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Posts Tagged 'Dallas Museum of Art'

Q&A with Yonavea Hawkins, Caddo Beadwork Artist

Yonavea Hawkins is an artist who creates intricate beadwork for Native American and Caddo cultural items. We are delighted to have her participate in the upcoming Late Night celebrating the new exhibition Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro, during which she will showcase several of her pieces and talk about her process and the connection between traditional and contemporary beadworking. Read our special Q&A with her to learn more about her practice ahead of the event on March 25!

_{Yonavea Hawkins working on a belt on a loom during a “Live Bead” on stage at an event.}

How did you begin creating art?
As a child I was always drawing and painting, with art class in school being my favorite subject, then to obtaining a fine arts degree from Oklahoma City University and started working as a graphic designer. Eventually my 8 to 5 creative jobs morphed into print quality control with organized paperwork of meeting deadlines and budgets. Then and now with a full-time job, evenings and weekends are my creative times. Working from a small desk, my present work evolved from learning to sew and bead to make Caddo regalia for myself, my children, and then Native American regalia for others. Now I create a variety of bead work, cultural items, or diverse art with different beading techniques for juried art markets with competitions. Changing from pencil and paint to beads and buckskin became new mediums to work in and another way to express myself creatively.

_{Hawkins completing beadwork on a commissioned piece while in her booth at an art market.}

The words “contemporary” and “traditional” carry a lot of weight when describing Indigenous arts. Where do you situate your work?
For my work it’s a combination of contemporary and traditional because of the materials used and the design elements, to the construction of the finished work. Contemporary because of the use of the current Charlotte bead colors and todays materials to bead on. Traditional, when I find the materials online to buy as I am an urban Native American without access to harvest and collect traditional materials once used. The use of glass bead work starts from European contact as beads, wool and silk were trade goods to Indigenous peoples, and these trade goods became traditional for some Indigenous peoples. Beading techniques developed for using trade beads and used today holds the traditional look, but in contemporary colors and designs, unless you find a stash of antique beads.

Tell us about some of the work you’re showing at DMA’s Late Night.
Several years back, a collector of my art told me that my beadwork was “Wearable Art”. As such a great deal of my work created for art markets are bracelet cuffs, contemporary beaded belts, belt buckles, hair barrettes, necklaces, and hatbands. After attending an art market, I never know what work will sell out and what I will be creating next, but I plan to show a variety of pieces mentioned earlier. I will also show cultural items that have won awards at art markets such as moccasins, turtle shell purses, bandolier bags, and pipe bags.

_{Work in progress of a smoked buckskin pipe bag with a Southeastern eagle on the front.}

________

You can find out more about Yonavea Hawkins in this recent artist interview. Don’t miss out on our Late Night celebration on March 25, featuring artist demonstrations, art making, performances, films, and talks about the exhibition Spirit Lodge: Mississippian Art from Spiro, and more! Get tickets here.

The Women of the Museum School

Published March 3, 2022 Archive Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

_{Margaret Hull taught children’s classes at the Museum School from 1957-1970.}

Arts education has been an important feature of the museum since its founding in 1903. The Dallas Art Association held lecture series and programs featuring the artists, collectors, and art historians of the day to educate members on art and to promote collecting. After the first professional director was hired in 1929, the adult education offerings expanded to include director-led art history lecture series and gallery talks.

Educational offerings were extended to children in 1937 when Director Richard Foster Howard started the school tour program with the Dallas Independent School District and a program of free Saturday art classes for children. By 1940, Maggie Joe Hogue, first head of the education department, reported that the DMFA’s education programs were unique in that they focused on creative teaching where most other museums confine their teaching to appreciation.

The creative teaching element was formalized with the founding of the Museum School in 1941, which offered a variety of art classes for children and adults. A number of well-known Dallas artists taught at the Museum School including Octavio Medellin (see exhibition and library case), Otis Dozier, Merritt Mauzey, and Roger Winter. But as this is Women’s History Month, let’s focus on a few of the women artists who taught at the Museum School.

_{Left: Barbara Maples working with two students
Right: Barbara Maples, Plastic Boxes 2, c. 1967–1968, gelatin silver print, Dallas Museum of Art, Texas Artists Fund, 2009.5}

Barbara Maples (1912-1999) was painter, printmaker, photographer and educator. She began her career teaching elementary and secondary art for the Dallas Independent School District from 1937-1964, and concurrently taught children’s classes at the Museum School from 1940-1954. She went on to become Professor and Head of the Department of Art Education at Southern Methodist University from 1965-1978. Maples had three one-person exhibitions at the DMFA in 1941, 1944 and 1947, in addition to having her works selected for or included in at least 38 exhibitions at the museum. Three prints and one photograph are in the permanent collection.

_{Left: Lucille Jeffries working with students
Right: Lucille Jeffries, Bouquet, n.d., color linoleum cut, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mrs. C.P. Wright, 1964.65}

Lucille Jeffries (1903-1950) was a painter and graphic designer. She taught children’s classes at the Museum School in the 1940s, while also teaching at Mt. Auburn School in Dallas. She also had three one-person exhibitions at the DMFA in 1941, 1943, and 1947, and had work included in over 25 juried or group exhibitions. Twenty-five of her lithographs, watercolors and linoleum cuts are in the permanent collection.

_{Left: Evaline Sellors offered Adventures in Clay to the young artists in her summer classes, 1960s.
Right: Evaline Sellors, Bowl, c. 1951, glazed stoneware, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Craft Guild of Dallas, 1951.65}

Evaline Sellors (1907-1995) taught adult pottery and ceramic sculpture classes at the Museum School in partnership with the Craft Guild of Dallas from 1950-1968. She also taught children’s classes at the Fort Worth Art Center, and designed costumes and puppets. Her work was included in over 20 juried exhibitions held at the DMFA and was featured in an exhibition of Fort Worth artists with two others in 1934. Two works by Sellors are included in the DMA’s permanent collection.

_{Left: Mary Doyle working with students
Right: Mary Doyle, Texas Oranges, 1953, serigraph, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the artist, 1954.3}

Mary Doyle (1904-2000) was a printmaker, painter and watercolorist, but her favorite mediums were serigraphy and silk screen. Doyle taught children’s painting classes at the Museum School from the 1940s-1960s, later joining the museum full time as Education Director and Registrar. She also taught art for the Dallas Independent School District from 1935-1972. Doyle had work selected for 10 juried exhibitions held at the DMFA, and two works in the permanent collection.

These are just three of the many women who taught at the Museum School from 1941 to its closure in 1970. Others include: Eloise Blondel, Dorothy Brake, Caroline Daniel, Ellen Dennis, Carolyn Dodson, Sybil Edwards, Patsy Eldridge, Ann Cushing Gantz, Estella Henkel, Wanda Hill, Margaret Hull, Frances Jenkins, Annelies Kahn, Dorothy Kay King, Rita Mallett, Virginia Oechsner, Martha Jane Reed, Coreen Spellman, Jane Stare, Ruth Tears, and Peggy Wilson.

Hillary Bober is the Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Connections Across Collections: Love is in the Art

Published February 14, 2022 Curatorial , works of art Closed
Tags: Art, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Valentine's Day

Love is in the air—and in the art at the DMA! Take a look below to see our staff picks of art that we heART in celebration of Valentine’s Day.

_{Wedding vase with butterflies, Mary Louise Eteeyan, Jemez Pueblo,} _{1975–2000. Ceramic. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Robert I. Kramer, 2014.43.18}.

Becca Merriman-Goldring, McDermott Intern for Arts of the Americas
Each spout of a Pueblo wedding vase represents one spouse; the two are joined by a bridged handle to form a continuous whole. Mary Louise Eteeyan emphasizes that significance in the decoration of this vase, with two butterflies coming together over a single basket of corn.

_{Wedding ring, department of San Marcos, San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala, Maya — Mam, probably 1930s or 1940s. Dallas Museum of Art, the Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Collection of Maya Textiles from Guatemala, gift of Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher, 1983.524}.

Dr. Mark A. Castro, The Jorge Baldor Curator of Latin American Art
There are several wedding rings, like this one, in the Museum’s collection of Maya textiles from Guatemala. We don’t know if they were ever used, but perhaps they might bring you good luck if you’re popping the big question this Valentine’s Day!

_{John White Alexander, Miss Dorothy Quincy Roosevelt (later Mrs. Langdon Geer), 1901–1902. Oil on canvas. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Pauline Allen Gill Foundation in memory of Pauline Gill Sullivan, 2007.36}.

Martha MacLeod, Senior Curatorial Administrator and Curatorial Assistant for American Art
John White Alexander painted Dorothy’s portrait shortly before she married Langdon Greer. It was possibly a gift for her soon-to-be husband. The composition includes her beloved Irish Setter, Shamrock. Artists often include dogs in paintings to symbolize fidelity and devotion.

_{LaToya Ruby Frazier, Grandma Ruby’s Refrigerator, 2007. Gelatin silver print. Dallas Museum of Art, Lay Family Acquisition Fund, 2018.37}.

Hilde Nelson, Curatorial Assistant for Contemporary Art
In her series The Notion of Family, Frazier centers three generations of women—herself, her mother, and her grandmother. Here, the artist honors her grandmother; the fridge covered with the proud matriarch’s family memorabilia conveys their loving bond.

DMA by Design

Published January 19, 2022 Archive , Dallas , DFW Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

January always marks a new year and new possibilities, and at this time almost 40 years ago, the DMA and the citizens of Dallas were looking forward to a brand-new museum and watching it grow from the ground up.

The site for the new museum, chosen in 1977, was in area north of the Central Business District, where it would serve as the anchor of a new Arts District for the city. This location had once been home to grand mansions facing Ross Avenue at the turn of the 20^th century, but by the 1930s and 1940s the area was dominated by car dealerships, tire and auto repair shops, and small machine shops.

_{Mansions along Ross Avenue, circa 1910}

_{Ross Avenue at Harwood Street, circa 1925. Photo from Park Cities: A Photohistory by Diane Galloway, page 51}

The design for the new museum building by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes was created in 1979. Barnes’s plan included a central concourse to connect museum functions, terraced galleries with internal courtyards and skylights for natural light, vaulted space for contemporary art, a sculpture garden, and a quiet continuous background that lets the artworks shine.

_{Edward Larrabee Barnes’s original design for the new Dallas Museum of Art, March 1979. The layout stayed generally the same, but the concourse became straight instead of stepped.}

_{Edward Larrabee Barnes rendering of the East façade (Harwood Street side) of the DMA}

The site chosen was not empty land, and the structures were still mainly automotive related, especially on the Ross and Harwood sides.

_{Northwest corner of Ross and Harwood, the current location of the DMA, looking north along Harwood Street with Ross Avenue in the foreground.}

The demolition of the existing structures began in September 1980, but in keeping with the January theme, the following image is from January 29, 1981.

_{J.W. Bateson Construction, Paula Lawrence photographer; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs}

Construction in January 1982:

^{J.W. Bateson Construction, Photos by Mel Armand Assoc; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs}

This above photo is the back of the Museum and Barrel Vault from St. Paul Street, looking southeast. The First United Methodist Church of Dallas can be seen in the background.

And circa January 1983—there weren’t process photos from January, so the interior view is from December 1982, and the aerial view is from February 1983:

_{J.W. Bateson Construction, photos by L.M. Dale; DMA Archives, New Museum Demolition and Construction Progress Photographs}

This staircase is in the center of the concourse; the first doorway on the left goes to Museum offices; the second doorway in the top center of the image leads to what is now the Arts of the Pacific on Level 3. The windows in the background are where the Hamon building now stands.

In this aerial view, the Sculpture Garden is still under construction on the left side of the image, and construction on the Reves and Decorative Arts galleries has not yet begun. And if you look really closely, you can see Woodall Rodgers Freeway in the top center, which was still a few months away from completion.

The building was completed and on January 29,1984 the new DMA opened!

_{North façade—This side was covered by the Hamon Building in 1993; but the stone-carved “Dallas Museum of Art” can still be seen on the 4th Floor, at the top of the stairs from the Concourse.}

_{Ceremonial Entrance at Harwood and Flora streets}

I am looking forward to what the coming year and the future brings for the DMA.

Hillary Bober is the Archivist at the DMA.

Eat Your Art Out: Fabulous Focaccia

Published November 10, 2021 Creativity , Dallas , DFW , DIY Tutorial , Just for Fun , works of art Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Focaccia

Hungry for some art? Get creative in your kitchen! Master the art of making beautiful focaccia bread inspired by works in our collection. We recommend Samin Nosrat’s recipe for focaccia, which you can find here. Remember to plan ahead! This bread requires up to 14 hours to proof before baking.

Tips for making your focaccia:

When activating yeast, make sure water is lukewarm (between 105°–115°F).
After adding the brine, let it soak for at least 5 minutes before adding herbs and vegetables on top of the focaccia.
When creating your design, keep in mind that most vegetables will shrink during baking.
Practice re-creating your image on a piece of wax paper first. When you are happy with your design, transfer it to the focaccia dough just before baking.

_{Miniature Painting – A White-Eared Bulbul (Pycnonotus Leucogenys) Perched on a Rock Under a Slender Tree, 1671, work on paper, The Keir Collection of Islamic Art on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art, K.1.2014.775}

Food used to re-create the artwork:

2 baby yellow sweet peppers
2 shallots
2 baby purple carrots
1 white radish
1 pink radish
Half of a red onion
Half of a yellow bell pepper
Half a cup pitted green olives
Half a cup pitted kalamata olives
Scallions
Cilantro leaves

_{Manji Inoue, Amalmon Inaiz XIII, Vase, n.d., glazed porcelain, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Edward Mattil, 2012.28}

Food used to re-create the artwork:

6 cherry tomatoes
3 baby yellow carrots
3 baby purple carrots
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 shallot
Cilantro leaves
Chives

_{Mughal, Textile Fragment, 18th century, silk and metal embroidery, The Keir Collection of Islamic Art on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art, K.1.2014.1282}

Food used to re-create the artwork:

1 beet, boiled, peeled, thinly sliced; cut with flower cookie cutter
Fresh rosemary sprigs
Crumbled blue cheese
Sunflower kernels for garnish on top of beets

_{Paul Poiret, Carpet, c. 1930, wool, Dallas Museum of Art, the Patsy Lacy Griffith Collection, bequest of Patsy Lacy Griffith, 2001.203}

Food used to re-create the artwork:

Red cherry tomatoes
Yellow cherry tomatoes
1 red onion
Minced garlic
Fresh rosemary
Optional: black olives

Highlights of “Pursuit of Beauty”

Published November 8, 2021 American Art , Collections , Curatorial , Dallas , Exhibitions , works of art Closed
Tags: Art, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

Museum exhibitions serve different purposes. Some do heavy lifting in the field of new scholarship about unknown or understudied artists or cultures. Others may capitalize on strengths in the museum’s collection and, thereby, present a richer, contextual understanding of an artistic movement. And yet others present to our visitors works by artists that address gaps in our own permanent collection—a role beautifully fulfilled by the present exhibition, Pursuit of Beauty: The May Family Collection. I would like to focus on a few works and what—besides their apparent beauty—makes them special to me.

_{William Merritt Chase, Weary, c. 1889, oil on panel, The Collection of Eleanor and C. Thomas May, Jr., 114.2019.17}

_{Gertrude Fiske, Contemplation, before 1916, oil on canvas, The Collection of Eleanor and C. Thomas May, Jr.}

Weary (1889), a small interior scene by William Merritt Chase is a quintessential example of the artist’s skills of observation that also provides us a peek into his well-appointed studio in Manhattan. Chase was not striving to make a narrative here. The subject is beauty alone—of a sitter placed within a beautiful setting full of patterns and textures. The large Japanese screen in the background, the plush velvet of the cushion beneath her feet, the sparkle of gilding on the armature of the chair, and the gleam of light on the large vase in the background at right, are all effects that lure and please the eye. A wonderful counterpoint to Chase’s creation is Contemplation (1915) by Gertrude Fiske, an artist trained in Boston. While it too presents a contemplative woman set in an interior, the artist is presenting to us a modern woman for the new age. Using complimentary colors of orange and green to frame the sitter, the crisp striped wallpaper effectively foregrounds her. Fiske further illuminates her with light flooding in from the upper left, which simultaneously bathes her face and torso in yellow that reflects off the material at the right edge.

_{Theodore Robinson, Miss Motes and Her Dog Shep in a Boat, 1893, oil on canvas, The Collection of Eleanor and C. Thomas May, Jr.}

_{John Henry Twachtman, Frozen Brook, 1893, oil on canvas, The Collection of Eleanor and C. Thomas May, Jr., 114.2019.12}

American Impressionism is underrepresented at the DMA and two works within the May Family Collection created in the exact same year offer comparison of two artists whose means (light & brushwork), achieved different ends. Theodore Robinson’s small canvas of Miss Motes and Her Dog Shep in a Boat (1893) is an oil sketch by the first and most important of the American Impressionists to paint alongside Monet at Giverny between 1886 and 1892. Robinson’s intent was to capture an individual in a fleeting moment and his quick touches of brushwork fix her at a point in time as well as evoking the optical effect of forms blurred in reflection on the dappled surface of the water. In Frozen Brook (1893), John Twachtman also endeavored to capture a particular moment, but his motivation was to capture the atmospheric and emotive effects of a winter’s day. His brushwork is more varied, complex, and labor intensive (daubed, scumbled, and dragged) to conjure the optical effect of heavy, wet snow on the cusp of spring, when all is blanketed in contemplative silence.

I do hope that you will come to the DMA to explore these five works for yourselves, along with the other twenty-three now on view.

Sue Canterbury is The Pauline Gill Sullivan Curator of American Art and Interim Allen and Kelli Questrom Curator of Works on Paper at the DMA.

The Views Are Tree-mendous

Published October 21, 2021 Collections , Dallas , DFW , works of art Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

When you visit the DMA this fall, you’ll have the opportunity to see Van Gogh and the Olive Groves, the first exhibition dedicated to Vincent van Gogh’s series of olive grove paintings!

These paintings capture the abundant olive trees around the asylum of Saint-Rémy, where Van Gogh spent the final year of his life. But he was not the only artist who took inspiration from nature. There are many depictions of trees in our collection; take some time to see how many you can find!

To help you, I’ve put together a tour of trees featuring 11 of my favorites currently on view. Starting on Level 1 in the Keir Collection of Islamic Art, look for this 17th-century dish from Iran among the many ceramics displayed in this gallery.

_{Dish, Iran, 17th century, fritware, underglaze-painted in black, blue, turquoise, and brown, with red and yellow slips, The Keir Collection of Islamic Art on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art, K.1.2014.653}

Across from the Keir Collection, step outside into the Fleischner Courtyard, named after the artist Richard Fleischner, who designed this space for the DMA’s move to this location in 1983. These are not the original trees, as the courtyard has been refurbished twice since the 1980s—in 1993 and 2009.

_{Richard Fleischner,} _{Courtyard Project for the Dallas Museum of Art, 1981–83; reconfigured by the artist for the Hamon addition, 1993; refurbished 2009, limestone, marble, wood, and plantings, Dallas Museum of Art, commissioned to honor Minnie and Albert Susman on the occasion of their 50th anniversary by their children Robert F. and Anna Marie Susman Shapiro, 1983.14, © Dallas Museum of Art,}

Next, head to Level 2 and our European Art Galleries to find the grove of oak trees in the Forest of Fontainebleau by Narcisse Diaz de la Peña. The artist was part of the Barbizon School of French painters, whose goal was to rediscover the magic of untouched nature.

_{Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, Forest of Fontainebleau, 1868, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Munger Fund, 1991.14.M}

Leaving the dark forest behind, take in the bright colors of Claude Monet’s poplar trees. Poplars, Pink Effect belongs to a series of 24 paintings; like Van Gogh, Monet often revisited the same subject multiple times to capture varying light and weather conditions.

_{Claude Monet, Poplars, Pink Effect, 1891, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., bequest of Mrs. Eugene McDermott, 2019.67.14.McD}

Before leaving Level 2, look for an apple tree painted by Piet Mondrian. Through his use of line and color, Mondrian conveyed nature’s dynamic energy.

_{Piet Mondrian, Apple Tree, Pointillist Version, 1908–09, oil on composition board, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the James H. and Lillian Clark Foundation, 1982.26.FA}

Did you know Winston Churchill was also an artist? If you visit the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection on Level 3, you will find several paintings by Churchill, including Sea and Pine Trees, Cap d’Ail.

_{Winston Churchill, Sea and Pine Trees, Cap d’Ail, about 1955, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, 1985.R.14, © The Churchill Heritage Limited}

As you continue exploring Level 3, take a moment to stop and appreciate the standing male figure from Vanuatu. While not a literal depiction of a tree, it was carved from the lower part of a tree-fern stem and stands over 11 feet tall!

_{Standing male figure, Vanuatu, Ambrym Island, about 1930–50, tree fern and pigment, Dallas Museum of Art, anonymous gift, 1996.33}

Now make your way to the Arts of Africa Galleries and look for the linguist staff (okyeame poma) from the Asante peoples of Ghana. The finial on this staff refers to an Asante proverb that states, “One who climbs a good tree always gets a push.”

_{Linguist staff (okyeame poma), Ghana, Asante peoples, 1900–50, wood and gold leaf, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 2010.1.McD}

Head to Level 4 and find Veteran, a painting by Everett Spruce (bonus tree points!). The tree in this painting shows us the often uncompromising and inhospitable forces that shape the Texas landscape.

_{Everett Spruce, Veteran, 1932, oil on Masonite, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Maggie Joe and Alexandre Hogue, 1986.232, © V. Alice Spruce Meriwether}

Around the corner from Veteran, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Bare Tree Trunks with Snow gives us a more minimalist and abstract version of trees. O’Keeffe would often simplify what she saw in nature, using descriptive titles to clarify things for the viewer.

_{Georgia O’Keeffe, Bare Tree Trunks with Snow, 1946, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase, 1953.1}, _{© The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York}

The final tree on this walk through the woods is in the free special exhibition Devoted: Art and Spirituality in Mexico and New Mexico. George López’s sculpture Adam and Eve and the Tree of Life shows the moment when Eve offers Adam an apple from the tree of knowledge—and it is made of wood from three different trees: cottonwood, pine, and cedar!

_{George López, Adam and Eve and the Tree of Life, 1956, cottonwood, pine, and cedar, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase, 1956.100.1}

Stacey Lizotte is the DMA League Director of Adult Programs at the DMA.

A Change of Scenery for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Sam F”

Published October 11, 2021 Contemporary Art , Curatorial , works of art Closed
Tags: Basquiat, Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Jean-Michel Basquiat

_{Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sam F, 1985, oil on door, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Samuel N. and Helga A. Feldman, 2019.31, © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York}

In 2017 we began conversations with Helga Feldman about a landmark gift to the institution of a work by the incomparably important US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The portrait, Sam F, painted right here in Dallas, is of Feldman’s late husband, who wanted the work to be given to his city’s museum to be enjoyed by the public. As was the wish of the Feldmans, the work entered the collection at the time of Mrs. Feldman’s death in spring 2021. Basquiat’s significance to the recent history of art is almost unparalleled, and when we received the painting, we got to work making immediate plans to get it on view. With this in mind, we adapted to certain considerations of time and space in order to share the work with our audiences without delay. Therefore, we decided to show it in our Concourse, which is the most public of the Museum spaces, and is traversed by all visitors to the DMA. We have often shown works in that space that we want to honor—the Basquiat hangs where the honored artist of our major annual fundraiser, TWO X TWO for AIDS and Art, is typically found. However, because of the very public nature of this space, our duties to care for the collection mandate that the work must be hung above visitor touch distance—an average viewer’s arm span—to keep the work safe. When Sam F went on view, we received the feedback that seeing the painting from this height was far from ideal. This work clearly struck a chord with viewers—for Basquiat was one of the most innovative figures in 20th-century art history. Moreover, as an artist of Puerto Rican and Haitian descent, his presence in the Museum’s collection signals the crucial contributions of Black and Latinx artists to the art historical canon, and the work contains a wealth of references to Afro-diasporic culture that are illuminated in the accompanying interpretive panel.

_{Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Sam F on view across from Pablo Picasso’s The Guitarist on Level 2}

We heard this feedback, and we agree—it’s time to move the Basquiat so that the conditions of display can better facilitate the close looking the work merits. As of today, the work will be on view on Level 2, at the threshold between the European and contemporary galleries. The work’s neighbors include paintings by Pablo Picasso and sculptures by Henry Moore, Jacques Lipchitz, and Aristide Maillol. It also abuts our collection of classical art, providing a compelling survey of how artists have treated the human form over thousands of years. Basquiat’s portrait of Sam, who used a wheelchair, rejects the idealism first introduced in the classical period and depicts subjects that are typically excluded as subjects of the fine arts. His signature formal style combines expressive mark making taken from both his past as a graffiti artist and the Neo-Expressionism movement that dominated art in New York in the 1980s, while also pointing to a groundbreaking synthesis and reconfiguration of the art historical language that now surrounds it. We invite you to come and see the work, and to let us know what you think.

Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck is the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA.

Behind the Scenes: Bosco Sodi

Published September 1, 2021 Behind-the-Scenes , Contemporary Art , Creativity , How It's Made , works of art Closed
Tags: Bosco Sodi, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

Opening September 14, 2021, Bosco Sodi: La fuerza del destino will feature approximately 30 outdoor sculptures by the artist in the DMA’s Sculpture Garden. Created from clay sourced at Sodi’s studio in Oaxaca, dried in the sun, and fired in a traditional brick kiln, the resulting surfaces bear the beautiful scars of their process. Take a behind-the-scenes look at the artist creating his work.

Preparing the clay to sculpt:

Creating the clay spheres:

Drying the clay spheres:

Courtesy: Studio Bosco Sodi, Photographer Sergio Lopez.

Mirror Mirror

Published July 27, 2021 Contemporary Art , Exhibitions , works of art Closed
Tags: Chris Schanck, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schanck has given visitors the opportunity to step between the past and the present and see themselves caught in the middle. The free exhibition features two ornate dressing tables facing each other—one an extravagant example of Gilded Age silversmithing and the other a contemporary interpretation by artist Chris Schanck. The vanities are presented together in a conversation from the 19th century to today about craftsmanship, material, and how humans see and perceive themselves.

The exhibition is the perfect spot to stop, reflect, and snap a selfie—something many of you have done over the past five months that these works have been on view. As the show nears its closing date on August 29, we’re looking back on some highlighted “silver selfies” that have been shared on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRU58FgLkS0/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRjnDA3sw0B/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRXPVZ4soA6/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQREMVjLJis/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQhAhS-HbMd/

Hayley Caldwell is the Social Media and Content Manager at the DMA.

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Dallas Museum of Art Uncrated

Posts Tagged 'Dallas Museum of Art'

Q&A with Yonavea Hawkins, Caddo Beadwork Artist

The Women of the Museum School

Connections Across Collections: Love is in the Art

DMA by Design

Eat Your Art Out: Fabulous Focaccia

Highlights of “Pursuit of Beauty”

The Views Are Tree-mendous

A Change of Scenery for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Sam F”

Behind the Scenes: Bosco Sodi

Mirror Mirror

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