January 29, 1984, was a warm, clear day. At 12:15 p.m. a ribbon was cut . . .
Ribbon cutting ceremony on January 29, 1984, marking the grand public opening of the Dallas Museum of Art’s new downtown location.
Visitors poured into the new galleries . . .
First visitors in the new Museum building, January 29, 1984
And the great city of Dallas finally got the great art museum it deserved.
Brochure with the slogan “A great city deserves a great art museum,” encouraging Dallas residents to vote “yes” in the 1979 bond election to provide funds to build the new Dallas Museum of Art
Hillary Bober is the digital archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Did you know that a former Museum director was also an amateur thespian?
Lloyd LaPage Rollins was the director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts from 1934 to 1935. During his brief tenure at the DMFA, he performed the role of Maxwell Davenport in The Late Christopher Bean at the Dallas Little Theater in February 1935.
Lloyd LaPage Rollins, “Lloyd LaPage Rollins, Californian, To Become Director of Dallas Museum,” Dallas Morning News, October 13, 1934
The Late Christopher Bean, adapted by Sidney Howard, is a comedy about a family that inherits the paintings of neglected artist Christopher Bean, which are now well respected and valuable, and are visited by three art connoisseurs/dealers. Maxwell Davenport, played by Rollins, is the true art connoisseur, concerned that the works are preserved and given their proper place in art history, while the other two are interested only in their own profit.
It is a fitting role for a museum director. In fact, the play’s director, Charles Meredith, reportedly told Rollins that “he would only have to be himself” to get him to agree to the role. (“Notes on the Passing Show,” Dallas Morning News, January 22, 1935, p. 2)
Unfortunately, it seems he was likely a better art historian than actor. A review of the play by John Rosenfield Jr. gives Rollins’ performance a passable grade, stating, “Mr. Rollins read his lines sensitively and missed a few effects—he will miss fewer as nervousness wears off.” (“Sidney Howard’s Intelligent and Amusing Comedy is Given,” Dallas Morning News, February 12, 1935, p. 2)
Bonus Fact: Rollins thwarted his attempted holdup while walking to rehearsal. As Rollins passed the would-be robber, the robber suddenly produced a pistol and ordered “Stick ‘em up.” Rollins instead punched the robber with a right to the chin, and ran the rest of the way to the theater. (“Fine Arts Director Swings Hard, Saves Purse from Robber,” Dallas Morning News, January 29, 1935, p. 1)
Hillary Bober is the digital archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
In 1963, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts celebrated the publication of Josef Albers’ The Interaction of Color with an exhibition of the portfolio and 22 Albers paintings from the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York. Albers attended the opening of the exhibition and gave a lecture on his theories of color.
Invitation to Josef Albers’ lecture “The Logic and Magic of Color” at the DMFA on April 30, 1963
According to Albers, the portfolio “shows a new way of teaching color, of studying color . . . to make our eyes sensitive to the wonders of color interaction.”
Josef Albers, The Interaction of Color, Plate VII
TheInteraction of Color has never gone out of print and remains influential among teachers, artists, and designers. Yale University Press has even developed a popular app, available here.
The Mayer Library at the DMA has in its collection the portfolio, which Albers presented in 1963, inscribed “with my special greetings to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.”
Several silkscreen color plates from the portfolio are currently on display in the Mayer Library.
Selected plates from The Interaction of Color on view in the Mayer Library
Mary Leonard is the librarian at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Last Thursday marked thirty years since the Sculpture Garden opened, so I thought it would be fitting to dig up a photo from thirty years ago and compare. I am amazed by how much the trees have grown, almost completely blocking out downtown and shading visitors from the Texas sun.
Sculpture Garden with its first visitors on opening day, October 10, 1983. The garden opened a few months before the Museum.
Sculpture Garden on October 10, 2013
Hillary Bober is the digital archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Go van Gogh, the DMA’s elementary school outreach program, is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. Before we pack up the Go van Gogh van and head out to schools across the city, we thought it would be fun to take a look through all thirty-five years of the program.
1992 Go van Gogh program led by DMA educator Phil Collins
Below are a few fun facts about Go van Gogh through the years.
The first Go van Gogh van was actually a bus!
First Go van Gogh vehicle, 1978
When the program began at the then Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in Fair Park in 1978, school outreach presentations could be given in classrooms or on the Museum Outreach bus itself.
DMFA teaching staff member Roberta Mathew conducting an outreach program in the Go van Gogh bus in fall 1979
DMFA education staffers Susan Geyer and Roberta Mathews conducting an outreach program aboard the Go van Gogh bus in fall 1979
Go van Gogh vans (and buses) have always been easy to spot on the freeway.
Go van Gogh van in 1981
Go van Gogh van, c. 1988
Go van Gogh program, c. 1988
Bright and colorful, Go van Gogh vans often feature artworks from the Museum’s collection in painted or vinyl designs. The Go van Gogh van from the late 1990s included a design from Henri Matisse’s Ivy in Flower.
Go van Gogh van in the 1990s
Today’s Go van Gogh van
Go van Gogh programs have always included a visual presentation of artworks from the Museum.
Go van Gogh program using a slide projector, 1980s or 1990s
Through the years, we’ve made many updates in the technology we use to bring these artworks to life. What began with projectors and large printed posters led to overhead transparencies and laminated images.
Go van Gogh program with 4th graders at Reilly Elementary School
Later this school year, Go van Gogh will go digital: using iPads and projectors to bring images of artworks to life in the classroom.
Looking ahead to fall, we are excited to unveil a new facet of Go van Gogh outreach–a program designed for Special Education classrooms called Color My World. To learn more about the program, visit our website.
Amy Copeland is the Manager of Go van Gogh and Community Teaching Programs at the DMA.
Audio tours have been part of the Museum world for a while, but now you no longer need a shoulder strap when exploring the DMA’s collection. Visitors to the DMA can use their web-enabled devices to access information about the collection, including video interviews, images, geographical information, and responses from the community through the DMA smARTphone tours. Some special exhibitions even have a free smARTphone tour. Right now, discover oral histories tied to Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy (on view through September 15, 2013), and this October you can learn more about the Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Takeexhibition from artist Jim Hodges and co-organizing curator Jeffrey Grove, senior curator of special projects & research at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Visitors using audio tour, circa 1960s [Photography by Pat Magruder]
Visitor using smARTphone tour, 2012
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
If you have stopped by the DMA recently, you will have seen a wall full of archival materials and ephemera displayed in the free exhibition DallasSITES: Charting Contemporary Art, 1963 to Present. The archival material also illustrates our new e-publication, DallasSITES: A Developing Art Scene, Postwar to Present, the DMA’s first OSCI project. But these items are just a tiny fraction of the papers, records, and collections acquired by the DMA Archives as part of the DallasSITES project. Below are a few of my favorites–hidden treasures that are not currently on view in the galleries.
Watercolor sketch by Dallas artist Pamela Nelson, Florence, Italy, August 8, 2000. Pamela Nelson Papers.
Flyer for the Texas Kid’s Studio Raisin’ event, November 10, 1990. Paul Rogers Harris Gallery Mailings Collection.
Los Sons of Cain, 2008, an artist book by Dallas artist and gallerist Randall Garrett. Randall Garrett Papers.
Hot Flashes, Issue 1, December 1985, an arts newsletter for Dallas edited by Bob Trammell. Charles Dee Mitchell Collection.
Stamp art from the collection of Dallas artist Pamela Nelson. Pamela Nelson Papers.
Stamp art from the collection of Dallas artist Pamela Nelson. Pamela Nelson Papers.
Flyer for first Victor Dada performance, “The First Annual Ontopological Da Da Koan,” held at Tolbert’s Chili Parlor, September 20, 1979. Victor Dada Records. Victor Dada was a performance art group active in Dallas in the 1980s.
Do you have materials documenting a North Texas-based gallery, art career, or arts organization? Please consider donating your archival collection to the Dallas Museum of Art Archives and contribute to the historical record of contemporary art in North Texas for future scholarship. For more information, contact me at archives@DMA.org.
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
After many years at the Museum’s Ross Avenue Entrance, Rufino Tamayo’s iconic mural El Hombre (Man) is returning to the Atrium, where it was first hung when the Museum’s Hamon Building opened in 1993.
Rufino Tamayo’s El Hombre (Man) being de-installed from the Ross Avenue Entrance (left) and the rehanging in the Atrium (right).
Tamayo, born of Zapotec heritage in Oaxaca, Mexico, was one of the most prominent Mexican artists of the mid-1900s, and a contemporary of Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco. His mural has long been viewed as one of the DMA’s most important works. The tumultuous story behind it, however, inspires further appreciation.
Rufino Tamayo at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1950s. Dallas Museum of Art Archives
Rufino Tamayo was a good friend of Stanley Marcus, then the president of the Dallas Art Association. In 1951, while on a trip to Amarillo, Tamayo and his wife, Olga, planned to drive to Dallas to visit the Marcus family, letting them know that they would arrive at 5:30 that evening. At 10:30 that night the Tamayos finally arrived, looking disheveled and disillusioned. When Marcus asked them about the delay, Tamayo told him about a car accident they were involved in, in which a local from Amarillo driving a pickup truck ran into them from behind. When the police arrived, it was determined that Tamayo was at fault for the accident, despite his claims and that the evidence suggested otherwise. Because of this unsettling experience, Tamayo told Marcus he would never produce art for the United States. By coincidence, Marcus had for some time wanted to secure Mexican art for the Museum to showcase the significant cultural contributions of the country’s artists, and he offered to commission a large-scale mural from Tamayo. Despite the Museum having only enough funds to pay one-third the normal price of his work, Tamayo accepted the commission as “a real gift of the heart from Mr. Tamayo to the museum.” He chose to focus his subject on the aspirations and potential of mankind.
Rufino Tamayo at work, 1950s. Dallas Museum of Art Archives
When Tamayo completed El Hombre in the summer of 1952, he briefly showed it in Mexico City before shipping it by train to Dallas. Months later, however, the painting still had not arrived at the Museum. The search for the missing mural went on for over a year, when finally the stationmaster from a train station on the Mexico-Texas border called Marcus to inform him that they had found a large package addressed to him. The boxcar that the package had been traveling in had been shunted off the track on a spur, and had been sitting out in the elements all year*. Fortunately, when the mural finally arrived in Dallas in September 1953, it was found to be in surprisingly good condition, and El Hombre was put in a place of honor so that every visitor to the Museum would see Tamayo’s depiction of Mexican culture.
El Hombre (Man), which comprises three panels, in transit to its new home.
DMA staff vacuuming the Atrium wall in preparation for Tamayo’s painting.
This week, on its journey down the Concourse to the Atrium, Tamayo’s El Hombre traveled much more safely this time around. Be sure to stop by the Atrium on your next visit to see this iconic work for free.
El Hombre (Man) in the DMA Atrium
* [update August 2017] The source of this story is an oral history with Stanley Marcus, interviewed by Director Jay Gates October 27, 1994. However, documentation of the arrival of El Hombre at the Museum shows that the painting was only delayed by three and a half weeks, likely by flooding in areas along the railway. El Hombre was shown in Mexico City in August 1953, shipped from Mexico on August 17, 1953 and arrived in Dallas on September 9, 1953.
Jasmine Shevell is the Exhibitions & Publications Intern at the DMA.
How do you navigate your way in a new city’s art community? That became my challenge when I moved from Philadelphia to Dallas in September 2012 to become the new McDermott Curatorial Intern for Contemporary Art. Of course, I did my research: numerous Google searches helped me make a page-long list of contemporary art venues I wanted to visit during my internship. But assisting on the DMA’s newest exhibition, DallasSITES: Charting Contemporary Art, 1963 to Present, was what really taught me about Dallas’s artistic legacy.
Two members of the Dallas art scene who have been influential for decades: Janet Kutner and Paul Rogers Harris, c.1960s, Courtesy of Paul Rogers Harris, Dallas, TX
I’ve spent the past nine months combing through archives, researching galleries, and learning about the evolution of the Dallas art scene. The exhibition, consisting mainly of ephemera from the past fifty years, will illustrate how dynamic the art community of North Texas has been. As a recent transplant, this project became my personal crash course. This history lesson served me well.
Map of Dallas, Courtesy of Swoon the Studio, Dallas, TX
Dallas itself is a large city, and over the years the art scene has concentrated in different neighborhoods. Artists were extremely active in Fair Park and Uptown during the 1960s and 70s. With the establishment of the Arts District in the 80s, many art-related activities migrated to downtown. Deep Ellum became a serious locus for the arts in the 80s as well. Today, many galleries and institutions have relocated to the Design District. Interestingly, artist activity continued in all of these neighborhoods even when the larger cultural trends shifted. Meanwhile, universities produce interesting programs and bring important artists to visit and work in North Texas. The ephemera on view in DallasSITES reflect these events.
A visitor at the 1989 Dallas VideoFest, Courtesy of the DMA Archives
Some fun facts learned from this project: Q: What is the oldest continuously running gallery in Dallas? A: Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden, established in 1955. Q: What is the oldest and largest video festival in the United States? A: Dallas’s own VideoFest! First held in 1986 at the Dallas Museum of Art, it provides a platform for experimental video art and Texas artists.
Claes Oldenburg, poster for Injun happening at the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, April 6-7, 1962
Claes Oldenburg is an iconic artist of the pop art movement, but did you know that in 1962 he staged one of his famous “happenings” in Dallas? Injun became a two-day collaboration with local artists at the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts (which merged with the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in 1963 to form the Dallas Museum of Art). That was a fun discovery! Oldenburg’s relationship with Dallas has continued for several decades. Further, I discovered that one of my favorite artists, Oliver Herring, participated in a 1997 group show called Termite Terrace at Angstrom Gallery in Dallas’s Fair Park neighborhood. When DallasSITES opens, visitors will truly see how active this community has been. One of the best parts of contemporary art is the opportunity to meet artists and other art lovers at openings and talks. Each month, there are dozens of exhibition openings, artist talks, and panels that keep Dallas exciting. There are established museums, commercial galleries, and temporary spaces ranging from empty storefronts to an artist’s living room. Artists from across the United States and even internationally are showing in nearby spaces, while the roster of local talent continues to grow.
Dallas’s art scene in action: A packed house at CentralTrak for its NEXT TOPIC series panel “Creating an Art Community/Scene” on May 2, 2013, Courtesy of Sally Glass and CentralTrak, Dallas, TX
When you see all the ephemera in DallasSITES presented in one room, the cultural wealth of this city becomes readily apparent. On May 26, you, too, can experience a crash course of your own for free!
Alexander Unkovic is the McDermott Curatorial Intern for Contemporary Art at the DMA.
This holiday season we are taking a trip down memory lane known as the DMA Archives. The West Wing “Ball Court” of the Museum in Fair Park served as a stage for the entertainment at the 1969 Dallas Museum of Fine Arts Families’ Christmas Party. Happy holidays and happy New Year from the DMA!
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
![Visitors using audio tour, circa 1960s [Photography by Pat Magruder]](https://i0.wp.com/blog.dma.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/audio_tour_0012.jpg)
