Paper City Article

Thirty Candles on the (Art) Cake

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:42:32 GMT

Art doyenne Barbara Davis takes 10 questions on a landmark occasion: her 30th anniversary as a pioneering Houston gallerist. The accompanying exhibition, %26ldquo;Mile Marker,%26rdquo; is on view January 12 through March 2 at her eponymous space, Barbara Davis Gallery.

What were the most important exhibitions from the early years of the gallery? The Joseph Beuys exhibition in 1988, the abstraction exhibition in the mid-%26rsquo;90s and Julie Mehretu in 1998.

Who are your most significant discoveries? I gave internationally acclaimed artist Julie Mehretu her first gallery exhibition in 1998 when she was a Core Fellow.%26nbsp;Shahzia Sikander did her first wall drawing for her 1998 exhibition [with me].%26nbsp;In 2007, Andrea Bianconi had his first U.S. exhibition [here]. I discovered Mie Olise in 2007 during Frieze week, where she was a finalist in the %26ldquo;Saatchi Sensations%26rdquo; exhibition, and in 2008 she made her U.S. debut at my gallery ... These four stand out, as they have seen a great deal of success at an international level.

How has Houston transformed as a place to make and exhibit art in the last 30 years? After New York and Los Angeles, Houston has become the third largest art center in the United States, followed by Chicago.%26nbsp;In the last 30 years, the city has seen the founding of The Menil Collection; the expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the evolution of the %26ldquo;Perspectives%26rdquo; exhibitions at the Contem-porary Arts Museum Houston; and the birth of a number of area nonprofit art spaces, such as Lawndale Art Center, DiverseWorks and, most recently Box 13.%26nbsp;This multicultural city has cultivated a vibrant art scene that is nurturing and supportive of working artists ... As a result, Houston has become fertile ground for curators at the national and international level to make serious discoveries.

What characterizes the art-making of 2012 versus that of 1981, when you first opened? A lot has happened in 30 years with regards to society, politics and technology. However, with regard to art-making, it is not about what is hot and new; instead it is about what is moving and what is memorable. It is the difference between trend and timelessness.

What surprises are you planning for this month%26rsquo;s anniversary exhibition? We will be screening [video footage from] a dialogue on abstraction that was held at my gallery in the mid-%26rsquo;90s, which was moderated by Walter Hopps, the founding director of The Menil Collection, with a panel that included playwright Edward Albee, art historian Frances Colpitt, the late artist Dick Wray and artist Aaron Parazette.%26nbsp;The discussion was lively and, upon watching it again recently, it is still very relevant.

How do you see your role as a gallerist? Ultimately, education is an underlying goal of the gallery.%26nbsp;Facilitating discovery is an important driving force for me. It%26rsquo;s not just about selling; it%26rsquo;s about educating people about collecting and bringing important innovative contemporary artists who have never been seen in Houston.

How do you distinguish between trends and timelessness? Trends have their limitations.%26nbsp;If you look at work and you begin to see similarities amongst many artists, you can call it %26ldquo;zeitgeist%26rdquo; or you can call it a trend. To distinguish whether a work is timeless, you must ask yourself the following:%26nbsp;%26ldquo;How profound is the work?%26nbsp;Will the work be as relevant in 10 years as it is today?%26rdquo;%26nbsp; I tend to find that an artist with a uniquely profound voice will hold up over time.

What do you look for when you decide to represent an artist? I can see thousands of artists, but to find that magical combination is a rare thing.%26nbsp;It%26rsquo;s important for works to have the following characteristics:%26nbsp;You ask a question about what you are seeing; the work transports you some place; it moves you emotionally and has a profoundness that resonates; it becomes an experience.%26nbsp; The best works will shift your perspective and give you a new way of seeing and experiencing things.

What drives your personal collection? My own personal collection has been an ever-evolving journey from emerging artists to art historical figures.%26nbsp;My home is my sanctuary, and I collect works that I want to live with.

Which museum exhibitions are you personally most excited about for 2012? The Tate Modern will have an Alighiero Boetti exhibition in February.%26nbsp;Mie Olise has a major solo museum exhibition at the Kunsthallen Nikolaj in Copenhagen, also in February, which will have an accompanying monograph.%26nbsp;I anxiously await the Richard Serra drawing retrospective at The Menil Collection.%26nbsp;I am also eager to see the Houston Arts Alliance presentation of Ai Weiwei%26rsquo;s%26nbsp;Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads%26nbsp;at Hermann Park in Spring 2012. And as part of our anniversary festivities, the gallery will be donating%26nbsp;15 percent of our proceeds towards Ai Weiwei%26rsquo;s Houston installation. He is an artist with a strong sense of conviction and fearlessness, whom I greatly admire and support.

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The New Man at the Top

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:22:22 GMT

Last year at this time, we brought sad news of the passing of Peter Marzio, the visionary director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, for nearly 30 years. The dashing, democratic and brilliant Marzio transformed not only the MFAH but also the dynamics of the Texas art world, as one of our greatest champions of diversity. Now his successor has been announced, and our community expectantly awaits the arrival of Gary Tinterow, who comes from a hallowed position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he most recently served as the Engelhard Chairman of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern and Contemporary Art. Tinterow has academic and publication credentials aplenty: an undergrad degree from Brandeis University, followed by a graduate degree from Harvard, and more than 60 exhibition catalogs and other publications to his name. However, what really stands out is his opening up of the Met%26rsquo;s historical departments to contemporary art, including his directorship of the Met%26rsquo;s wildly popular %26ldquo;On the Roof%26rdquo; series. Curatorially, Tinterow%26rsquo;s command of art history is broad; he%26rsquo;s organized shows from Degas (1988) to Francis Bacon (2009). Houston audiences will recall his glorious presentation of %26ldquo;The Masterpieces of French Painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1800 %26ndash;%26nbsp;1920%26rdquo; in 2007. Equally promising is Tinterow%26rsquo;s across-the-board support from trustees such as Rich Kinder and discerning members of our art community including gallerist Hiram Butler. The most surprising Tinterow fact of all: He%26rsquo;s a hometown talent, a graduate of Bellaire High School who even worked in his early career as a curatorial assistant at the MFAH in 1975 and 1976. Former Bellaire classmate and Texas Radio Hall of Famer Doug Harris remembers him fondly, sensing he was destined for great things: %26ldquo;Gary was drawn early to the arts and was known for his sharp intellect and pleasant manner.%26rdquo; We wish our new director the best as he continues important projects such as the MFAH%26rsquo;s third building%26mdash; and adds his own imprint to the museum. We%26rsquo;ll leave you with this parting comment from former Texas Artist of the Year/Rome Prize winner Bert Long Jr.: %26ldquo;The fact that Gary Tinterow, chief curator at the New York Metropolitan, has taken time on several occasions to e-mail replies to me, an artist in Houston, leads me to believe%26nbsp;that he will follow the fine tradition established by Peter Marzio of welcoming interaction with actual live practicing artists. And he%26rsquo;s a local boy. Couldn%26rsquo;t be better."

Image: Gary Tinterow. Photo by F. Carter Smith.

Fruit of His Labor

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 07:39:43 GMT

Ever uttered the hackneyed phrase %26ldquo;It looks too good to eat%26rdquo;? Well, in the case of the lavish buffets and tables groaning with the likes of galantine, oysters on the half shell and roasted wild turkey created by culinary artist Henri Gadbois, you%26rsquo;d be wise to take those words literally. You see, although Gadbois slaves away in his River Oaks kitchen, creating everything from sliced baked ham to pumpkin pie for his holiday table, his culinary creations are faux. Yes, he painstakingly makes food that%26rsquo;s pretty as a painting %26mdash; often re-creations of priceless museum works %26mdash; but it%26rsquo;s completely inedible.

At the sprite young age of 80, retired Lee High school art teacher Henri Gadbois has found a new career as proprietor of Faux Foods, crafting tromp l%26rsquo;oeil pieces for museum and historic-home displays. He%26rsquo;s often commissioned to make arrestingly realistic replicas of food served from the 18th century to the present day. This retirement career started in 1988 when his wife, Leila McConnell (a painter herself), became a docent at Bayou Bend, Ima Hogg%26rsquo;s historic residence turned museum that%26rsquo;s run by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Gadbois joined her two years later, and it was just a matter of time before his fellow volunteers discovered his talent for rendering fruits, vegetables and all manner of meat into appetizing renditions made of plaster, acrylic-painted earthenware, poly resins and water-based wood putty.

%26ldquo;I was a sponsor of the Key Club at Lee High School,%26rdquo; Gadbois recalls, %26ldquo;and we sold grapefruit as a fund-raiser. The trophies I cast at the end of the year were grapefruit awards made with a realistic-looking fruit atop the trophy.%26rdquo; As his skills and historical food knowledge broadened, humble Red Ruby grapefruits gave way to coffin pastry, a staple in most 18th-century kitchens. %26ldquo;I think it was in 1988 when Bayou Bend was planning a big fund-raiser for the restoration of the museum, and they invited a curator from Winterthur,%26rdquo; the soft-spoken artist recalls. %26ldquo;They decided to have their first Yuletide, and they needed a coffin pastry (a flour and water paste container). Martha Washington had evidently created a big coffin pastry filled with all kinds of poultry. Now, you never ate the pastry itself; it was just a vessel to cook what was inside. Before there was such a thing as a casserole dish, they used flour and water to actually make a dish, and it usually featured that design element on the outside of the vessel to indicate what was cooking inside %26mdash; a fish, a bird, etc.%26rdquo; And from this first coffin pastry, Gadbois has painstakingly created a groaning board of historical, fish, fowl, poultry, fruit, vegetables and sweets for museums across the land.

Gadbois works at home in both his kitchen and the large studio the couple added onto their home in 1968, diligently researching the historic recipes he%26rsquo;s asked to recreate. %26ldquo;I always start with the real thing,%26rdquo; he says. %26ldquo;I make a cake or any recipe from scratch so it%26rsquo;s as realistic as possible, then I make resin and silicon molds %26mdash; ones that harden in three minutes. Even for meat.%26rdquo; From there, he casts a ceramic piece that he then painstakingly sands with the tip of a small Dremel drill to render details and textures, such as the mottled edge of a wheel of brie cheese. Later the surfaces are gessoed and painted to render everything from beautifully tempered chocolate candy to the variegated skin
of a persimmon or plum.

Museums such as Bayou Bend, Mount Vernon, Strawberry Mansion (Philadelphia) and the Army Museum (Carlyle, Pennsylvania) regularly commission Gadbois%26rsquo; food reproductions, which he turns around in about six weeks. If you%26rsquo;d like to acquire some of your own Gadbois pieces, each of which bears the artist%26rsquo;s stamp, log onto realfauxfoods.com. It%26rsquo;s here the artist can be convinced to part with his stockpiles of gingerbread, plum pudding, quince, pomegranates, Jefferson crab apples, acorn squash, roasted dove and all manner of fruits and vegetables that will make your holiday guests do a double-take.

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Images:

Artist Henri Gadbois at home in his art studio.

Peaches and pomegranates are just a few of the permanent seasonal fruits Gadbois crafts to look like the real deal.

If that pecan pie looks too good to eat %26hellip; don%26rsquo;t. It%26rsquo;s completely made of painted ceramic.

Besides the large, light-filled studio Henri and his wife Leila share, Gadbois%26rsquo; garage is filled with even more materials necessary to craft his faux foods.

In the case of the faux oysters, Gadbois actually starts with a real oyster shell.

Step one: Before anything is cast, Gadbois heads to his home kitchen to make the real thing first. This serves as the basis for his mold.

In his studio, Gadbois gazes out into the adjoining courtyard.

Postcard from L.A.: Gray Malin

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 01:50:12 GMT

With a made-for-stardom moniker, Gray Malin, this |Dallas native took his photographic talents and Cary Grant good looks to Los Angeles. Our first intro to Malin was through the click of a mouse, when we fell for his Polaroid series on onekingslane.com. A bit of research later and we learned that Malin attended the Episcopal School of Dallas before moving to L.A., where his photography business bloomed after garnering some celeb and top-designer attention while showing his work at Hollywood%26rsquo;s Melrose Fairfax Flea Market. Most of Malin%26rsquo;s prints swing to the Pop Art side: Malin chemically distorts the hues in his nine-shot Polaroid series of scenes such as Prada Marfa and Central Park%26rsquo;s Great Lawn, and his subject matter is fashionable (his latest series is set in Paris and stars a model donning vintage Oscar de la Renta and channeling a millennial-generation Audrey Hepburn). See what else he%26rsquo;s been shooting at maisongray.com.

The Apostles of Peter

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:32:03 GMT

Sixteen curators weigh in about Peter Marzio%26rsquo;s nearly 30 years at the helm of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston %26mdash; the acquisitions, the exhibitions, the anecdotes. Catherine D. Anspon considers how the late director%26rsquo;s legacy continues to influence the institution, as well as the city whose culture he shaped.

Image: Peter and Frances Marzio, MFAH Grand Gala Ball, 2010. Photo by Jenny Antill.

Frances Marzio, curator, The Glassell Collections and assistant to the chairman of the board; at MFAH officially since 1993
Blockbusters: 1) Glassell bequest. 2) Designation of the atria of Audrey Jones Beck Building for antiquities. 3) More than a decade of exhibitions about the ancient world.
Upcoming: Publication of a book on the Glassell Collections this year and %26ldquo;Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs,%26rdquo; opening October 16.
In Retrospect: Introducing me as the family nerd and joking his only rivals were 2,000 years old. In 2001, I proposed an exhibition of ancient Greek art with Princeton. At the end of my presentation, Peter asked and answered, %26ldquo;Who will come? You and your friends?%26rdquo; We opened %26ldquo;The Centaur%26rsquo;s Smile%26rdquo; in 2004. When attendance exceeded 75,000, Peter said, %26ldquo;You have a lot of friends.%26rdquo;

Image: Gustave Caillebotte%26rsquo;s "The Orange Trees," 1878. Photo courtesy MFAH, Audrey Jones Beck Collection.

Helga Aurisch, curator, European Art; at MFAH since 2004
Blockbusters: %26ldquo;Masterpieces of French Painting from 1800 %26ndash; 1920 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art%26rdquo; in 2007 and the current exhibition of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces from the National Gallery. The most significant acquisition for the department during Dr. Marzio%26rsquo;s tenure was surely the unequaled gift of more than 70 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works by Audrey Jones Beck to the MFAH.
In Retrospect: Watching Peter negotiate the loan of the Impressionist exhibition from the National Gallery. He talked about fly-fishing with his friend Rusty Powell, the director of the NGA, with as much passion and knowledge with which he could talk about art. Incredible.

Image: Eric Fischl%26rsquo;s "Year of the Drowned Dog," 1983. Photo courtesy MFAH, The Peter Blum Edition Archive, 1980%26ndash;1994.

Edgar Peters Bowron, The Audrey Jones Beck Curator of European Art; at MFAH since 1996
Blockbusters: 1) The acquisition of a painting by Rembrandt, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1633 (2004). 2) The creation of a Dutch %26ldquo;Golden Age,%26rdquo; or 17th-century, paintings collection. 3) The exhibition %26ldquo;The Splendor of Rome: Art in the Eighteenth Century%26rdquo; (2000).
Upcoming: %26ldquo;Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland,%26rdquo; May 22 %26ndash; August 14, 2011.
In Retrospect: His unwavering willingness to entertain and, if he believed in the integrity of the proposed acquisition, exhibition, or project, support the initiatives of the Museum%26rsquo;s curators.

Image: North fa%26ccedil;ade and outdoor plaza, Lora Jean Kilroy Visitor and Education Center, Houston. Photo by Robb Williamson.

Michael Brown, curator, Bayou Bend Collection; at MFAH since 1980
Blockbusters: 1) The restoration and renovation of Bayou Bend in 1991 %26ndash; 1993. 2) The gift of three masterpieces of Newport, Rhode Island, furniture from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James L. Britton Jr. in 1992 and 1999. 3) The dedication of the Lora Jean Kilroy Visitor and Education Center in 2010.
Upcoming: The exhibition of Duncan Phyfe furniture that is being co-organized with the Metropolitan [opening 2012].
In Retrospect: In January 2001, I received an inquiry from a gentleman named Russell Barnes, who wondered if the museum might be interested in purchasing his collection of early Texas pottery ... [by] H. Wilson %26amp; Co., the first business founded, owned and operated by African-Americans in Texas ... The next step was to bring the pottery to Peter Marzio%26rsquo;s attention ... He, too, was very excited about the pottery ... He was one of those rare individuals who possessed the ability to recognize and appreciate the significance of all cultures and periods %26mdash; as evidenced by the encyclopedic collection that he envisioned and built for Houston.

Image: Peter Marzio with Isamu Noguchi in the Cullen Sculpture Garden, 1986. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives, %26copy; Richard Cunningham.

Bonnie Campbell, director, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens; at MFAH since 2004%26nbsp;%26nbsp;%26nbsp;
Blockbusters and Upcoming: I will let Michael Brown respond.
In Retrospect: At the 2010 opening of Bayou Bend%26rsquo;s Lora Jean Kilroy Visitor and Education Center, Peter spoke less than 500 words, but in those brief remarks, he captured the essence of America%26rsquo;s foundations ... then connected these ideals to the early American objects found in Bayou Bend%26rsquo;s renowned collection. Masterful and memorable.

Image: Sword Ornament in the form of a Crocodile with Mudfish, Akan, 19th century; photo courtesy MFAH, The Glassell Gold Collection.

Alison Greene, curator, Contemporary Art and Special Projects; at MFAH since 1984
Blockbusters: 1) The utterly transforming Caroline Wiess Law bequest, 2004, which brought not only masterpieces ranging from Picasso to Warhol into the museum%26rsquo;s permanent collection, but also an endowment that allows the MFAH to pursue the best in modern and contemporary art ... 2) The 1986 completion of the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi %26mdash; the first step in Dr. Marzio%26rsquo;s enduring commitment to creating a museum campus that could truly be a %26ldquo;place for all people.%26rdquo; 3) %26ldquo;Czech Modernism: 1900 %26ndash; 1945,%26rdquo; the exhibition I organized with Anne Tucker, along with Jaroslav Andel, Willis Hartshorn and Ralph McKay. It opened in 1989, just weeks before the Velvet Revolution. Even 20-plus years later, it is still recognized as the premier exhibition of the material ever to be seen in the United States %26hellip;
Upcoming: %26ldquo;Revelation: %26ldquo;Major Paintings by Jules Olitski,%26rdquo; opening at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City in May 2011 and traveling to Houston in spring 2012.
In Retrospect: When I handed in my manuscript for the Texas book in 1999, he immediately called me into his office to congratulate me. He then took the book to a major publishing house and gave it his fullest support. Not many museum directors make such a commitment to the artists on their doorstep!

Image: Alfred Glassell Jr., Peter Marzio, Joe Havel and Core Fellows at the Core Program%26rsquo;s 25th anniversary, 2008. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives, Thomas R. DuBrock.

Joseph Havel, director, Glassell School of Art; at MFAH since 1991
Blockbusters: 1) The Core Program%26rsquo;s 25th anniversary [2008]. 2) The opening of the new Junior School Building and the remodeled Studio School in 1994. 3) Adding the Critical Studies fellowships to the Core Program in 1998.
Upcoming: Simply to continue doing excellent work improving all of the Glassell programs ... That would be what Peter Marzio would want.
In Retrospect: Peter having lunch and visiting the studios of the Core fellows. This didn%26rsquo;t happen every year but was always charming and special when it did. He was always open and inquisitive, wanting to understand their experience and ideas.

Image: Rienzi. Photo by John Everett.

Katherine Howe, director, Rienzi and Dora Maar House; at MFAH since 1975
Blockbusters: 1) Peter Marzio negotiated with Carroll Sterling and Harris Masterson III to secure Rienzi, including its collection and an endowment, so that it could become the museum%26rsquo;s center for European decorative arts upon their deaths. 2) In 1997 %26ndash; 1999, he guided Rienzi through its delicate transition from private residence to public museum. 3) In 2010, he helped Rienzi secure a very important silver and gilt bronze Neapolitan coffer ... It remains Rienzi%26rsquo;s most significant purchase since its founding.
Upcoming: On September 17, Rienzi will open its first formal exhibition. Called %26ldquo;English Taste: Dining in the Eighteenth Century,%26rdquo; it is a re-creation of a fine English dining table, including the meal itself.
In Retrospect: On one occasion, when he needed a curator for an arms-and-armor exhibition, he began with this expression of confidence: %26ldquo;You know silver, and you%26rsquo;re a fast take!%26rdquo; I knew nothing about armor and had never held a weapon in my life, but of necessity I learned fast. On another occasion, which involved the residency program in France, he asked very apologetically, %26ldquo;Do you think you would mind going to Provence?%26rdquo; Of course, I wouldn%26rsquo;t! ... Peter had an infectious laugh.

Image: %26ldquo;Golden Horn%26rdquo; Tondino, first half of 16th century. Photo courtesy MFAH, Arts of the Islamic World Collection.

Francesca Leoni, curator, Islamic Art; joint appointment in 2008, full-time at MFAH since 2010
Blockbusters: Following one of the most successful fund-raising events in the history of the museum, which occurred in 2007, Dr. Marzio established the department of the Arts of the Islamic World, identified a permanent gallery space and hired me as full-time curator to steward the collection and exhibition program.
Upcoming: Our exhibition %26ldquo;Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts%26rdquo; is the largest Islamic exhibition that the MFAH has ever had [opening October 2011].
In Retrospect: His ability to make you feel at ease at any time, and the great trust he had in everybody%26rsquo;s capacities.

Image: Rex Reed, Lynn Wyatt and Peter Marzio at %26ldquo;A Night at the Movies with Rex Reed%26rdquo; reception, 1996. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives, Thomas R. DuBrock.

Marian Luntz, curator, Film and Video; at MFAH since 1990
Blockbusters: The film committee was established, with Peter Marzio inviting Lynn Wyatt to serve as its founding chair, in 1993. In 1996, the Film Buffs patron group was launched with an event chaired by Lynn Wyatt, %26ldquo;A Night at the Movies with Rex Reed.%26rdquo; Ms. Wyatt invited the renowned film critic, a longtime friend of hers, to present a favorite film. He chose The Member of the Wedding (the original version from 1952) and shared entertaining personal anecdotes about growing up in the South.
Upcoming: We are currently finalizing the roster of presenters for the seventh season of our popular series %26ldquo;Movies Houstonians Love%26rdquo; and were so delighted by the turn-away crowds at the inaugural %26ldquo;Five Funny French Films%26rdquo; in March that research has begun for the next edition.
In Retrospect: One of the last times I saw Peter was also one of his final public appearances, when he was kind enough to make remarks at a program marking my 20 years at the MFAH during the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. He spoke with his characteristic blend of intelligence, humor and passion, sharing his conviction about the importance of film as an art form and its essential role within the museum%26rsquo;s programming mission.

Image: Elie Nadelman%26rsquo;s "Tango," circa 1918 %26ndash; 1924. Photo courtesy MFAH, American Art Collection.

Emily Neff, curator, American Painting and Sculpture; at MFAH since 1989
Blockbusters: 1) The milestone for the department is the fact that it was founded [in 1995]. 2) %26ldquo;An American Season%26rdquo; [in 2010] was a great boon to American art at the museum. Works by John Singer Sargent, Maurice Prendergast and Charles Russell ... 3) %26ldquo;The Modern West: American Landscapes and Photography, 1890-1950,%26rdquo; of 2006 %26ndash; 2007. 4) Acquisitions: Elie Nadelman, Tango, 1918 %26ndash; 1924, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meredith Long; Thomas Hart Benton, Haystack, 1938, gift of Mr. Frank J. Hevrdejs; Mary Cassatt, Children in a Garden, 1878, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Long ...
Upcoming: In the planning stages, %26ldquo;American Adversaries, West and Copley in a Transatlantic World%26rdquo; and the Julian Onderdonk catalogue raisonn%26eacute;, which will
be the first major catalogue raisonne for a Texas artist [both 2013].
In Retrospect: He was funny, unpretentious, and could always tell a great story or joke. He was also brilliant. His field of expertise was in my same area, American art, and so I always needed to be on my toes. ... One time, we were discussing some aspect or issue in American art and, out of the blue, he said, %26ldquo;I think you need to go look up George Washington%26rsquo;s Farewell Address%26rdquo; ... I went home and dutifully read it again ... It was completely tangential to our conversation and at the same time perfectly spot-on. He was genius at that sort of thing. He didn%26rsquo;t make it easy for you, but he did point you in the right direction so that you could figure it out for yourself. This is, by definition, a great leader, and Peter was the best.

Image: Peter Marzio, Mari Carmen Ram%26iacute;rez and Adolpho Leirner in galleries with installation of %26ldquo;Dimensions of Constructive Art in Brazil: The Adolpho Leirner Collection,%26rdquo; 2007. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives, Thomas R. DuBrock.

Mari Carmen Ram%26iacute;rez, The Wortham curator of Latin American Art and director, International Center for the Arts of the Americas [ICAA]; at MFAH since 2001
Blockbusters: 1) The permanent collection of Latin American art that we have been creating at the MFAH since 2001. Right now the collection includes more than 450 works representative of the Latin American avant-garde. 2) %26ldquo;Inverted Utopias,%26rdquo; the major exhibition co-curated by H%26eacute;ctor Olea and myself that presented more than 300 works of the Latin American avant-garde between 1920 and 1970 ... The New York Times declared it one of the top two exhibitions of the last decade. 3) The ICAA Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art Project, a digital archive and publications project that aims to make accessible the intellectual foundations of this art at the global level.
Upcoming: In 2012, a series of three installations will take place, showcasing Latin American works of art from our permanent collection. In addition, in 2012 the ICAA will launch a ground-breaking online resource [see above].
In Retrospect: A few years ago, while working on the exhibition of a well-known artist from South America, I ran into trouble with the guardians of the artist%26rsquo;s estate, who demanded that certain passages from my introductory essay in the exhibition catalog be removed. When I asked Peter if that was what he wanted me to do, he surprised me by responding: %26ldquo;The only thing we own in this profession is our intellectual integrity. Therefore, don%26rsquo;t even think about removing a word from what you wrote.%26rdquo; From that time on, I learned to read simultaneously and between the lines both the value of my knowledge and the power of his wisdom.

Image: The Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery, installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang%26rsquo;s "Odyssey." Photo courtesy MFAH, Will Michels.

Christine Starkman, curator, Asian Art: Ancient to Contemporary Art; at MFAH since 2000
Blockbusters: 1) Opening of the Arts of Korea Gallery in 2007. 2) The exhibition %26ldquo;Where Clouds Disperse: Ink Paintings by Suh Se Ok.%26rdquo; 3) Opening of the Arts of India Gallery in 2009. 4) The exhibition %26ldquo;Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea.%26rdquo; 5) Opening of the Arts of China Gallery, 2010. 6) The acquisitions Sarasvati in 2004, Parvati in 2007 and Odyssey by Cai Guo Qiang in 2010.
Upcoming: Arts of Japan gallery, opening February 2012; Richard Fabian 19th- and 20th-century Chinese painting and calligraphy exhibition, opening June 2012; and National Museum of Korea 18th-century Joseon Period exhibition in 2013.
In Retrospect: He called me into his office to let me know that we needed to open a Korean gallery and organize a modernist and contemporary exhibition from Korea ... I told Peter that we only had four Korean objects in the collection. So he said, %26ldquo;What are you waiting for? Get going.%26rdquo;

Image: Frances Marzio, Peter Marzio, Alfred Glassell Jr. and author Doran H. Ross at %26ldquo;Gold of the Akan from the Glassell Collection%26rdquo; book signing, 2002. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives, Thomas R. DuBrock.

Cindi Strauss, assistant director, programming, and curator, Modern and Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design; at MFAH since 1994
Blockbusters: 1) The acquisition and exhibition of the Helen Williams Drutt Collection of contemporary jewelry. 2) The acquisition of the Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection of modern and contemporary ceramics. 3) The support, growth, and consistent exhibition of decorative arts in the museum galleries.
Upcoming: %26ldquo;Shifting Paradigms in Contemporary Ceramics: The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection,%26rdquo; opening at the MFAH in March 2012.
In Retrospect: There are too many to choose from! Peter was an incredible mentor and friend to me. I miss our conversations dearly.

Image: Lid for Canopic Container from Tutankhamun%26rsquo;s Tomb, 18th Dynasty. Photo courtesy Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, %26ldquo;Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs%26rdquo; %26copy; Sandro Vannini.

Anne Wilkes Tucker, The Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography; at MFAH since 1976
Blockbusters: 1) Acquisition of the Manfred Heiting Collection. 2) The exhibition %26ldquo;History of Japanese Photography.%26rdquo; 3) The exhibition %26ldquo;Brassai: Eye of Paris%26rdquo; and acquisition of important group of Brassai photographs.
Upcoming: %26ldquo;War/Photography: Photographs of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath%26rdquo; [opening Veterans Day 2012].
In Retrospect: I happened to have a meeting with Peter just after he had toured Helga Aurisch%26rsquo;s German Impressionism show for the first time. As he often did, he began to think aloud about her exhibition, comparing French and German Impressionism. Then he spoke about how these tendencies continued into Modernism through artists such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and other Bauhaus artists. It was almost 20 minutes before we got to the more mundane matters for which I%26rsquo;d made the appointment. In the meantime, I%26rsquo;d had a delightful %26ldquo;seminar%26rdquo; experience with someone who loved art and approached it with a fresh and personal vision and a solid grounding in both history and art.

Image: Life trustee Caroline Law, curator Barry Walker, art dealer Jason McCoy (Pollock%26rsquo;s nephew and estate representative) and Peter Marzio posing next to Pollock%26rsquo;s "Number 6," 1949, during the exhibition %26ldquo;Jackson Pollock: Defining the Heroic,%26rdquo; 1996. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives.

Barry Walker, curator, Modern and Contemporary Art and Prints %26amp; Drawings; at MFAH since 1991
Blockbusters: 1) A very large purchase from a Jackson Pollock drawings exhibition that had been in Europe. When it came to Houston, Dr. Marzio encouraged me to add paintings and sculpture. 2. The Peter Blum purchase and exhibition, %26ldquo;Singular Multiples.%26rdquo; 3) Dealing directly with Jasper Johns, and a complete purchase of his paintings, drawings and prints.
Upcoming: An exhibition with English draftsman, Ewan Gibbs, probably in November 2012.
In Retrospect: It%26rsquo;s so rare that you meet someone who you totally admire but also enjoy being with. Peter was more fun than anyone else.

Image at top: Peter Marzio with Isaac Arnold Jr. in the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden during 20th anniversary celebration, 2006. Photo courtesy MFAH Archives, George Ramirez.

Heavy Medal

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 02:20:03 GMT

Late last month, April 27, to be precise, Becca Cason Thrash %26mdash; consummate hostess and philanthropist%26mdash; was f%26ecirc;ted by no less than the French government. Awarded the Chevalier (Knight) of the National Order of the Legion of Honour from President Nicolas Sarkozy for her innumerable contributions %26mdash; culturally and charitably %26mdash; to the Gallic people, Thrash is among only a handful of Texans to ever receive the honor originated by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. The Order is the highest decoration in France. Her ongoing support of the Louvre, Versailles, the Palais Garnier, Giverny and the Haute Couture has raised beaucoup Euros for France. The first Liaisons au Louvre fund-raiser she organized with the president and director of the Mus%26eacute;e du Louvre, Henri Loyrette, and Kip Forbes, chairman of the American and International Friends of the Louvre (the first fund-raiser ever to be sanctioned and held in the Louvre), raised more than $2.7 million for the venerable national treasure. For more than a decade, this Francophile has hosted memorable parties on both sides of the Atlantic for French luxury houses ranging from Dior to Montblanc, Louis Vuitton to Cartier %26mdash; pouring Dom P%26eacute;rignon and Veuve Clicquot, bien s%26ucirc;r. On the eve of Liaisons au Louvre II, June 12 through 14 in Paris, vice chairman of the American and International Friends of the Louvre, Becca Cason Thrash, sits down to parle about her home away from home, Paris.

Image: HRH Princess Caroline of Monaco, Becca Thrash, at the Louvre gala, June 10, 2008; The medal of the Legion is a five-armed Maltese cross in silver enameled in white with a laurel and oak wreath, and the face of Marianne, with red ribbons.

How did you become involved with the Louvre?

In 2004, the Louvre created the American Friends of the Louvre. Henri Loyrette, director of the Louvre, invited Christopher Forbes to become the chairman of the organization. In turn, Christopher (Kip) invited me to join the board of directors. The following year, we created the International Friends of the Louvre, of which I am the vice chairman of the board. Since 2005, I have chaired and hosted two fund-raisers in Houston, one in Los Angeles and one in Palm Beach.%26nbsp;In 2008, Henri Loyrette invited me to create and produce the first-ever fund-raising event held for the Louvre and in the Louvre. I am currently finalizing details for the second Liaisons au Louvre, which will be held in Paris June 12, 13 and 14 under the high patronage of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.%26nbsp; On La Grande Nuit in the Louvre, June 14, cocktails will be served in the elaborately furnished 19th-century apartments of Napoleon III, followed by an elegant seated dinner in the Cour Marley amidst the masterpieces of the Louvre. After dinner, the entertainment is the one and only Janet Jackson, performing before 350 guests in the Pyramide de Louvre.

Image: Pyramide de Louvre

Parlez-vous fran%26ccedil;ais?

Last summer, I took a month French immersion course at the Institut de Fran%26ccedil;ais in Villefranche-sur-Mer near Cap Ferrat. I had never studied French formally %26mdash; and as everyone speaks English these days, never made much of an effort to learn. One day in Paris during a board meeting, a fellow board member said, %26ldquo;Becca, it%26rsquo;s time for you to learn French.%26rdquo; One certainly does not learn French, or any language, in a month or even a year, particularly if you are not living in the country of the language %26hellip; This program gave me a great core of the language and basic knowledge of the most used verbs. Since coming home, I have taken occasional lessons at Berlitz and have had private tutoring. I am far from fluent, but I can certainly get by and say just about anything I need to say. Unlike Spanish and Italian, which came easier to me, French is a difficult and complex language that takes an open mind and full concentration.

You%26rsquo;ve been attending the couture collections in Paris for quite some time now. What are your favorite houses?

Sadly, the couture loses a major house every year or two. It is really not what it was when I first began attending 12 years ago. My favorites were Ungaro and Christian Lacroix, and neither exists any longer. Dior and Chanel have been the solid staples, but Jean Paul Gaultier is also one of my absolute favorites. I once saw a show he did with clothes made entirely of bread! It truly was astonishing: His talent and genius run deep.

Image: Will this be the one? We're only guessing.

And to La Grande Nuit you will wear %26hellip;?

I am wearing one of the last 12 gowns that Alexander McQueen designed before he died.

Paris is full of marvelous patisseries and boulangeries, chocolate shops and the like, where you can sit for a moment and treat yourself to a beautiful sweet. Where do you go for a sweet treat?

I%26rsquo;m not a big sweet eater, but I love Ladur%26eacute;e on the rue Royale. They make the best macaroons in the world. The palmiers at Angelica on rue de Rivoli melt in your mouth. Sometimes the line is a block long!

Your stomping grounds?

There%26rsquo;s not a bad part of Paris. It%26rsquo;s only seven miles long, and although millions live there, every arrondissement has its own charm. The 1st and the 8th are so well located. The 7th, the most famous, on the Left Bank, although the 6th is probably more special and a little more exclusive. I love Le Marais, a slightly more bohemian area of Paris but with amazing bistros and edgy shops. The 16th is beautiful, although primarily residential. I have a tendency to spend most of my time between the 1st, 7th and 8th.

Image: Apicius restaurant

The Paris shops you wouldn%26rsquo;t miss?

If I could only shop in one store (and that would be sheer torture!), it would be Montaigne Market. They have the best-edited collections, from Ala%26iuml;a to J. Mendel and everyone in between. Incredible accessories and shoes, too.%26nbsp;For a department store, the closest thing to a Neiman Marcus is Printemps, which represents every designer under the sun. They have concierges and personal shoppers, making it a really easy shopping experience. I love all the edgy little shoe stores in the 7th and the individual designer boutiques. The outdoor restaurant at Ralph Lauren on St. Germain is incredible to slip in for a hamburger in between shopping. Of course, the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor%26eacute; has virtually every designer store, beginning at the rue de Rivoli all the way to the H%26ocirc;tel Le Bristol. The Herm%26egrave;s flagship store is there, as well as Lanvin, Gucci, Azzaro, YSL and the beautiful Roger Vivier store. One could spend days visiting all the art galleries and specialty antiquaire stores in Paris. The 7th has an over abundance of these exquisite stores, but wonderful finds exist in the 1st, 8th and the Marais, too. There are frequent auctions featuring rare books and old masters drawings.

What are the bo%26icirc;tes %26mdash; bistros, brasseries, Michelin three-star eateries %26mdash; where you love to dine?

Even though%26nbsp;Vanity Fair%26nbsp;completely trashed it, my absolute favorite bistro remains L%26rsquo;Ami Louis. It serves the best foie gras in the world, the most extraordinary roasted chicken, and the goose-fat potatoes with fresh garlic is mind-boggling. No trip is complete without at least one visit to L%26rsquo;Ami Louis. I also adore Le Voltaire: quintessential French cuisine, elegant yet cozy. Caviar Kaspia, right behind La Madeleine, is also one of my very favorite spots. The freshest caviar, the most scrumptious salmon, with little thimble-sized shots of vodka that you sip endlessly through the night. For really elegant nouvelle cuisine, Apicius is extraordinary, in an old h%26ocirc;tel particulier that has been converted into a sleek Art Deco space with impeccable service and presentation.%26nbsp;I can%26rsquo;t imagine going to Paris without having lunch at L%26rsquo;Avenue in the front room. I also love breakfast or lunch in the lobby at H%26ocirc;tel Le Meurice. When you are pooped and don%26rsquo;t want to get dressed, an easy dinner at H%26ocirc;tel Costes is always fun and great people watching.

Favorite out-of-the-way haunts?

Monday is a slow day, and many restaurants are closed. This is when I love to spend an afternoon at Paris%26rsquo; most fabulous flea market: Porte de Clignancourt. You can find great treasures and don%26rsquo;t have to wake up at five in the morning to do so. It opens at 11 am, but it%26rsquo;s best to go after lunch.

The must-see museum exhibits?

At the Mus%26eacute;e des Arts Decoratifs, they have an interesting show of Ralph Lauren%26rsquo;s antique car collection through August. There is a retrospective on Edouard Manet held at Mus%26eacute;e d%26rsquo;Orsay. The Louvre will feature a Rembrandt exhibit and the Face of Jesus paintings from now through July.

Image: San R%26eacute;gis hotel

Where is your home away from home in France?

I go to Paris about five or six times a year. Until the last two years, I have always stayed at the H%26ocirc;tel Ritz Place Vend%26ocirc;me. I still love it there and always will. However, I discovered a tiny boutique hotel in the 8th called the San R%26eacute;gis, where I always stay when I am by myself. It%26rsquo;s right around the corner from avenue Montaigne, so I can walk to the Plaza Athen%26eacute;e, L%26rsquo;Avenue, or Le Stresa, not to mention the best shopping street in Paris! It%26rsquo;s also about 100 yards from the 7th, as the Grand Palais is right next door ... you just walk across the bridge and voil%26agrave;, you%26rsquo;re there!

In Houston, you occasionally imbibe with a well-made margarita. Your cocktail of choice in Paris?

Champagne, champagne and more champagne! People in Paris don%26rsquo;t usually drink vodka sodas or mixed drinks the way we do here in America. Red wine is completely taboo except during dinner. But I can%26rsquo;t possibly choose a favorite. I adore Dom P%26eacute;rignon, Ruinart, Krug and Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame. They all go down easily and are so yummy. I have a tendency to go to private affairs more often than restaurants, but at the end of the evening, my favorite club to stop by for a nightcap is Mathis in the 8th directly across from Gagosian Gallery.

American Notables Who Have Been Awarded Chevalier of the Legion of Honour Include:
Julia Child
Alan Greenspan
Douglas MacArthur
Barbra Streisand
Toni Morrison
Walt Disney
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ralph Lauren

Image at top: At La Grande Nuit in the Louvre, June 10, 2008

BlackBall Proves Delightfully Deranged

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 02:49:48 GMT

Complete BlackBall coverage can be seen in our March issue.

Shotgun, Set, Fête!

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:21:07 GMT

The never-fail recipe for an extravagant Super Bowl party? Start with one powerhouse charity and its enormous plans for two nights of soirées. Toss in a football legend or two, a pack of contemporary artists and an undoubtedly A-list swarm of guests. Shake it all up and you have The Giving Back Fund and its Third Annual Big Game Big Give weekend, sponsored by PaperCity. Add these to your party playbook.

• Friday, February 4 — Dallas Cowboys star Troy Aikman kicks off the Big Give weekend at Samuel Lynne Galleries, with a game-worthy gallery party. Artists including Burton Morris, JD Miller, Michael Kalish and Samuel Lynne owner Phil Romano have created artwork to be sold at the cocktail, with a portion of proceeds benefitting The Giving Back Fund and The Troy Aikman Foundation.

• Saturday, February 5 — Though not many details have been revealed, we have the exclusive night-two basics covered. Members of the in-crowd are coveting invites to this Strait Lane bash at Phil Romano’s over-the-top, European-style estate. Decadent deet: Last year’s Saturday-night affair at Michael Bay’s Miami house was crowned ESPN’s number-one Super Bowl party. Enough said.

Tickets and information 310.649.5222; bgbgdallas.org.

Inside the Art Nest of ... Mel + Mick

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:24:04 GMT

He cooks and sews. She gardens and bikes. In tandem, they canoe, own a furniture company. And make art.

I’ll take a tall, skinny. In the drive, (v) + (jn) = blueprint2, Mick’s sound installation/sculpture, is a collaboration with neighbor Jim Nolan, constructed from the remains of the original 1937 garage.

She does dishes and gardens. Mel’s cactus garden in the kitchen window, above the original sink.

She paints: Mel’s studio including works in progress that translate everyday objects of female adornment —%26nbsp;an eyeglass holder, cosmetic case or powder puff — into art.

She irons: Mel demonstrates an original built-in.

Shopping list. Mel’s studio with works in process for “The Eula Project,” based on her grandmother’s life told from the perspective of a few surviving possessions (recently shown at O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston–Downtown).

Beauty Parlor. Mel’s After all these years, the contents remain, 2010, the title loosely based on the life of her late grandmother. Inspiration? Lipstick tubes, floral paper towels, pink hand soap.

She draws: Mel’s locker stores colored pencils and other art-making materials.

Sew beautiful: Embroidered window shade, the handiwork of Mick.

They paddle: Bob, the couple’s golden retriever, practices for a future ride along Buffalo Bayou. Canoe, Old Town.

She bikes: Mel’s Sunflower Cruiser by Nirve Sports, Ltd. Favorite stop in their Heights neighborhood? MAM’s House of Ice Snocones, 20th and Rutland. Antique painted iron bed, from R%26amp;F Antiques on Yale.

That takes the cake. Sarah Fitzsimons’ Untitled, 1999, a sculpture of a frosted slice that is actually “formed from plaster, a sofa cushion and wood shavings that resemble a nut topping,” Mel says. Jose Solis III’s Untitled, circa 2000, conflates baked goods with a trophy.

Hers: Mel’s wicker tote as briefcase, carried to her day job at The Menil Collection. His: Mick’s bench from the couple’s furniture company, SquareNotSquare. He designs and builds; she sells and markets.

Doily Parton. Mel’s oversized Coaster, 2007, hangs over Mick’s white oak credenza from their furniture company, SquareNotSquare.

She makes an entrance, he’s into suds: The couple reenact American Gothic, circa 2010, with Bob the canine.

Art + Social Consciousness = A Couple Called de Menil

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:30:44 GMT

Imagine a contest held to anoint the most influential art couple of all time. Surely the top vote-getters would be Houston%26rsquo;s John and Dominique de Menil, catalytic philanthropists whose lives intersected %26mdash; and impacted %26mdash; not only modern art, but architecture, film, human rights and politics in ways that positively, profoundly and humanistically altered 20th-century and 21st-century history in Texas and beyond. (The Dia Art Foundation was established by Menil progeny, for example.) Now a volume arrives that chronicles their legacy: Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil.

Image: Dominique de Menil with gallery model for %26ldquo;Max Ernst: Inside the Sight,%26rdquo; Rice Museum, Rice University, 1973; credit: John Lee Simons, The Menil Archives, the Menil Collection

It%26rsquo;s hard to believe, but this is the first-ever book to examine the de Menils%26rsquo; contributions to art and society in their entirety, which included bringing Philip Johnson to Houston to design their shockingly avant-garde (for its time and place) modernist home, completed in 1951, and tapping Renzo Piano for his first American commission: the building that houses The Menil Collection, the private museum they founded, which was recently named the second most important building erected in the world since 1980. The de Menils introduced Andy Warhol, Roberto Rossellini, Max Ernst and Ren%26eacute; Magritte to Houston%26rsquo;s citizenry (they took Magritte to a rodeo); founded the ecumenical Rothko Chapel; and were famous for their freewheeling, integrated kitchen-table salons where ideas and activism simmered. The pair also championed civil rights by supporting African-American candidates such as U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland and establishing the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation. Their thrilling dialogue about art, spirituality and human rights shines on today in the contemplative splendors of the Menil campus and in the consciousness of many.

Image: From left: John de Menil, Andy Warhol, Simone Swan, Fred Hughes, Dominique de Menil and Howard Barnstone in Buckminster Fuller%26rsquo;s geodesic dome for Expo 67, Montreal, 1967; credit: The Menil Archives

Edited with grace and understatement by Menil director Josef Helfenstein and Menil publisher Laureen Schipsi, Art and Activism digs deep into the museum%26rsquo;s archives to divulge previously unpublished photos and correspondence, placed alongside reminiscences about the couple by visual greats including Jasper Johns, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Barnett Newman, Robert Rauschenberg, Niki de Saint-Phalle and Mark Rothko, and essays from notables Renzo Piano, Houston architectural historian Stephen Fox, surrealist Dorothea Tanning (who was married to Max Ernst) and the late founding director of the Menil, Walter Hopps.

Image: Max Ernst with Dominique and John de Menil at the opening of %26ldquo;Max Ernst: Inside the Sight,%26rdquo; Les Salles de O%26rsquo;Orangerie, Paris, 1971; credit: The Menil Archives, the Menil Collection; photo: Andre Morain

Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil. Distributed by Yale University Press for The Menil Collection, $65 hardcover, at The Menil Collection Bookstore and area booksellers.

Image: Cowboys, Father John Meyer, Ren%26eacute; Magritte and Dominique de Menil at the rodeo, Simonton, Texas, 1965; credit: %26copy; A. de Menil

%26ldquo;%26hellip; in certain isolated and quite rare cases, people whose own lives and intellectual curiosities are of sufficient substance ... have somehow added some remote and haunting something to the art they have acquired. ... You and Jean fall very much into this feeling.%26rdquo; %26mdash; letter from Jim Love to Dominique de Menil, May 4, 1979 (excerpt from eight pages). Estate of Jim Love, The Menil

Image: Dominique de Menil at home, in Charles James and on Charles James couch, circa 1951; credit: F.W. Seiders

Image: Jean Tinguely, Francois de Menil, Niki de Saint-Phalle at Rice Museum opening, 1969; credit: Hickey-Robertson, Houston

Image: Alexander Calder%26rsquo;s sketch caricature of Dominique de Menil, 1964; credit: %26copy; 2010 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, The Menil Archives, The Menil Collection.

Meet Me at the Menil

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:29:37 GMT

This fall, the big buzz is about the Menil Contemporaries, a burgeoning museum group that taps into an arts-curious audience, ages 20 to 40s, with perks such as insider tours, curator and artist encounters, and memorable experiences including behind-the-scenes peeks at installations in progress and coveted invites for weekend art treks. Loftily regarded as the jewel of the museum world, The Menil Collection is often the first cultural stop on a visiting international%26#8217;s itinerary. Those who pilgrimage there are mesmerized by both art historical and architectural riches, including the museum%26#8217;s serene main building, Renzo Piano%26#8217;s first American commission. Despite its two-plus decades, however, many Houstonians are unacquainted with the Menil%26#8217;s contemplative splendors: African, ancient, Byzantine, modern and contemporary including a cache of surrealistic offerings %26#8212; some 16,000 masterworks assiduously assembled by the late patrons Dominique and John de Menil, often cited as the Medicis of the 20th century. But its being under the hometown radar is changing faster than you can say %26#8220;Cy Twombly.%26#8221; Tip: Become a member of the Menil Contemporaries by September 15, and you%26#8217;ll receive an invite to the Contemporaries signature fall museum party, Magritte and Martinis, on Thursday, September 23, sponsored by PaperCity magazine. Memberships from $100; to join, visit menil.org or call the membership office at 713.525.9435%26nbsp;

Image: Photo courtesy of The Menil Collection.

Pigment and Pop Unite!

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:36:03 GMT

After DiverseWorks "Luck of the Draw 9: The Musical!" we're seeing the word in a whole new way. Main difference: Their draw resembles the living out of "Black Friday" fantasies, art world style! Let's examine ...

Supporters purchase tickets, which when drawn, secure an opportunity to nab one of the 200 pieces, (all 8 1/2 x 11 inches in any medium, on any imaginable subject) which cling to one wall of the gallery space. We know, sounds simple enough, but there's more; one has a mere 20 seconds to do it in, and two tickets are drawn at a time, meaning it's a art enthusiasts' duel.%26nbsp; On an opposing wall a silent auction hangs of larger works, but where's the fun in art acquisition sans bloodshed?

Before the gauntlet was laid down and the action played out, positive energy was summoned in the form of the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) choir singing, %26#224; la Glee, naturally, "Don't Stop Believin'" and "When I Fall in Love." Once again J. Douglas Parker and Karen Niemeier held chair honors. In short the evening was nothing short of spectacular!

Dead People We Wish We Would Have Known: Cole Porter

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:35:32 GMT

This Week: Cole Porter%26nbsp;%26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp;%26nbsp; %26nbsp; TO SEE PICTURES CLICK 'LAUNCH SLIDESHOW'

After the Tony Awards broadcast last night, we're having a "Broadway Baby" moment, so in the spirit of the Great White Way, we celebrate Cole Porter.

Born in Peru, Indiana (only Cole could make a small town in Indiana sound exotic and far-flung), he had an affinity for music from a very early age. Grandson to J.O. Cole, the richest man in Indiana at that time, Cole was always well off. Porter's Midwest childhood instilled in him a puritanical work ethic that no amount of European travel could take away. He strove to turn out marvels of the American theater and did, e.g., "Kiss Me Kate," "Anything Goes" and "Red, Hot, and Blue."%26nbsp;

While Cole's marriage to Linda Thomas may strike one as odd considering other facets, shall we say, of Cole's character, the marriage was premised on a mutual understanding that they both valued the companionship and legitimacy it granted them. It was she who would present Cole with the famous cigarette cases, designed and fabricated by their friend Fulco di Verdura, each time a new show of his opened. Verdura is accessory litmus test enough for us, but we're talking custom Verdura with gobs of semiprecious stones.%26nbsp;

Much fanfare may be made of the splendid entertaining Porter both hosted and partook in and for good reason (going so far as to rent Rezzonico, a Venetian palace on the Lido, in which he threw magnificent parties for Elsa Maxwell, Noel Coward, Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Diana Cooper, Countess Buccino, Countess di Zoppola and Fanny Brice, among other members of the beau monde).

Cole even managed to break his legs in a witty manner. Upon waking up with a mad craving for a horseback ride, he mounted a skittish steed. While out; the horse reared, slipped and fell on him, breaking both of his legs. Luckily, Cole being Cole he had a pad and pencil with him and managed to write a song, "At Long Last Love," before blacking out.

Man about town, swell, titan of the American theater and unfortunate horseman, Cole Porter was everything a gentleman should be. He had that most elusive of qualities: By knowing him, one knew a good time, which would have been de-lightful indeed.

%26nbsp;

Pictures: Gill, Brendan. Cole: A Biographical Essay. 1st. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.

Postcard from Santa Fe: Nic Nicosia

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:32:25 GMT

He traded Pegasus for pi%26#241;on wood and got a bobcat or two in the deal. Artist Nic Nicosia %26#8212; master of precise photographs that explore %26#8220;the myth of perfection still alive in America%26#8217;s suburbs,%26#8221; theorizes Chicago%26#8217;s Museum of Contemporary Photography, where his work hangs %26#8212; has gone fully Santa Fe. Six years ago, he and wife Becky left Dallas for the desert town, first renting the historic house of none other than designer Alexander Girard. Two moves later, they own a house on five acres, complete with an high-ceilinged garage that %26#8220;makes for a very nice studio,%26#8221; Nicosia says, and a workroom across an interior courtyard where Becky crafts jewelry. What else came with the digs? Views of the Jemez mountains and a few wild neighbors: %26#8220;coyotes, jackrabbits, deer, an occasional bobcat and innumerable species of birds.%26#8221; Nicosia is in the studio daily and has just finished a new series, I See Light. %26#8220;Now I am forming the criteria for a new one,%26#8221; he reports. (We can%26#8217;t wait.) But in the meantime, he has started making %26#8220;staged and fabricated family portraits, which has been a lot of fun with young families here.%26#8221; On his I-miss-Dallas list? Daughters, family, good friends, flat streets for bike riding and Dunn and Brown Contemporary, where he is represented. All that is somewhat assuaged, though, by seeing Santa Feans in %26#8220;funny hats,%26#8221; says Nicosia, the kind one %26#8220;could never get away with in a city such as Dallas.%26#8221;

%26nbsp;

Photo: Nic Nicosia at home in Santa Fe, photographed by Nan Coulter

The Fairest of the (Dallas Art) Fair

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:33:47 GMT

%26nbsp;

John Berggruen, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco

One of a handful of dealers who has been mounting museum-worthy shows for four decades, this acclaimed West Coast gallerist has strong Texas ties. With his longstanding membership in the Art Dealers Association of America and a blue-chip stable stocked with European and American masters (Matisse and Picasso to Thiebaud and Ruscha), Berggruen and wife Gretchen have enviable connections, friendships and a history, particularly in Dallas, dating back to the mid-1970s. This makes exhibiting in the Dallas Art Fair %26#8220;great fun,%26#8221; notes Berggruen, who fondly recalls %26#8220;clients and friends Ray and Patsy Nasher%26#8221; as well as %26#8220;Margaret McDermott, Anne Bass, and Anne and John Marion.%26#8221; Major collector Robert Hoffman was even a wedding guest at the Berggruen nuptials in 1985. The San Francisco gallerists have also been attendees at Two x Two for AIDS and Art. And for Berggruen, art dealing is literally in his blood. His father was legendary European gallerist Heinz Berggruen, a confidant of Picasso who left his collection of modern greats to museums in the United States and even Germany %26#8212; a significant gesture for a man of German Jewish heritage who had fled Berlin in the 1930s for San Francisco, where he was one of SFMOMA%26#8217;s first curators before %26#8220;Modern%26#8221; was in the museum%26#8217;s name. While he was not raised by his father, the young Berggruen went to Paris in 1966 to get to know him and, after stints at galleries in London and New York, moved home to San Francisco to found his own gallery in 1970. Since then, Berggruen has presented important painting and sculpture by 20th-century greats including Georgia O%26#8217;Keeffe (the artist%26#8217;s first exhibition in a San Francisco gallery), Robert Rauschenberg, Wayne Thiebaud, Mark di Suvero, Dallas native David Bates and Bay Area figurative artists Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira and David Park.

%26nbsp;

Chris D%26#8217;Amelio, D%26#8217;Amelio Terras Gallery, New York
%26#8220;We looked at each other and said, %26#8216;Are we opening a gallery?%26#8217;%26#8221; recalls Chris D%26#8217;Amelio of the plunge he and Lucien Terras took in 1996. The two became acquainted while working at Paula Cooper, notes D%26#8217;Amelio, who points out the pair%26#8217;s %26#8220;personalities and strengths are complementary and beneficial for clients and artists: I%26#8217;m verbal, direct, jumping at opportunities, American. Lucien is European, cerebral, patient, quieter.%26#8221; Together the astute dealers blazed a trail, forming D%26#8217;Amelio Terras as %26#8220;one of the original seven galleries in Chelsea %26#8212; now there are 300.%26#8221; He remembers a time when the district was a remote outpost braved by a handful of curators and collectors: %26#8220;No one would go unless they were headed to Dia.%26#8221; Flash forward a dozen years, and the gallery is a Chelsea anchor, with a reputation for presenting artists %26#8220;with independent ideas who are working within an area where they develop a distinctive voice.%26#8221; This includes a heavy dose of minimalism but with a conceptual bent, so that what the protagonist creates is %26#8220;extraordinary. So we%26#8217;re glad to champion it,%26#8221; D%26#8217;Amelio says. Many within the gallery%26#8217;s 23-person stable possess ties to Texas, such as San Antonio%26#8211;based, Whitney Biennial%26#8211;exhibited Dario Robleto; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Glassell Core Fellows Demetrius Oliver and Leslie Hewitt (along with fellow D%26#8217;Amelio Terras photographer, Sara VanDerBeek, two of six featured in MoMA%26#8217;s current %26#8220;New Photography 2009,%26#8221; through January 11); London-based Cornelia Parker, whose Artpace residency earned her a Turner Prize nomination; and Corpus Christi%26#8211;raised sculptor Tony Feher. All are contenders to be exhibited in the gallery%26#8217;s booth, as well as (possibly) some early 1950s and 1960s-era Yayoi Kusamas %26#8212; D%26#8217;Amelio helped rediscover the proto-Pop sculptor in the mid-1990s. While you%26#8217;re there, meet Dallas native Trina Gordon, the gallery%26#8217;s associate director, whom D%26#8217;Amelio credits with propelling the idea to exhibit at this year%26#8217;s fair.

%26nbsp;

Andrew Edlin, Andrew Edlin Galley, New York
One of today%26#8217;s most respected names in outsider art, gallerist Andrew Edlin began %26#8220;through serendipity,%26#8221; he reveals. His epiphany came close to home: by representing his uncle, Paul Edlin, a largely self-taught artist known for his collages formed from postage stamps. The senior Edlin had a hearing problem that contributed to his reclusive nature, so when his nephew stepped in to facilitate art-world connections for him, a gallerist was born. Edlin opened his doors in 2001, moving to a prime first-floor Chelsea space this fall (previously home to Bellwether Gallery), where he continues his commitment to both outsider and trained artists. He maintains a significant international art-fair presence (including exhibiting in this month%26#8217;s Art Basel Miami Beach) and serves on the board of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore (and is responsible for recruiting DAF founder Chris Byrne to its board). Edlin also represents the estate of arguably the preeminent outsider artist ever: the late Henry Darger, a self-taught master known for epic watercolor sagas of little girls engaged in battle; the painter is the subject of a new volume published by Prestel Press, as well as currently on view at MoMA in %26#8220;Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Collection,%26#8221; through January 4. Returning to DAF for the second year, Edlin plans to exhibit %26#8220;my home run, Henry Darger,%26#8221; as well as works by other collectible visionaries including Amanda M. Smith, Tom Duncan and Domenico Zindato. He wants DAF visitors to %26#8220;open their eyes%26#8221; to outsider talents, which have a historical precedent of %26#8220;influencing other artists, from the Surrealists onward.%26#8221; Jean Dubuffet, he points out, collected works made by inmates from mental hospitals and insane asylums. %26#8220;A lot of contemporary collectors respond to this material,%26#8221; Edlin says. %26#8220;They sense something different. It%26#8217;s the purest form of art.%26#8221;

%26nbsp;

Jason McCoy, Jason McCoy Inc., New York

I grew up in the art world %26#8212;%26nbsp;it was never foreign to me,%26#8221; says Connecticut-raised Jason McCoy, whose most impressionable foray included a management and sales position at the Marlborough Print Gallery, where he began in the late 1960s before going on to serve as an assistant director at SoHo pioneer Reese Palley Gallery, then became gallery director for Tibor de Nagy. McCoy launched his own space in 1982 as one of the second or third private dealers in SoHo. In 1989, he moved to the Fuller Building on East 57th Street, a prestigious midtown nexus, which the gallery augments by presenting exhibitions in satellite spaces in Chelsea and Copenhagen. Then there%26#8217;s a fabled family tie: McCoy%26#8217;s uncle and aunt were none other than Mr. and Mrs. Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, both of whom number among the modern masters he exhibits. %26#8220;My interest is in abstraction in America,%26#8221; he says. %26#8220;We try to be specific, offering very fine examples %26#8212;%26nbsp;masterpieces %26#8212;%26nbsp;which we do not see in isolation, but as part of the broad range of history.%26#8221; McCoy, also a longstanding ADAA member and a returning dealer to the fair, represents current and former Texas artists including Houston-based Terrell James %26#8212;%26#8221;a fine painter who works within a tradition of abstraction%26#8221; %26#8212; and University of Texas graduate Rachel Hovnanian, a former Houstonian whose show now up at the gallery, %26#8220;Power %26amp; Burden of Beauty,%26#8221; skewers gender stereotypes while producing objects of exquisite delicacy. The gallery represents the estate of ab-ex master Stephen Greene %26#8212; whose daughter, Alison de Lima Greene, is the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston%26#8217;s curator of contemporary art and special projects. McCoy also has exhibited paintings by late Whitney-collected Houston artist Virgil Grotfeldt. McCoy praises the %26#8220;Texas eye,%26#8221; which he characterizes as %26#8220;highly sophisticated %26#8230; My aunt [Lee Krasner] was a friend of Mrs. de Menil. And the Menil is one of the most beautiful museums in the world.%26#8221;

%26nbsp;

Fredericka Hunter, Texas Gallery, Houston

Headed toward the four-decade mark as an art dealer, Fredericka Hunter is one of the preeminent gallerists in Texas %26#8212; and America. An art history graduate of the University of St. Thomas (Houston) and a prot%26#233;g%26#233; of Dominique and John de Menil, she and co-owner Ian Glennie began in the early 1970s with %26#8220;a venture to sell prints by the top printmakers.%26#8221; From these modest beginnings, Texas Gallery was formed, going on to present a roll call of the 20th century%26#8217;s most seminal artists: Donald Judd (Hunter is a board member of the Chinati Foundation), Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Rauschenberg, Brice Marden, Chuck Close and Lynda Benglis. Hunter relays the gallery%26#8217;s philosophy. %26#8220;We have not tried to be so avant-garde or blue-chip as interested in what is interesting, what is good, what is perhaps undervalued, what points the way forward in a meaningful way ... so we have no orthodoxy ... Rackstraw Downes, a painter of landscapes en plein air (and who just won a MacArthur and who works in Texas half the year) is right up there as far as quality and depth as, say, Bill Jensen, our next show, who works in a strictly modernist abstract way%26#8221; (through December 26). What to collect now?: %26#8220;I am most comfortable right now with painting and the depth that comes from skill and hard work on the part of the artist.%26nbsp;I will always believe that %26#8216;the investment%26#8217; should be in what one loves first ... One should not expect a 20 percent return %26#224; la hedge-funds standards in a year%26#8217;s time.%26#8221; Why exhibit again in the Dallas Art Fair? %26#8220;Dallas is an %26#8216;arty%26#8217; town and a logical place for an art fair. We support the wonderful effort of Chris Byrne whom we love. The turnout last year was fantastic, even at the worst possible economic time. How can we not be at one in our own state that is well done? As far as what we will show in our booth, we have some quirky ideas for presenting disparate and unusual material of quality %26#8212; real collector%26#8217;s fare, not trophies, per se.%26#8221;

%26nbsp;

Image at top: Henry Darger%26#8217;s "Untitled (At Wickey Dan are pursued)," not dated, at Andrew Edlin Gallery

Credit: Copyright Kiyoko Lerner, Courtesy Andrew Edlin Gallery

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For more artwork, click on "Launch Slideshow" above.

%26nbsp;

The Fairest of the (Dallas Art) Fair

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:49:33 GMT

John Berggruen, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
One of a handful of dealers who has been mounting museum-worthy shows for four decades, this acclaimed West Coast gallerist has strong Texas ties. With his longstanding membership in the Art Dealers Association of America and a blue-chip stable stocked with European and American masters (Matisse and Picasso to Thiebaud and Ruscha), Berggruen and wife Gretchen have enviable connections, friendships and a history, particularly in Dallas, dating back to the mid-1970s. This makes exhibiting in the Dallas Art Fair %26#8220;great fun,%26#8221; notes Berggruen, who fondly recalls %26#8220;clients and friends Ray and Patsy Nasher%26#8221; as well as %26#8220;Margaret McDermott, Anne Bass, and Anne and John Marion.%26#8221; Major collector Robert Hoffman was even a wedding guest at the Berggruen nuptials in 1985. The San Francisco gallerists have also been attendees at Two x Two for AIDS and Art. And for Berggruen, art dealing is literally in his blood. His father was legendary European gallerist Heinz Berggruen, a confidant of Picasso who left his collection of modern greats to museums in the United States and even Germany %26#8212; a significant gesture for a man of German Jewish heritage who had fled Berlin in the 1930s for San Francisco, where he was one of SFMOMA%26#8217;s first curators before %26#8220;Modern%26#8221; was in the museum%26#8217;s name. While he was not raised by his father, the young Berggruen went to Paris in 1966 to get to know him and, after stints at galleries in London and New York, moved home to San Francisco to found his own gallery in 1970. Since then, Berggruen has presented important painting and sculpture by 20th-century greats including Georgia O%26#8217;Keeffe (the artist%26#8217;s first exhibition in a San Francisco gallery), Robert Rauschenberg, Wayne Thiebaud, Mark di Suvero, Dallas native David Bates and Bay Area figurative artists Elmer Bischoff, Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira and David Park.

Chris D%26#8217;Amelio, D%26#8217;Amelio Terras Gallery, New York
%26#8220;We looked at each other and said, %26#8216;Are we opening a gallery?%26#8217;%26#8221; recalls Chris D%26#8217;Amelio of the plunge he and Lucien Terras took in 1996. The two became acquainted while working at Paula Cooper, notes D%26#8217;Amelio, who points out the pair%26#8217;s %26#8220;personalities and strengths are complementary and beneficial for clients and artists: I%26#8217;m verbal, direct, jumping at opportunities, American. Lucien is European, cerebral, patient, quieter.%26#8221; Together the astute dealers blazed a trail, forming D%26#8217;Amelio Terras as %26#8220;one of the original seven galleries in Chelsea %26#8212; now there are 300.%26#8221; He remembers a time when the district was a remote outpost braved by a handful of curators and collectors: %26#8220;No one would go unless they were headed to Dia.%26#8221; Flash forward a dozen years, and the gallery is a Chelsea anchor, with a reputation for presenting artists %26#8220;with independent ideas who are working within an area where they develop a distinctive voice.%26#8221; This includes a heavy dose of minimalism but with a conceptual bent, so that what the protagonist creates is %26#8220;extraordinary. So we%26#8217;re glad to champion it,%26#8221; D%26#8217;Amelio says. Many within the gallery%26#8217;s 23-person stable possess ties to Texas, such as San Antonio%26#8211;based, Whitney Biennial%26#8211;exhibited Dario Robleto; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Glassell Core Fellows Demetrius Oliver and Leslie Hewitt (along with fellow D%26#8217;Amelio Terras photographer, Sara VanDerBeek, two of six featured in MoMA%26#8217;s current %26#8220;New Photography 2009,%26#8221; through January 11); London-based Cornelia Parker, whose Artpace residency earned her a Turner Prize nomination; and Corpus Christi%26#8211;raised sculptor Tony Feher. All are contenders to be exhibited in the gallery%26#8217;s booth, as well as (possibly) some early 1950s and 1960s-era Yayoi Kusamas %26#8212; D%26#8217;Amelio helped rediscover the proto-Pop sculptor in the mid-1990s. While you%26#8217;re there, meet Dallas native Trina Gordon, the gallery%26#8217;s associate director, whom D%26#8217;Amelio credits with propelling the idea to exhibit at this year%26#8217;s fair.

Andrew Edlin, Andrew Edlin Galley, New York
One of today%26#8217;s most respected names in outsider art, gallerist Andrew Edlin began %26#8220;through serendipity,%26#8221; he reveals. His epiphany came close to home: by representing his uncle, Paul Edlin, a largely self-taught artist known for his collages formed from postage stamps. The senior Edlin had a hearing problem that contributed to his reclusive nature, so when his nephew stepped in to facilitate art-world connections for him, a gallerist was born. Edlin opened his doors in 2001, moving to a prime first-floor Chelsea space this fall (previously home to Bellwether Gallery), where he continues his commitment to both outsider and trained artists. He maintains a significant international art-fair presence (including exhibiting in this month%26#8217;s Art Basel Miami Beach) and serves on the board of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore (and is responsible for recruiting DAF founder Chris Byrne to its board). Edlin also represents the estate of arguably the preeminent outsider artist ever: the late Henry Darger, a self-taught master known for epic watercolor sagas of little girls engaged in battle; the painter is the subject of a new volume published by Prestel Press, as well as currently on view at MoMA in %26#8220;Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Collection,%26#8221; through January 4. Returning to DAF for the second year, Edlin plans to exhibit %26#8220;my home run, Henry Darger,%26#8221; as well as works by other collectible visionaries including Amanda M. Smith, Tom Duncan and Domenico Zindato. He wants DAF visitors to %26#8220;open their eyes%26#8221; to outsider talents, which have a historical precedent of %26#8220;influencing other artists, from the Surrealists onward.%26#8221; Jean Dubuffet, he points out, collected works made by inmates from mental hospitals and insane asylums. %26#8220;A lot of contemporary collectors respond to this material,%26#8221; Edlin says. %26#8220;They sense something different. It%26#8217;s the purest form of art.%26#8221;

Jason McCoy, Jason McCoy Inc., New York
I grew up in the art world %26#8212;%26nbsp;it was never foreign to me,%26#8221; says Connecticut-raised Jason McCoy, whose most impressionable foray included a management and sales position at the Marlborough Print Gallery, where he began in the late 1960s before going on to serve as an assistant director at SoHo pioneer Reese Palley Gallery, then became gallery director for Tibor de Nagy. McCoy launched his own space in 1982 as one of the second or third private dealers in SoHo. In 1989, he moved to the Fuller Building on East 57th Street, a prestigious midtown nexus, which the gallery augments by presenting exhibitions in satellite spaces in Chelsea and Copenhagen. Then there%26#8217;s a fabled family tie: McCoy%26#8217;s uncle and aunt were none other than Mr. and Mrs. Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, both of whom number among the modern masters he exhibits. %26#8220;My interest is in abstraction in America,%26#8221; he says. %26#8220;We try to be specific, offering very fine examples %26#8212;%26nbsp;masterpieces %26#8212;%26nbsp;which we do not see in isolation, but as part of the broad range of history.%26#8221; McCoy, also a longstanding ADAA member and a returning dealer to the fair, represents current and former Texas artists including Houston-based Terrell James %26#8212;%26#8221;a fine painter who works within a tradition of abstraction%26#8221; %26#8212; and University of Texas graduate Rachel Hovnanian, a former Houstonian whose show now up at the gallery, %26#8220;Power %26amp; Burden of Beauty,%26#8221; skewers gender stereotypes while producing objects of exquisite delicacy. The gallery represents the estate of ab-ex master Stephen Greene %26#8212; whose daughter, Alison de Lima Greene, is the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston%26#8217;s curator of contemporary art and special projects. McCoy also has exhibited paintings by late Whitney-collected Houston artist Virgil Grotfeldt. McCoy praises the %26#8220;Texas eye,%26#8221; which he characterizes as %26#8220;highly sophisticated %26#8230; My aunt [Lee Krasner] was a friend of Mrs. de Menil. And the Menil is one of the most beautiful museums in the world.%26#8221;

Talley Dunn, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas

Talley Dunn celebrated the decade marker of her gallery with another noteworthy accomplishment: She was anointed as a member of the Art Dealers Association of America %26#8212; the first time in 40 years that a Dallas gallery has been named to that organization%26#8217;s exalted ranks, which confer authority, staying power and impeccability in an often fluctuating or unreliable art market. Dunn and business partner Lisa Brown have worked together for 18 years, forging their own gallery in 1999. %26#8220;Lisa handles day-to-day details %26#8212; inventory, invoicing, aspects of the building,%26#8221; Dunn says. %26#8220;I work long-range: museum shows, our exhibition schedules, artist selections. But we can fill in for each other at a moment%26#8217;s notice.%26#8221; (Such as the time Lisa gave birth to her first daughter days before Dunn and Brown opened.) The left-brain/right-brain gallerists, whose staff is %26#8220;unintentionally all female%26#8221; are in it for the long haul %26#8212; more than buying or selling, but with an eye to art history. %26#8220;Our goal is to build the reputation, exhibitions and acquisitions of our artists,%26#8221; Dunn says. %26#8220;Also, to guide collectors ... to look at art in different way, as part of a lifestyle.%26#8221; It%26#8217;s no accident that D and B has placed work in the formidable Hoffman, Rachofsky and Rose collections while discovering, then fostering the career of two-time Whitney Biennial%26#8211;exhibited Texas talent Trenton Doyle Hancock. D and B remains Hancock%26#8217;s sole Texas dealer and has recently added Dallas sculptor Erick Swenson %26#8212; %26#8220;an incredible artist, very important,%26#8221; Dunn says. Returning to the Dallas Art Fair again, she plans %26#8220;exciting discoveries that will knock your socks off, by artists we represent,%26#8221; including %26#8220;work that is appealing to private collectors at entry points under $3,000.%26#8221; Watch for Texas notables such as Linda Ridgway, Jeff Elrod and Annette Lawrence, as well as majors outside of Texas %26#8212; Jugnet and Clairet, Amy Myers, Gary Panter and Christian Schumann %26#8212; who also form a significant portion of Dunn and Brown%26#8217;s esteemed stable.

%26nbsp;

Image: Henry Darger%26#8217;s "Untitled (At Wickey Dan are pursued)," not dated, at Andrew Edlin Gallery

Credit: Copyright Kiyoko Lerner, Courtesy Andrew Edlin Gallery

Alice’s Wonder Man

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:00:40 GMT

Jimmie Henslee wears many chapeaux, all of them urbane. Stylist, collector, illustrator, decorator %26#8212; the man is a bundle of artistic gifts. So when we dreamt of a little magic for our December cover and the jewelry feature that goes with it, we turned to the talented Mr. Henslee. %26#8220;Give us Alice in Wonderland,%26#8221; we said, %26#8220;but done your way.%26#8221; A whirl of India inks and watercolors later, we had our Alice %26#8212; only the looking glass is Chippendale, the dress is Balenciaga and the queen has nothing to do with hearts. (But she is a reigning monarch. You%26#8217;ll see.) A scholar in costume history and an aficionado of fashion photography, Henslee tapped into his %26#8220;love of all things exotic%26#8221; for our Alice, giving her a Chinese-wallpapered pagoda to pop into, a chandelier%26#8217;d tree under which to take tea and a mantel to pose in front of that is %26#8220;a pastiche, if you will, of Georgian and Regency styles.%26#8221; And what of Alice%26#8217;s Balenciaga confection? The great Cristobal, says Henslee, %26#8220;is one of my favorite artists, who just happened to be a couturier.%26#8221; We concur. If you%26#8217;re dreaming of your own wonderland, here%26#8217;s news: Henslee can illustrate your own environs %26#8212; a room, a moment, your entire house %26#8212; and present you with a one-of-a-kind book of gorgeously charming drawings. Move over, Alice. Go behind the scenes during the making of our story at papercitymag.com. Contact Jimmie at 214.729.7069; jimmiehenslee@yahoo.com.%26#160;