Ossawa Tanner, donated in 1950 by Mrs. Emily Burris, and continuing into the 21st century with major gifts from Five A (the African American Art Advisory Association) such as Trenton Doyle Hancock’s Bye and Bye, the exhibition will present numerous works that have never before been exhibited in public. Organized in conjunction with the National Alliance of African American Art Support Groups conference hosted by the MFAH and coordinated by MFAH curator Alvia J. Wardlaw, the exhibition will culminate with a presentation of cutting-edge works by 21st century artists.

The Black List Project: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell
August 3 – October 26, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Bill T. Jones, Colin Powell, Chris Rock, Toni Morrison, Al Sharpton, Richard Parsons, Lorna Simpson, and Thelma Golden are just a few of those whose faces are seen and voices heard in The Black List Project: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell, a highly personal documentary account of being black in America. This August the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will host the national museum premiere of this project, presenting large-scale portraits of prominent African-Americans by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders along with excerpts from the HBO documentary film The Black List: Volume One, a series of filmed interviews with many of these same figures directed by Greenfield-Sanders and interviewed by Elvis Mitchell. These images, photographic and filmed, form the core of a collaboration between the renowned portrait photographer and legendary film critic that comprises the HBO documentary, the portrait photographs, a touring museum exhibition, and a major book to be published in September 2008 by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.
 

END GAME - British Contemporary Art from the Chaney Family Collection
June 14, 2008 – September 28, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
This exhibition profiles the radical London art scene, from the revolutionary Young British Artist movement of the 1990s to the fresh dynamics of today’s avant-garde.

Wine, Worship, and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani
June 21, 2008 – September 1, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
This exhibition features gold, silver, ceramic vessels, jewelry, Greek bronze sculpture, coins, Greek glassware, and other works excavated from four graves in Vani, the principal city of Colchis, an ancient land on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, now the Republic of Georgia. Vani became an urban center in the sixth century B.C. and was destroyed around 50 B.C. Metalworking—in gold, silver, iron, or bronze—was a traditional focus of Colchian art and craftsmanship. The earliest evidence of wine and winemaking also comes from the area. In the last 60 years, archaeologists have excavated about one-third of the site, uncovering an astonishing number of artifacts buried beneath the farms, orchards, and vineyards of western Georgia. The exhibition presents more than 100 objects dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. that prove Colchis a crossroads for many ancient peoples. Silver libation bowls from Persia, red figure pottery from Greece, and turquoise and carnelian figures from Egypt show multi-cultural influences, while other artworks are fashioned in a uniquely local style. Frances Marzio, curator of the Glassell Collections, is in charge of the exhibition in Houston.

In the Forest of Fontainebleau: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet
July 13, 2008 – October 19, 2008
Audrey Jones Beck Building
From Corot to Monet focuses on landscape paintings that were inspired by and created in the great expanse of forest just south east of Paris, called the Forest of Fontainebleau, an area that has been called “the colony of colonies … the true school of landscape painting.” The great names associated with this school, which spanned half a century from the 1820s to 1870s, include luminaries such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Jean–François Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Frédérique Bazille, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Claude Monet. Besides paintings and a number of important pastels by Millet, a part of the exhibition is devoted to photography. During the heyday of the painters’ colony a number of pioneers of this field, including W.H. Harrison, Henri Le Secq, Gustave LeGray, and Eugène Cuvelier, first explored landscape photography in the Forest of Fontainebleau. The exhibition is comprised of about 70 paintings, 15 pastels, and 20 photographs.

The Black List Project: Photographs and Film by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell
August 3, 2008 – October 26, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Organized by the MFAH under the direction of MFAH curator Anne Wilkes Tucker, The Black List Project pairs photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and public radio commentator and film critic Elvis Mitchell in presenting the stories of influential contemporary African-Americans through photographic portraits and film interviews. Their premise asserts that each person has a narrative that illuminates who he is or has become. They have selected prominent African-Americans in politics, the arts (film, dance, museums, literature) and religion to be photographed by Greenfield-Sanders and interviewed on film. Dancer Bill T. Jones, writer and editor Toni Morrison, The Rev. Al Sharpton, actor Louis Gossett, New Orleans politician Marc Morial, and General Colin Powell are among the people selected for The Black List Project.

Houston Collects: African American Art
August 3, 2008 – October 26, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Organized by the MFAH, Houston Collects: African American Art will examine the institutional and private efforts at collecting, documenting and preserving African-American art during the 20th and 21st centuries in Houston. Themes represented in the exhibition include early crafts and self-taught artists; academic circles in Houston and the South; masters of the Harlem Renaissance; the Civil Rights movement; African American abstraction; Houston masters; and the New School. The exhibition presents approximately 120 works that document both the wealth of works found within private Houston collections as well as the commitment to collecting African-American art demonstrated by both Houston museums and academic institutions. Organized in conjunction with the National Alliance of African American Art Support Groups conference hosted by the MFAH and coordinated by MFAH curator Alvia J. Wardlaw, the exhibition culminates with a presentation of cutting-edge works by 21st century artists.

Exhibitions Continuing Through Summer 2008

Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption
March 2, 2008 – June 22, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Over 450 works portray the aesthetics and values of wealthy cities like Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Oplontis, buried after the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24 and 25 in 79 A.D. About two-thirds of Pompeii has been unearthed from the volcanic ash that buried the city. The excavations have revealed “treasures” from all strata of society, many of whom died with the objects they chose to take while trying to escape the volcano. The exhibition presents these recently discovered works of art including precious metal objects of silver – drinking cups, spoons, statues, and mirrors, all beautifully crafted by artisans, and gold jewelry – necklaces, armbands, rings, earrings, and pendants. Household treasures and architectural art like painted wall frescoes and mosaics give insight into the lavish artistic décor of Pompeian residences. Statues of marble and bronze show the high level of artistic achievement and wealth of the city. Casts of men and women also are included.



Learning by Doing: 25 Years of the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
March 8, 2008- September 1, 2008
Audrey Jones Beck Building
Learning by Doing focuses on the experimental nature of the Core program, tracing its evolution through the work of its artists. The show presents a selection of paintings, drawings, photographs, and assemblages that have entered the collection since 1986, when the MFAH began collecting the work of Core fellows. The collection now numbers over 160 examples, and the exhibition will bring to light both familiar works and pieces that have never been exhibited in Houston before. Among the approximately 30 featured artists will be: Mark Allen, David Aylsworth, Amy Blakemore, Danny Yahav-Brown, Santiago Cucullu, Gilad Efrat, Sharon Engelstein, Francesca Fuchs, David Fulton, DeWitt Godfrey, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Michael Miller, Katrina Moorhead, Demetrius Oliver, and Shazia Sikander. Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of contemporary art and special projects, is coordinating the exhibition, in consultation with Mary Leclère and Joseph Havel.

Designed by Architects: Metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection
March 15, 2008 – August 3, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Architects have been designing useful objects for centuries, elevating the functional into art. Margo Grant Walsh, one of the foremost interior architects of the 20th and 21st centuries, has spent a lifetime collecting metalwork, amassing an outstanding collection of over 800 objects from 17 countries, many of which were created by major architectural figures. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Designed by Architects: Metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection, organized by Cindi Strauss, MFAH curator of modern and contemporary decorative arts and design. With approximately 50 works culled from the acclaimed collection, Designed by Architects showcases metalwork from around the world that was designed by prominent architects between the late-19th and 21st centuries. The exhibition explores the intellectual and stylistic links between the design of buildings and the design of practical objects, touching on the significant stylistic movements of this period.

John Alexander: A Retrospective
April 13, 2008 – June 22, 2008
Audrey Jones Beck Building
This exhibition is the first full-scale and scholarly overview of American artist John Alexander’s paintings and drawings, celebrating the evolution of the artist’s work over three decades. Alexander, born in Beaumont, Texas, became known for his early visionary landscapes and his feverish, spidery, and often self-revealing drawings when he was a faculty member at the University of Houston. The exhibition presents approximately 50 paintings and 40 to 50 drawings, ranging from the late 1970s to the present. Subjects that Alexander explores in his work include the exposure of avarice, social injustice, religious hypocrisy, and, perhaps most intently, the depredation of the natural environment.

Farouk Hosny: The Energy of Abstraction
May 10, 2008 – September 1, 2008
Caroline Wiess Law Building
Farouk Hosny: The Energy of Abstraction features 22 paintings by Farouk Hosny, a contemporary Egyptian artist who is also Egypt’s Minister of Culture. Born in Alexandria, Hosny studied for five years at the city’s Academy of Fine Arts before embarking on a career combining artistic pursuits and cultural positions. His work has been included in exhibitions in Alexandria and Cairo, as well as in Paris, Rome, Vienna, Bahrain, Kuwait City, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and New York. The spare paintings are rendered in vibrant colors that recall the Egyptian landscape and incorporate Egyptian symbols. Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, observes that Hosny’s works “reflect the internationalization of modernist trends but his pictures are always infused with his innate connections with the light and color of his native land.”

The Scholar’s Eye: Contemporary Ceramics from the Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection
May 18, 2008 – September 1, 2008
Audrey Jones Beck Building
Comprising more than 375 artworks by major international figures such as Kenjiro Kawai, Jean-Pierre Laroque, Adrian Saxe, Peter Voulkos, Beatrice Wood, and Betty Woodman, many of whom are represented in depth, and including examples by leading artists Sir Anthony Caro, Lucio Fontana, Claes Oldenburg, and Grayson Perry, among others, this collection’s acquisition places the MFAH in the forefront of museum ceramic collections worldwide and positions the MFAH as a major center for the research of contemporary ceramics.
 

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