Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
In honor of the late Mrs. “Lady Bird” Johnson’s 100th birthday on December 22, I wanted to share with you two of Mrs. Johnson’s visits to the DMA.
Mrs. Johnson visiting the exhibition Pompeii A.D. 79 (January 2-March 18, 1979) with Director Harry S. Parker III on January 18, 1979.
Mrs. Johnson visiting the exhibition El Greco of Toledo (December 12, 1982-February 6, 1983) with Mrs. Margaret McDermott, DMA Trustee.
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
I first joined the DMA team in July 2010 as an intern for the Curatorial Department of European and American art. In May 2011 I was hired as the research project coordinator for early Texas art, a two-summer position sponsored by the Texas Fund for Curatorial Research. As an art history graduate student specializing in 18th-century British art, I enjoy switching gears when I am in Dallas for the summer and learning about the history of the local art scene in my hometown. The culmination of my research is an addition to the DMA website that includes both a timeline of all Texas-related exhibitions and a historical text about the evolution of the Dallas art community over the years.
The most valuable resource for my project has been the DMA Archives. When I first started researching the relationship between Dallas art clubs, local artists, and the Museum, I spent many hours perusing exhibition catalogues and photographs from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. I was surprised to learn that women played a central role in the early history of the Museum, and that support for local artists was strong and consistent throughout the decades. I quickly realized that most of my attention would be devoted to the period spanning the 1930s to the 1960s. During this time, the Museum sponsored between five and twenty exhibitions each year that exclusively showcased the work of Texas artists.
Most of these exhibitions were sponsored by local art clubs and were held annually. Examples include the Dallas Allied Arts exhibitions, the Dallas Print and Drawing Society exhibitions, and the Texas Watercolor Society exhibitions. For each exhibition, local artists submitted works for entry, which were then judged by a three-person jury prior to the opening of the show. Top works of art were awarded purchase prizes, which were monetary awards provided by art clubs, private donors, and local businesses. All works that received purchase prizes automatically entered the Museum’s permanent collection.
Here are some of my favorites:
What surprised me most as I was researching the Museum’s collection of Texas art, and specifically the purchase prizes, is the variety of subject matter, techniques, and artistic styles. As you can see, Texas art is not restricted to panoramic views of the desert or scenes of cowboys at work on the ranch. There is much to be learned about the Museum’s vast and incredibly varied collection of regional art. I think it’s time we all took a closer look. Explore the Texas Art section of the Dallas Museum of Art’s website for additional images and information.
Alexandra Wellington is the former Research Project Coordinator for Early Texas Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.
“Birds on the wire” Photograph from the opening of a 500X Gallery show, February 13, 1978. 500X Gallery Records, 1977-1996.
In 2013 the Dallas Museum of Art will celebrate a milestone in our institutional history: the 1963 merger of the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Art with the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The DMA is marking this occasion by launching an initiative to show how this moment was a starting point for community-wide interest in and support of contemporary art.
Brochure for the “Dallas Art ’78” exhibition at Dallas City Hall, Publications and Printed Materials.
By looking at the North Texas art scene over the past five decades, we hope to bring greater public awareness to the richly varied but widely undiscovered history of the area’s contemporary art avant-garde. People, places, and events are the subjects of this project, as we look outside the Museum to topics like the emergence of the gallery scene in the late 1960s with galleries like Valley House, C. Troup Gallery, Haydon Calhoun, Mary Nye, and more, and the establishment of an artists’ community as collectives take shape (the Oak Lawn Gang in the 1960s, the Oak Cliff Four and the “842s” in the 1970s, Toxic Shock in the 1980s, A.R.T.E. and the Good/Bad Art Collective in the 1990s, etc.) and artist-run spaces emerge, like A.U.M. Gallery, D.W. Coop, 500X Gallery, and Stout McCourt Gallery.
Gallery announcement for David McCullough’s studio exhibition of his work with James Surls in December, c. 1976. Paul Rogers Harris Collection of Dallas and Texas Gallery Announcements.
Gallery announcement for “Dubious Edge” exhibition at Theatre Gallery, c. 1987. Paul Rogers Harris Collection of Dallas and Texas Gallery Announcements.
Gallery announcement for “el clumsio” group exhibition at Angstrom Gallery, November – December, 1996. Paul Rogers Harris Collection of Dallas and Texas Gallery Announcements.
Over the past year, we have developed the content that will form the basis of an exhibition scheduled to open at the Museum in May 2013. During this time, I have conducted oral history interviews with artists, arts administrators, collectors, and writers; waded through thousands of gallery announcements dating as far back as the late 1960s; burned my eyes from looking through miles of microfilmed collections; and done my best to get the word out that the DMA wants to know YOUR story.
Poster for the Old Oak Cliff Kinetic Sculpture Parade sponsored by the Oak Cliff Preservation League, September 21, 1985. Paul Rogers Harris Collection of Dallas and Texas Gallery Announcements.
So let’s hear it – do you have anything you would like to share with us regarding your experience with contemporary arts in North Texas? Is there anything you are certain MUST be part of this project? This is my formal open call to Dallasites: as we develop the content for the exhibition, we are going to do our best to represent Dallas and its surroudning arts community over the past fifty years, but we do need your help. What is sitting in your closet? Do you have photographs from gallery openings or performances? Records from your gallery? Press releases announcing your show? Publications that help to document the “scene”?
Toxic Shock page from Bwana Arts, vol. 3, 1982. Paul Rogers Harris Papers, 1959-2001.
The exhibition is only the first step as we present to you what we have found. In the coming years, we hope to add to the DMA Archives, making it the primary repository for the history of contemporary art in North Texas. So if you have something you’d like to share (be it tangible ephemera or abstract memories), please do not hesitate to contact me at larnold@DallasMuseumofArt.org. I look forward to hearing from you!
“500X in a Box,” box of a single work by every member of 500X in 1989. Charles Dee Mitchell Collection.
Leigh Arnold is the Dallasites Research Project Coordinator at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Don’t Miss it; don’t even be late! Opening today, the State Fair of Texas inspired us to unearth a few gems from the collection.
Brian Cobble, “Drown a Clown,” 2011, pastel on paper, gift of Susan H. and Claude C. Albritton, III, © Brian Cobble
Artist H. O. Kelly demonstrates painting in the Museum Court during the 1960 State Fair. An H. O. Kelly Retrospective was one of the Museum’s exhibitions for the 1960 Fair.
Fifty years ago, the Museum was installing the exhibition The Arts of Man (October 6, 1962-January 1, 1963). The exhibition was a major undertaking, including almost 500 objects and encompassing the entire museum. The exhibition attempted to “present in selective form representative art objects from all of the world’s major civilizations.” (The Arts of Man Press Release, 1962) The Arts of Man was arranged chronologically, starting off with a facsimile of a segment of the paintings in the caves at Lascaux. The complex of caves, in southwestern France, are famous for their Paleolithic cave paintings, estimated to be over 17,000 years old.
Museum curator John Lunsford painted the Lascaux facsimile.
John Lunsford spoke about The Arts of Man and the Lascaux facsimile in an oral history conducted in 2002.
“The public response was overwhelmingly positive, and we may even have extended it a little bit—but obviously the bringing of it together was the big thing, and the entry piece was my reconstruction segment of the Lascaux cave paintings. Barney [Delabano, exhibition designer] built the cave structure out of framing, canvas, and plaster. And I got up on a scaffold… And I picked the famous long bull. I’ll be immodest enough to say it wasn’t a bad facsimile. It was very effective, and we kept it dimly lit—and it was the only ersatz thing in the whole show, everything else was real.”
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
What do a llama and an urban planner have in common? Not much actually, but they did briefly share an office.
This photo depicts the day that Nora Wise brought Sir Lancelot, a pure white llama, wearing a textile from John Wise Ltd. around its neck, to the office of Robert Moses, New York City urban planner. Sadly, it is unknown why Nora took a llama to visit the urban planner, but it looks like he found the gesture quite amusing.
The image is from the John and Nora Wise Papers.
Update: Robert Moses was the President of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair, so it makes more sense that he would be visited by Sir Lancelot, during the llama’s day at the Fair.
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz in Dallas allows you to compare the Dallas we live in today with the Dallas of 1952. Below are a few images of familiar landmarks from then and now. See more in our first e-catalogue, available as a free iPad app.
Fair Park Esplanade at night with State Fair, October 21, 1950. County, Squire Haskins Photography Collection, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas. AR447-11-37.
Fair Park, 2012, Dallas Museum of Art
Adolphus Hotel, 1954, Hayes Collection, Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library. PA76-1/17625
Adolphus Hotel, 2012, Dallas Museum of Art
Pegasus atop the Magnolia Building, 1927. Bud Biggs Collection, Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library. PA84-9/212.
The Magnolia Building, 2012, Dallas Museum of Art
Akard Canyon, 1940, Dallas Municipal Archives
Akard Canyon, 2012, Dallas Museum of Art
From 1950 to 1952, the Museum, in partnership with the Junior League of Dallas, presented a thirty-minute weekly television program on WFAA called Is This Art? The show consisted of a panel talking about topics including discussions on specific artworks, collections, or types of objects; demonstrations of craft techniques; how to become an artist; and aesthetics. We found a few images in our archives from the show’s two-year run.
Dallas Morning News, News Staff Photo, October 10, 1950
This image is probably from the first episode of the series, which aired on September 24, 1950. The show included an introduction to the series and a demonstration of plastic arts, emphasizing the upcoming State Fair exhibits with objects from the Contemporary Design and Pre-Columbian exhibitions. Pictured from left to right are Mrs. Betty Marcus, Museum League President; Jerry Bywaters, Museum Director; Stewart Leonard, Assistant to the Director of the City Museum of St. Louis; and Mrs. John Rosenfield, moderator.
The image above likely depicts an episode from December 8, 1951, featuring a demonstration of silver objects in various stages of construction by John Szymack, a silver craftsman with the Craft Guild of Dallas. Seen here from left to right are Mrs. Howard Chilton, chairman of the Junior League’s television committee; Mrs. Bruce Steere, Craft Guild member; Alvin Jett, permanent panel chairman; and John Szymack (seated).
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Now that Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer have come and gone, I thought it would be fun to look back at some past summers spent in the courtyard of the Museum’s former Fair Park home.
Impromptu music in the courtyard draws visitors outside, circa 1963
Summer class, 1970s
Ladies meeting over boxed lunches, 1970s
(Photography by David Lawrence Photo)
Director Harry S. Parker III (far right) enjoying the courtyard, 1970s
(Photography: From the Collection of the Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library)
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
We were poking around in the Museum’s archives and found this Dallas Morning News article from May 15, 1949, featuring mothers at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. It could be fun to re-create the photos and treat your mom to a beautiful Mother’s Day at the DMA this Sunday.
Dallas Morning News Staff Photos by Ed Miley, May 15, 1949.
Dallas Morning News Staff Photos by Ed Miley, May 15, 1949.
Dallas Morning News Staff Photos by Ed Miley, May 15, 1949.
Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
