Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
It takes a village to make an exhibition come together. The imaginative and immersive exhibition For a Dreamer of Houses wouldn’t be possible without a top-notch team of passionate DMA staff members, each of whom play a unique and vital role in making the art come to life. They all had a bit of fun in the process, too! Check out these behind-the-scenes photos submitted by our “Dream Team.”
It takes a village to make an exhibition come together. The imaginative and immersive exhibition For a Dreamer of Houses wouldn’t be possible without a top-notch team of passionate DMA staff members, each of whom play a unique and vital role in making the art come to life. They all had a bit of fun in the process, too! Check out these behind-the-scenes photos submitted by our “Dream Team.”
Our homes have taken on new significance in these past few weeks. We are getting to know much more intimately our rooms, our furniture, and certainly our roommates. We might be noticing the dust more on the floors, or the cracks in the ceiling. We might be noting habits that perhaps were always there, but have come to the fore.
Is there a chair you prefer to sit in for comfort? A window you often find yourself daydreaming out of? Is there a favorite sweatshirt or blanket you reach for when you feel a draft?
There might be things we are lacking, things that had broken that we had been meaning to replace. We might be farther away from the homes in which we were raised, and the families inside, and it might feel harder to get to those places.
Maybe that family heirloom is being revisited more often now. Hands grazing over the nooks and crannies in the wood. Smells from recipes handed down from generations might be flooding our kitchens, if we are lucky.
Our homes are microcosms of ourselves. They are our habits embodied. They are visualizations of our personalities. They can make us feel safe, but they can also scare us. The storms in the middle of the night might cause strange sounds and shadows to appear. The house can take on a life of its own. But it’s ultimately a shelter, and a home is a privilege not everyone has.
A house is also a boundary between ourselves and the world around us. We might see neighbors pass by our windows for the first time. We might peer into brand new rooms, far away, via technological devices, now that our schools and businesses are being conducted from home.
The exhibition For a Dreamer of Houses was organized before we as curators had any idea how much time we would all be spending in our own homes. Indeed, currently you can see the show via the comfort of your pajamas in 3-D on the web. But it was born from ideas circulated in philosophy, psychology, and sociology in the last hundred years. Hilde Nelson, Chloë Courtney, and I developed the concept for the show over the past year, inspired by recent acquisitions of immersive installations that brought to the fore just how wonderful the home is. Not just as a well-known and -loved domestic space, but as a place of fantasy.
We noticed that artists’ depictions of the home were reflecting our increasingly globalized world, re-creating a childhood house that could fit inside a suitcase. Or sociopolitical issues, like state-sponsored violence, imagining how furniture could reflect invented futures that were nurturing instead of traumatizing. Then, a global pandemic arose, and we were startled to realize how works in the show, chosen months ago, seemed to presage a strange new reality, with quarantining procedures, new emphasis on hygiene, and the fear of illness striking our loved ones.
But in spite of these fears, readers, we saw a resiliency in the worlds depicted by these artists. We still see a bright future, where we can take the lessons learned in the imaginative worlds of art, and apply them to a reality where we are all in this together, helping build a more equitable and safer future. And so we look to art, just like to the home, to visualize our shared humanity. And we have lots more time to look, and reflect on what we are seeing, at home.
Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck is the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA.
Spring is here and that means blossoming flowers have arrived to cheer us up. During this time, you might not be able to get outside to smell the roses, so we wanted to share a few of the beautiful flowers in our collection to brighten your day! Join me as we take a stroll through the DMA “garden.”
We start our stroll on Level 1 in the Keir Collection of Islamic Art, where we spot this shallow ceramic bowl with a floral motif.
Next, we head to Level 2, where we see a lot of flowers, but two paintings in particular catch our eye for their vibrant colors—Flowers in a Vase with Two Doves by François Lepage and Henri Matisse’s Still Life: Bouquet and Compotier.
Our stroll takes us through a hallway on Level 3 that displays a variety of Japanese ceramics, many decorated with flowers. These are just a few we stop to admire.
We end our botanical expedition on Level 4, where we marvel at the skill of quilt maker Martha E. Keech and take time to look closely at the monumental work by Alfredo Ramos Martínez in our newly opened exhibition Flores Mexicanas.
This is just a small selection of the flora you can view at the DMA. Stop and smell these online roses and more with a few of the beautiful flowers in our collection to brighten your day!
Stacey Lizotte is the DMA League Director of Adult Programs at the DMA.
My name is Jaclyn Le and I am the Senior Graphic Designer at the Dallas Museum of Art. My primary role here is to design the identity, graphics, and environmental graphic design of each special exhibition and permanent collection gallery, in both English and Spanish. Working closely with the Design and Interpretation team, the Exhibitions team, and each of our curators, my goal is to make sure the identities, graphics, and environmental design of each exhibition are aligned to the curator’s vision, and that they showcase the works and information in the best way possible.
I was extremely excited to work on the design for the exhibition Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art, curated by Mark Castro, The Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art. We wanted the design to feel approachable, elegant, and vibrant. The typography is a pairing of a bold style seen in Mexican prints from the early decades of the 20th century, paired with a fuller, more feminine typeface.
The hand-drawn floral pattern was inspired by Mexican lacquer ware from Olinalá. Our director, Agustín Arteaga, lent me a wonderful book full of different styles to look at, and I developed a monochromatic floral pattern illustrating common motifs I saw throughout the book. This floral pattern flanks both walls of the entrance to the exhibition, and weaves its way up and over the ceiling in the space right before the monumental painting Flores Mexicanas by Alfredo Ramos Martínez.
How to draw your own floral set as seen in Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art.
You can watch this video tutorial to create your own floral set. Use any marker or drawing tool you have to create this. Here, I am using a Crayola Superfine tip marker.
1. Start by plotting three dots that will be the center of your flowers. You want to plot them with enough space in between—a triangle shape would be perfect for this.
2. Draw a ring around each of the three dots. These will be the bases of the flowers to draw petals around.
3. Start drawing the petals around each ring. I have 5-6 petals per flower here. It’s okay if they are not all equal in size—it will look better this way in the end!
4. Once all the petals of your three flowers are complete, draw 2-3 lines coming from the center ring to about halfway across each petal. This will give your flowers more depth and interest.
5. In the negative spaces between your three completed flowers, draw a few slightly curved lines. These will be the stems of your leaves. I have drawn 4 here.
6. Starting with the longest curved stem line, create a teardrop shape around the stem center. You can make these as wide or narrow as you’d like. Draw diagonal lines out from it to create the lines in the leaves. Do this for the other curved line stems from step 5, but save one of the stems for a fuller palm leaf drawing (in the next step).
7. For the palm leaf, create simple leaves by drawing small curved strokes of lines, starting from the top of the stem and working your way to the base. These curved leaf lines will gradually get bigger and bigger with each stroke, as you make your way to the base.
8. Complete your floral set by dropping in dots or circles in the spaces between the three flowers and leaves. Show us your creation by taking a picture and tagging #DMAatHome!
Jaclyn Le is the Senior Graphic Designer at the Dallas Museum of Art.
We asked Mark Castro, the Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art at the DMA, to dish his best Mexican cookbook recommendations that will bring some culture into your kitchen as we all cozy up at home. Here’s what he had to say to whet your appetites!
The Foodie
My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions
by Gabriela Cámara
Mark says: More than just a cookbook, Cámara explains her unique take on Mexican food and its contemporary significance. Whenever I’m in Mexico City I always make a point of stopping at Cámara’s restaurant Contramar, going strong for more than twenty years. My go-to meal—the famous tuna tostadas, red and green grilled snapper, and lemon and ricotta tart—are all in this lavishly illustrated book.
The Classic
The Art of Mexican Cooking
by Diana Kennedy
Mark says: This was my first Mexican cookbook and I’ve heard the same from a lot of friends. First published in 1989, Kennedy’s book is still one of the most complete guides to traditional Mexican cooking. Beyond giving you great recipes for key dishes like pozole verde or mole negro, Kennedy shares important insights into their origins and their place within Mexican culture.
The Doorstop
Mexico: The Cookbook
by Margarita Carrillo Arronte
Mark says: This book has got everything, from the typical to the obscure, and is something of an encyclopedia of recipes of Mexican cuisine. I turn to it whenever I’m trying to figure out how to make that awesome thing I ate one time at a restaurant—pato en pepita roja (duck in red pumpkin sauce)—or that treat I bought at the shop around the corner from my hotel—limones rellenos (stuffed candied limes).
The Streetwise
Eat Mexico: Recipes from Mexico City’s Streets, Markets & Fondas
by Lesley Téllez
Mark says: Perfect if you want to relive that delicious pambazo you ate on a street one day in Mexico City, or if you are cooking a meal for family and friends. My family loves the ‘Pasta with Ancho Chiles, Mushrooms and Garlic,” especially if you pair with it with a refreshing agua de Jamaica (hibiscus flower water).
Eighty-five years ago, on March 24, 1935, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts opened its seventh annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition. That same day, an illustrated spread in the Dallas Morning News announced the show’s 12 first-prize winners, all but two of which are now in the DMA’s collection. Helen Brooks’s Profile, the only self-portrait of the bunch, appears at bottom center, adding a touch of humanity to a roster of mostly landscapes and still lifes. Reviewing Dallas’s 1934-1935 art season for the Dallas Morning News a few months later, artist, critic, and future Museum Director Jerry Bywaters called Brooks’s work “one of the best drawings of the season.”
When a show of self-portraits by 27 local artists opened at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in January 1936, Bywaters again had nothing but praise for Brooks’s contribution, declaring in the News, “It is hard to imagine a more thoroughly convincing likeness or better drawing than the small work by Helen Brooks.” One can imagine Brooks appreciating Bywaters’ complimentary words; however, she may have raised an eyebrow at an earlier section of the 1936 article, where Bywaters applauded what he saw as the exhibition artists’ lack of vanity: “In most cases,” he wrote, the self-portraits on display “attempt to make a good rendering of a person who may be considered detachedly as a personality or a lemon [something substandard, disappointing].” Ouch, Jerry.
Bywaters’ mixed messaging aside, Profile and the later, three-quarters-view portrait reveal Brooks to be both a talented artist and a woman with a keen sense of style. She skillfully captures distinctive facial features like her sharp cheekbones; bow-shaped, downturned lips; and receding chin. Her glossy black bob with short, blunt bangs and finger waves, as well as her thinly plucked, arched brows, wouldn’t look out of place on a 1920s movie starlet—a photograph that accompanied news of Brooks’s recent wedding in October 1936 could practically double as a Golden Age Hollywood headshot. #HaircutGoals
Melinda Narro is the McDermott Graduate Intern for American Art at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The DMA interviewed Mark Castro for a special inside look into his work here at the DMA and what to expect from his debut exhibition, Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art.
What drew your interest to study and specialize in Latin American art?
There is a vibrancy in Latin American art that captured my attention and imagination. Latin America is a complex place, where a multitude of indigenous and foreign cultures have converged over centuries, sometimes violently. For me, it feels like that history has imbued Latin American art with a kind of palpable energy, sometimes chaotic and sometimes tranquil, that makes it particularly powerful.
Why do you think Latin American art is important to the DMA and Dallas?
I think the immediate answer is that the DMA is Dallas’s art museum. This region was once a part of Mexico and a large percentage of our population identifies as Latin American or Latinx. We have a duty to collect and show art that reflects who we are as a community—past, present, and future. In my opinion though, that is really only the beginning. Latin American art represents a rich and distinct part of human culture, one that should be preserved and promoted throughout our country and the world. It has a universal quality that all art has in its ability to inspire us regardless of our background.
Who are your favorite Latin American artists?
As you can imagine it is an ever-changing list! The Mexican Baroque master Cristóbal de Villalpando is an artist I’ve thought about a great deal; his paintings have this dramatic quality to them, almost as if you are looking at a piece of theater. Since coming to the DMA, I’ve been drawn to the work of María Luisa Pacheco, the Bolivian abstract painter whose works create three dimensional effects on two dimensional canvas. I’ve also become very interested in the work of Sérgio Camargo, the Brazilian sculptor; the DMA has an amazing relief sculpture by him that uses different sized wood dowels to create this beautiful undulating texture. Finally, the Mexican painter Abraham Ángel; he painted only twenty-three or so works before dying at the age of nineteen, but his portraits still stand out today for their ability to evoke life in Mexico City in the 1920s.
What is a must-see piece in the upcoming exhibition Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art?
Undoubtedly the headlining work, Flores Mexicanas, by Alfredo Ramos Martínez. It’s been largely off view for almost a century and its reemergence is going to change the way we think about the trajectory of his career. It has such a luscious appeal; the four women are standing in this verdant landscape that is festooned with flowers. Ramos Martínez began painting it during the Mexican Civil War and completed it just before he left Mexico for the United States. For me, it has this feeling of nostalgia; it’s as if he knows a period in his life, and in the history his country, is about to end.
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Catch Mark Castro’s inaugural show, Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art, during Members-Only Preview Days:
Thursday, February 13, from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Friday, February 14, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, February 15, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The exhibition opens to the public on Sunday, February 16.
Do you have a New Year’s resolution to read more books? The Arts & Letters Live team is here to help you jump start your reading goal and keep you updated on exciting new releases. Check out the selections of authors and books we’re looking forward to hearing and reading in our upcoming 29th season. Take a moment to peruse Arts & Letters Live’s 2020 season and consider giving yourself or your favorite bookworms the memorable experience of hearing authors talk about their latest books and share insights about their creative process.
Carolyn Hartley, Administrative Coordinator
Erin Morgenstern, Tuesday, January 14
If you loved Morgenstern’s The Night Circus as much as I did, her highly anticipated second novel, The Starless Sea, will cast a spell on you from its very first page. An old book leads graduate student Zachary Ezra Rawlins on an epic quest to a vast underground library with the guidance of Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances. A bee, a key, and a sword emblazoned on the book will lead them on a path to a secret underground world with pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. Things are never what they seem. Come to the event early to go on a mysterious tour to explore bees, keys, and swords in the DMA’s collection.
Carolyn Bess, Director, Arts & Letters Live
Tembi Locke, Tuesday, February 18
After hearing author, actor, and TEDx speaker Tembi Locke at the Texas Book Festival, I immediately invited her to share her poignant story of resilience with Arts & Letters Live audiences. Her new memoir is From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home, both a New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. It’s also being adapted into a Netflix series directed by Witherspoon. Locke’s story encompasses taking chances, finding love, and building a home away from home. She writes movingly and poetically about loss, grief, and the healing miracle of food, immersing readers in the beauty and simple pleasures of spending three summers in her husband’s hometown in Sicily.
Jennifer Krogsdale, Audience Relations Coordinator
Anne Enright, Tuesday, March 10
This season, one of the books I’m most excited to read is Anne Enright’s forthcoming novel Actress (to be released on March 3). According to the pre-publication publicity I’ve read, Enright’s latest book examines the delicate and intricate relationship between a mother and daughter. Norah is grappling with the long-kept secrets that shaped her once famous mother, Katherine, while also coming to terms with unnerving secrets about her own past and what she wants for her future. Intricate family dynamics, a passion for the arts, and a bizarrely committed crime—sounds like my cup of tea.
Lillie Burrow, McDermott Intern for Arts & Letters Live and Adult Programming
Erik Larson, Monday, March 30
This winter, DMA gallery attendants may report an intern lingering a little too often in the Winston Churchill gallery inside the Reves Collection, but the frequent visits will be in anticipation of Erik Larson’s newest nonfiction masterpiece, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. With a fastidiously researched narrative, Larson promises to deliver a fresh portrait of the famous leader, and I’m prepared to be bamboozled (again) into meticulously studying a significant historical event through the guise of an indulgent narrative. After re-binging two of my favorites, Devil in the White City and In the Garden of the Beasts, I’m eager for Larson to unveil Churchill’s secrets and to imagine myself as his confidante to the drama. So, spill the tea, Mr. Larson. I am ready to learn.
Michelle Witcher, Program Manager, Arts & Letters Live
Esther Safran Foer, Tuesday, April 14
I look forward to hearing Esther Safran Foer discuss her forthcoming memoir I Want You to Know We’re Still Here, a poignant account of growing up with parents who were Holocaust survivors, and how their unspoken anguish impacted her childhood. When Esther learns as an adult that her father had a previous wife and daughter who both perished during the Holocaust, she resolves to find out who they were. She travels to Ukraine armed with only an old photo and a hand-drawn map to re-create how her father managed to survive. Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum will be a promotional partner for this event, and touring their stunning new facility deeply affected me.
The plastic sculpture is deteriorating, so slowly you can’t tell, but actively and unavoidably. For two years now, Elena Torok, Assistant Objects Conservator at the DMA, has been researching the repair history and material composition of Constructed Head No. 2 by Naum Gabo (1890–1977), in preparation for a conservation treatment this past spring. The sculpture is now free to see in the European Art Galleries.
Naum Gabo was a Russian avant-garde artist who worked with some of the some earliest forms of plastic in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Plastic was just becoming commercially available, and Constructivists like Gabo were interested in using new materials to merge art and daily life.
Over his lifetime, Gabo made seven versions of Constructed Head No. 2. They are all similar in design—a geometric bust of a woman made of many combined pieces—but they vary in size and medium. The earliest version was made from painted galvanized iron in 1916, and the latest, in the Nasher Sculpture Center’s collection, was made from stainless steel in 1975. The version in the DMA’s collection, dated 1923–1924, is made from Ivory Rhodoid (a trade name for an early cellulose ester). It is the only version Gabo made in plastic.
Plastic artworks are tricky for museums to preserve. There are many types of plastics, and the materials, still relatively new to the history of art, don’t all age well. Depending on type, they may start to bend, change color, or even break down entirely. Gabo’s early plastic works are known for their sensitivity. A sculpture acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art notoriously degraded to the point of being unable to be shown again.
How has the DMA’s sculpture escaped that fate? Torok’s research indicates it has something to do with the color. More specifically, she has identified white pigments in Constructed Head No. 2 that appear to slow the deterioration of this particular plastic. Although the sculpture has discolored slightly and the left shoulder has started to bend and deform, it is still in great condition, especially compared to many other plastic works Gabo made during the same time period.
By 2017 what had not aged so well were materials used in older repairs. Constructed Head No. 2 was repaired at least three times before it was acquired by the DMA in 1981, and some of the glues used had started to yellow and darken (a common occurrence with certain adhesives as they age). This change was not only visually problematic, but also structurally worrisome; as glues discolor, their breakdown can eventually cause older repairs to lose their strength. As a result, this important work in the Museum’s collection has not been displayed in recent years.
Torok thoroughly researched the sculpture’s repair history before determining a conservation treatment plan. Earlier this year, she carefully removed the old, discolored adhesive and replaced it with new adhesive that is long-lasting and, most importantly, reversible, meaning it can be removed and replaced if necessary in the future. In August the sculpture went back on display for the first time in five years.
Constructed Head No. 2 is almost 100 years old now. The sculpture is too fragile to leave the DMA, it can’t be displayed too long due to light sensitivities, and it has to be shown in a special perforated case to allow for air exchange. As it slowly breaks down, the plastic releases distinct-smelling chemicals that can actually speed the aging of the sculpture if allowed to remain enclosed in close contact with it over time. Museums continue to acquire works made with plastic, and conservators continue to research the material and fight science with science in order to keep works on view (and intact) as long as possible.
Lillian Michel is the Marketing and Communications Coordinator at the Dallas Museum of Art.
