Exhibitions | Dallas Museum of Art Uncrated

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A Year of Launches, Anniversaries, and Free at the DMA

The year 2013 has been an exciting one at the DMA. We’ve welcomed more than 540,000 visitors, launched new programs, and hosted 11 exhibitions. Below are a few of the Uncrated team’s favorite highlights from the past year.

Going free!
We returned to free general admission on January 21 and have loved every minute of opening our doors for free to the North Texas community.
Getting more than 41,000 new friends
In January we launched DMA Friends, the first free museum membership program, and our new friends have been earning points on their visits and redeeming them for unique rewards for almost 12 months!
DMA sleepover
Speaking of unique rewards, we hosted our first DMA Overnight in November. Ten DMA Friends redeemed 100,000 points to spend the night at the Museum with a guest while exploring the galleries after hours, participating in new DMA games and sleeping under the watchful eyes of Tlaloc.
C3 got a facelift
Come by and see new works of art and activities for all ages in the front gallery of the Center for Creative Connections on Level 1.
A sky of denim
The DMA co-organized exhibition Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take (on view through January 12!) is full of beautiful and interesting works of art, but we had the privilege of being the first venue to ever show his denim work Untitled (one day it all comes true). It was amazing getting to witness Jim Hodges viewing his completed work on display for the first time.
Happy Anniversary!
This was the year of anniversaries here at the DMA, including the 110th birthday of the DMA, the 80th anniversary of the Dallas Free Public Art Gallery becoming the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the 50th anniversary of the merger of the DMFA and DMCA, the 30th anniversary of the DMA Sculpture Garden opening, the 20th anniversary of the Hamon Building opening (which includes Level 4 and the Atrium), Arturo’s 10th birthday, and the 5th anniversary of C3.
From Greece to Dallas
We had a year of amazing exhibitions, from a celebration of President Kennedy in Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy to the colorful world of Chagall’s sculptures, drawings and costumes in Chagall:Beyond Color, from the famous Discus Thrower from the British Museum in The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece to welcoming the local art community in DallasSITES: Available Space.
Art/Arte
This fall we launched our first-ever bilingual (Spanish and English) guide for visitors, written by members of the Dallas community through a partnership program with AVANCE-Dallas and Make Art With Purpose. Pick one up at the Visitor Services Desk on your next visit.
Texas hops and barley
This summer we had a Texas beer social for Museum staff and sampled brews that come from the Lone Star State. Uncrated team member Melissa Nelson Gonzales out- sipped the competition and won the beer tasting contest!
Eyes of the Ancestors
In June we celebrated the publication of our catalogue Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at the Dallas Museum of Art and welcomed special guest Dhalang Purbo Asmoro, who hosted a public gamelan and wayang performance with musicians from Java, Bali and New York. This month, the book was named the winner of the 2013 International Tribal Art Book Prize.
Creative rest stop
We launched a new program this year, the Pop-Up Art Spot, taking C3 into the galleries and inviting visitors to enjoy a creative break while exploring the Museum. Over 12,000 visitors of all ages have participated in drawing, writing and other creative activities!
New digs
In 2013 a portion of the south end of the building was under renovation for the new DMA Paintings Conservation Studio (watch the transition here). Visitors can see into the DMA’s Conservation Studio and explore the conservation process in the adjacent gallery for free during Museum hours. A recent conservation project, Daniel Buren’s Sanction of the Museum, hangs in the Concourse and leads the way to the studio.
A Texas-size howdy!
Our Visitor Services Team, which greets every guest of the DMA when they walk through our doors or visit the galleries, also got a makeover. You may have noticed their friendly smiles and new outfits during your visits this year.

Thank you for helping us make 2013 a great year. We wish you a very happy new year!

Kimberly Daniell is the manager of communications and public affairs at the DMA.

Dynamic Duo

Published December 4, 2013 Behind-the-Scenes , Education , Exhibitions , Lecture Closed
Tags: Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, John Judd, Stephen Lapthisophon

Tomorrow, artist Stephen Lapthisophon, featured in the current Concentrations 56 exhibition at the DMA, will join his lifelong friend actor John Judd for a conversation about the creative process. Get to know these best friends before Thursday’s event:

John Judd and Stephen Lapthisophon, 1978

Do you involve each other in your creative processes?
SL: John and I speak frequently now about our influences, the creative process and the various ways that we feel our work reflects the time in which we live. There is no direct integration of his work in mine—rather, it is an implied dialogue—constant, permanent and generous.
JJ: It’s impossible to estimate the degree to which Stephen influences my work. My relationship with Stephen is almost like one of family in that even though we’ve ended up pursuing different avenues in the arts, and are no longer collaborators, we shared formative creative experiences, and we were almost constant companions for many years. Stephen is always in there somewhere.

What is one piece/work of art of the other’s that you most enjoy or inspires you?
SL: I have seen him perform many times but perhaps my favorite piece I have seen him in is Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow, where he played Laurence Olivier.
JJ: I can see his hand in this simple small piece [below] as indelibly as I do in his current work. It represents something essentially Stephen—a quality that remains and has always been present in his best work.

Stephen Lapthisophon, House, 1977, paint on wood, courtesy of the artist, photo: John Judd

How has your friendship evolved over 40 years?
SL: I met John Judd walking into my first art class as an undergraduate at UT Austin in 1974. We have known each other and trusted each other’s work since then.
JJ: From our first conversation there has existed an unspoken agreement—that we will confront this world as allies. We are like-minded and determined to take what we were given and make more of it. To leave some marks behind. We have lived our lives in very close proximity and miles apart, we have at times collaborated and pursued separate endeavors, we’ve had individual triumphs and defeats, have even exceeded each other’s expectations, but we have always been able to pick up a phone or sit down together and resume the conversation.

For more insight, stories and discussion, join us tomorrow night, December 5, at 7.30 p.m.!

Liz Menz is the manager of adult programming at the DMA

World AIDS Day

Published December 2, 2013 Exhibitions Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Jim Hodges, Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take, World AIDS Day

Yesterday, we observed the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day with a screening of Untitled, a film by Jim Hodges, Encke King, and Carlos Marques da Cruz.

Untitled begins with a reflection on the early AIDS epidemic. Following a nonlinear narrative, the film brings together mainstream network news, activist footage, artists’ works, and popular entertainment, referencing regimes of power that precipitated a generation of AIDS and queer activism, and continues today with international struggles for freedom and expression. If you missed yesterday’s screening, don’t worry! We will show Untitled again on January 11 at 1:00 p.m. And don’t miss the DMA-organized exhibition Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take, on view at the DMA through January 12.

Meg Smith is the curatorial administrative assistant for contemporary art at the DMA.

Rooms Within Rooms – Stephen Lapthisophon

Published November 15, 2013 Exhibitions , Guest Blog Post Closed
Tags: Artist Talk, Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Stephen Lapthisophon

Stephen Lapthisophon shared with “Uncrated” what he hoped visitors would see and take from his exhibition Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon—coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems,” currently on view at the DMA.

This is an exhibition that can be approached in many ways. It is an exhibition about how we approach the art. How our bodies move through space, and the things, materials, and stuff we carry around with us. It is a show about closeness and distance. The exhibition is divided into two distinct but related rooms. And rooms and walls within rooms. And boxes and drawers and suitcases within the rooms and underneath the drawers. The layers of accumulated dirt, marks, stains, scrapes, and scratches are an invitation to stay. I hope the works ask you to ask questions.

Pencils, ink, cardboard, olive oil, and rust. Bacon fat, spray paint, sheetrock, nails, bricks, rosemary, and books. String, coffee, eggshells, dirt, wax, saffron, and more dirt. A desk, a ladder, and books. This exhibition exists in tribute. Reading, thinking, and acting through and with things. “Denken ist Danken.”

Before the opening, Lapthisophon sat down with us to discuss his art and process. Find out more in the video below:

What did you feel and think after visiting “Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon”?

Stephen Lapthisophon is an artist and educator.

What Hopper Saw

Published November 13, 2013 Exhibitions , Guest Blog Post Closed
Tags: Carter E. Foster, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Edward Hopper, Hopper Drawing: A Painter's Process

The opening of the much-anticipated exhibition Hopper Drawing: A Painter’s Process is just around the corner. Organized by Curator of Drawings Carter E. Foster of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the show had a very successful run there before coming to Dallas. Shortly before the show’s opening here, we were fortunate to sit down with Carter for a quick Q&A to learn a bit more about the exhibition.

Edward Hopper, Self-Portrait, 1945, fabricated chalk and charcoal on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.287, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y.

In what regard did Hopper hold his drawings? Simply as a means to an end? Or more?
Hopper actually tended to belittle his drawings when asked about them. During his lifetime, he somewhat reluctantly shared them with others when they inquired about his drawings. He most definitely considered himself first and foremost a painter, and his drawings were the means through which he worked out his ideas for paintings. But he also seems to have done them for his own private satisfaction, as many artists do, as a way to keep his hand and eye honed.

Study for New York Movie, 1938 or 1939, fabricated chalk on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art. Image courtesy of gwen-photoblog.blogspot.com

Do you have a favorite drawing,or suite of drawings that have a particular appeal? And, why?
There are many, but I especially love the close-up bust-length study for New York Movie, in which Hopper features just the slightest winsome half-smile on the face of the usherette (in this case, his wife, Jo, who posed for him). The technique of this drawing is just amazing, with a variety of textures and great subtlety in the play of light across her face.

Did you have any preconceived notions that were overturned by what you learned during your research?
No. When I do research I try to let the material lead the way. Research is about asking the right questions, rather than having pre-formed ideas.

How did you discover some of New York’s buildings in Hopper’s drawings?
Mainly by looking at the incredible collection of photographs from the 1930s commissioned by the Local History division of the New York Public Library. They are all online and searchable by street location. Very useful! Also, the collection of “Subway construction photographs” at the New York Historical Society was an important source of images of a vanished New York City.

How did your idea for this exhibition develop?
Since I’m curator of drawings, and half of our drawing collection is works by Edward Hopper, it made perfect sense to propose an exhibition. I was lucky to be able to delve in so deeply.

Edward Hopper, Study for Nighthawks, 1942, fabricated chalk and charcoal on paper, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase and gift of Josephine N. Hopper by exchange 2011.65, © Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y.

What new discoveries about Hopper’s drawing process did you make in the course of working on this exhibition?
The heart of this exhibition is examining what Hopper saw, what he drew, and what he painted in order to understand better his artistic process. I think the research, in particular on Nighthawks and New York Movie, helped us elucidate more clearly than ever before the way Hopper tweaked and tinkered with reality to get to his uncanny, often strange, and ultimately universal imagery of the human condition and the self in the world.

Martha MacLeod is the curatorial administrative assistant for the European and American Art Department at the DMA.

A Colorful Anniversary

Published November 6, 2013 Archive , Collections , Exhibitions Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Josef Albers, The Interaction of Color, The Mayer Library, Yale Press

Josef Albers, The Interaction of Color, Plate XI

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 at the DMFA,

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

The Interaction 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.”

Inscription to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts from Josef Albers in "Interaction of Color"

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.

#DMAGiveMore

Published November 4, 2013 Center for Creative Connections , Dallas , DFW , Education , Exhibitions Closed
Tags: Community Exchange, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, DMA Give More, Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take

The Center for Creative Connections (C3) has taken the Jim Hodges exhibition title, Give More Than You Take, as a call to action. Hodges gave the exhibition this title after reflecting on what it means to be an artist and have a voice in our community. Inspired by this idea of the power of our individual voices, we are offering visitors a chance to consider how they might use their voices in creative and positive ways.

Throughout the run of the exhibition Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take, we are hosting a Community Exchange in C3. You can make a button with a personal, positive motto that you want to share with the community. Then leave the button you create on our Community Exchange wall and take someone else’s button from the wall.

Wear the button you take out into the community to share a positive message. Document your button’s journey by tagging photos with #DMAGiveMore (check out our #DMAGiveMore on the DMA’s Instagram).

Want to truly give more than you take? Make a positive gesture by giving your new button away to someone else.

Jessica Fuentes is the C3 gallery coordinator at the DMA.

Hocus Pocus

Published October 28, 2013 American Art , Curatorial , European Art , Exhibitions Closed
Tags: Central America, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, European Art, Halloween, Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take

Halloween is just around the corner and it has us seeing haunting references in works at the DMA and treats throughout the Museum’s galleries. Tell us which works cause you to have a hair-raising Museum visit.

Mask: The Bad Spirit of the Mountain, Yup’ik, Alaska, United States, late 19th century, wood, paint, and feathers, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Elizabeth H. Penn

Cornelis Saftleven, College of Animals, 1655, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Karl and Esther Hoblitzelle Collection, gift of the Hoblitzelle Foundation

Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, Seaside Cemetery (Seefriedhof), 1897, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of J.E.R. Chilton

Emma-O, Momoyama period, Japan, late 16th-early 17th century, Wood, lacquer, gold gilt, and glass, Dallas Museum of Art, Wendover Fund in memory of Alfred and Juanita Bromberg and the Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition FundStephen Lapthisophon’s studio, Dallas, Texas, 2013

Ornament in the form of a feline face, Moche, Early Intermediate period, Moche Phase II-III, c. A.D. 100-450, gilded copper, shell, and turquoise, Dallas Museum of Art, The Nora and John Wise Collection, bequest of John Wise, 1983

coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems”

Published October 23, 2013 Behind-the-Scenes , Exhibitions Closed
Tags: and “Selected Poems”, Concentrations, Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon—coffee, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, root vegetables, seasonal fruit, Stephen Lapthisophon

How do you install coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems”? Below, get a sneak peek, including a look at works from the DMA’s contemporary collection, before the opening of Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon—coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems” on Sunday.

Artist Talk: Jim Hodges

Published October 2, 2013 Behind-the-Scenes , Contemporary Art , Dallas , DFW , Exhibitions Closed
Tags: Contemporary Art, Dallas debut, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Jim Hodges, Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take, U.S. premiere

With quiet determination, artist Jim Hodges has, over the past twenty-five years, produced one of the most affective bodies of sculpture, drawing, and installation of any artist of his generation. Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take brings together works in all media–from modest objects to room-sized installations that engage the viewer in sensory experiences–to fully reveal the breadth and complexity of Hodges’ inventive vision.

Comprising over eighty objects produced from 1987 through the present, the exhibition also includes works never before seen in the United States, along with a major new piece, Untitled (one day it all comes true), created especially for this exhibition.

I’m proud to have worked so closely with Jim Hodges and Olga Viso, executive director of the Walker Art Center, to bring this remarkable exhibition to fruition, and I invite you to be among the first to see it at its US premiere in Dallas, before it travels to Minneapolis, Boston, and Los Angeles. Please join me in the Horchow Auditorium for a conversation with Jim Hodges tomorrow evening, October 3, at 7:30 p.m., and join us for a sneak peek on Saturday, October 5, a day before the exhibition opening.

Jeffrey Grove is the senior curator of special projects & research at the DMA.

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Dallas Museum of Art Uncrated

Archive for the 'Exhibitions' Category

A Year of Launches, Anniversaries, and Free at the DMA

Dynamic Duo

World AIDS Day

Rooms Within Rooms – Stephen Lapthisophon

What Hopper Saw

A Colorful Anniversary

#DMAGiveMore

Hocus Pocus

coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems”

Artist Talk: Jim Hodges

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