Houston Community News >> RED HOT – Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection Premieres at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
7/24/2007 Houston —Opening July 22, 2007, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, RED HOT -- Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection, is a sweeping overview of the spectacular rise of Asian contemporary art over the past decade. It introduces a series of exhibitions and gallery installations that the museum is devoting to Asian art over the next several years and provides Houston with its first major look at contemporary art from the region. An international phenomenon, literally “red hot” in its energy and rapid development, Asian art has redefined the parameters of today’s contemporary art scene. Drawn from the extraordinary holdings of Houston collectors Robert, Jereann, and Holland Chaney, many of the works have not been seen outside of their home countries. The exhibition runs through October 21, 2007 and is installed in the museum’s premier Brown Foundation Galleries of the Audrey Jones Beck Building. The exhibition will also spill into public spaces around the museum campus.
(FENG Zhengjie, Chinese, born 1968, Sichuan Province, China
Lives and works in Beijing Chinese Portrait L Series no. 1. 2007 Oil on canvas
Collection of Robert, Jereann, and Holland Chaney (c) Feng Zhengjie, courtesy
Tilton Gallery, New York)
Robert and Jereann Chaney, along with their daughter, Holland, have assembled
one of this country’s foremost collections of the art and technology of the late
20th and early 21st centuries. Among the collection’s strengths is its generous
representation of today’s pre-eminent Asian artists. This body of over 120 works
and 66 artists reflects the powerful economic shifts and deep social changes
that have impacted a rapidly growing class of young artists, making the nations
of East Asia leaders in new contemporary art. With a commitment to the
cutting-edge, the Chaney Family Collection embraces this radical and exuberant
flowering in painting, sculpture, photography, video, and digital media.
RED HOT – Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection offers Texas its
first survey of the major currents coming out of the new art centers in Tokyo,
Japan; Beijing and Shanghai, China; Seoul, South Korea; and Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, as well as responses from America and Europe. The exhibition focuses on
artists who emerged after the political and economic upheavals of the late 1980s
and early 1990s. Many artists of this generation were forced to find new homes
abroad, and the exhibition also traces how recent waves of migration have
contributed to the globalization of Asian culture.
Dr. Peter C. Marzio, director of the MFAH, commented, “These works of art have
been culled from Pop cultures, politics, societal change, and technology in
fascinating ways, and challenge us to regard the world afresh. They range from
an unqualified optimism to a dystopian realism, expanding our visual vocabulary
into the new century.”
In response, Robert Chaney stated, “As major collectors of new contemporary art,
we are constantly exposed to opportunities from around the world. However, we
always focus our attention on the most fresh and innovative art movements we
see, and Asia has clearly been the most important over the last few years. This
trend should only accelerate in the future. We are truly impressed with the
vision of Peter Marzio and the MFAH staff. Their innovative thinking and
commitment to Asian contemporary art sets a new standard.”
The exhibition opens with examples of new sculpture from China, including works
by Chen Wenling, the Luo Brothers, and Sui Jianguo. This segment of the
installation is complemented by a selection of other Chinese artists who have
embraced Pop aesthetics, including Feng Zhengjie, Wang Guangyi, and Zhao Bo.
Japanese Pop is introduced by Takashi Murakami’s Tongari-kun (Mr. Pointy)
Costume, along with examples by Chiho Aoshima, Chinatsu Ban, Yoshitomo Nara, and
Yumi Karasumaru among others. Various strategies in portraiture are represented
in the work of Yang Shaobin, Yue Minjun, Fang Lijun, and Zhang Huan, while the
new urban landscape is the chief theme of such artists as Miao Xiaochun, Weng
Fen, and Zhang Dali. Additionally, major installations by Korea’s Do-Ho Suh
dominate two galleries, and works by such artists as Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba and
Dinh Q. Le address the darker chapters of recent history. Asian American artists
represented include Glenn Kaino, Nikki Lee, and Jean Shin, among others.
Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of contemporary art and special projects, is
coordinating curator for the exhibition. “The Chaneys have achieved a remarkable
feat,” she said. “Their ambition, genuine curiosity, and ready understanding of
new concepts and means of expression consistently animate their collection.
Rather than confirming received ideas, the Chaneys’ collection of Asian
contemporary art offers an innovative and complex world view.”
Catalogue
RED HOT – Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection will be accompanied
by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring a series of interviews with each
member of the Chaney family, as well as essays by Peter C. Marzio and the MFAH
curatorial staff.
Red Hot Events
The next Starbucks Mixed Media Series at the MFAH will feature Red Hot, and a
lively summer film series showcasing the popular Japanese genre anime, and other
cutting edge contemporary Asian films will complement the exhibition. Several
family matinees are planned.
Organizer and Sponsorship
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Generous
support is provided by Sotheby’s and Compass Bank Wealth Management Group.
MFAH Hours and Admission
Caroline Wiess Law Building of the MFAH is located at 1001 Bissonnet Street, and
the Audrey Jones Beck Building is at 5601 Main Street. The museum is open to the
public Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday
and Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday from 12:15-7 p.m. The museum is closed
on Monday, except for holidays. General admission is $7 for adults and $3.50 for
children 6-18, students, and senior adults (65+); admission is free for museum
members, Glassell School students, and children 5 and under. Admission is free
on Thursday, courtesy of Shell Oil Company Foundation. Admission also is free on
Saturday and Sunday for children 18 and under with a Houston Public Library
Power Card or a Harris County Public Library Card. For more information, call
713-639-7300. For information in Spanish, call 713-639-7379. TDD/TYY for the
hearing impaired, call 713-639-7390. For membership information, call
713-639-7550 or e-mail membership@mfah.org.
MFAH Parking
The museum’s parking garage is in the MFAH Visitors Center, located at 5600
Fannin Street at Binz Street (entrance on Binz). Free parking is available in
two lots on Main Street, at Bissonnet and at Oakdale.
Cafe Express-Museum
Cafe Express-Museum offers convenient dining in the Beck Building of the MFAH.
Hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., and
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
MFAH Collections
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the largest art museum in
America south of Chicago, west of Washington, D.C., and east of Los Angeles. The
encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers more than 56,000 works and embraces
the art of antiquity to the present. Featured are the finest artistic examples
of the major civilizations of Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Africa.
Italian Renaissance paintings, French Impressionist works, photographs, American
and European decorative arts, African and Pre-Columbian gold, American art, and
European and American paintings and sculpture from post-1945 are particularly
strong holdings. Recent additions to the collections include Rembrandt van
Rijn’s Portrait of a Young Woman (1633), the Heiting Collection of Photography,
a major suite of Gerhard Richter paintings, an array of important works by
Jasper Johns, a rare, second-century Hellenistic bronze Head of Poseidon/Antigonos
Doson, and major canvases by 19th-century painters Gustave Courbet and J.M.W.
Turner.
MFAH Campus
The MFAH collections are presented in six locations that make up the
institutional complex. Together, these facilities provide a total of 300,000
square feet of space dedicated to the display of art. The MFAH comprises:
· Two major museum buildings: the Caroline Wiess Law Building, designed by Mies
van der Rohe, and the Audrey Jones Beck Building, designed by Rafael Moneo
· Two facilities for the Glassell School of Art: one with studio spaces for
children and another with studio spaces for adults
· Two house museums that exhibit decorative arts: Bayou Bend Collection and
Gardens features American works, Rienzi features European works
· The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, created by Isamu Noguchi
Complementing the public exhibition spaces is a major on-site conservation
center where artworks are conserved prior to presentation.
For information, the public may call 713-639-7300, or visit www.mfah.org . For information in Spanish, call 713-639-7379