Posts
“Inside the MFAH” provides perspectives, conversations, and opinions from insiders at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Make Your Own Paintings Inspired by “Three Centuries of American Art” July 15, 2021
These at-home art activities spotlight paintings in the exhibition Three Centuries of American Art.
A (Virtual) Stroll through Bayou Bend April 11, 2020
Get the inside scoop on the mobile tour of Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens.
Arte Concreta at the MFAH February 1, 2016
On December 4, 1956, the Museu de Arte Moderna (Museum of Modern Art) in São Paulo, Brazil, inaugurated the Ia Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta (First National Exhibition of Concrete Art), an event that brought together poets and visual artists from the country’s two main cultural centers: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition later traveled to the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio …
What is Abstract Expressionism? September 30, 2015
“Abstract Expressionism” refers to the art movement that flourished in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. Its leading figures included Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. Few artists in this loosely affiliated circle of painters, however, considered themselves “Abstract Expressionists,” “Action Painters,” or a “New York School”—terms …
Operating on Art: Treating Walker Evans’s “Banda Headdress” August 1, 2014
Like medical students completing their residencies in a hospital, graduate conservation students gain practical experience during their final year.
Endangered Animal? Assessing the Light Sensitivity of Walton Ford’s “Oso Dorado” July 2, 2014
Each year the Museum adds masterpieces to the collection through “One Great Night in November,” one of this institution’s largest fundraisers in support of art acquisitions. In 2013, the event acquired Oso Dorado, a monumental watercolor by American artist Walton Ford. Painted only a few months before “One Great Night in November,” the five-foot-wide work of art was in pristine condition, with all …
Diving into “Watson and the Shark” November 14, 2013
One of the centerpieces of American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World is Watson and the Shark, the sensational painting that earned artist John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) election to the Royal Academy of Art in London.Just a few insights into this monumental work:Watson led quite a life, including a stint as the “peg-legged mayor of London.”This painting depicts a …
An Incident in Bell Park August 29, 2013
On his way to work, MFAH photographer Will Michels noticed that a bronze sculpture depicting Christopher Columbus had been tagged in several places with silver paint. The sculpture, which stands in Bell Park in the Museum District, was paid for by Houston’s Italian-American community. Columbus points to the Italian Cultural and Community Center on Milford Street.
The graffiti appeared in …
Saving Art in the Wake of Hurricane Sandy December 12, 2012
Hurricane Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast just before Halloween, affecting artists and arts organizations in unprecedented ways. Steve Pine, from the MFAH Conservation Department, volunteered to go to New York City to assist with recovery efforts. He shares his insights.After Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New York and New Jersey, significant flooding of low-lying areas resulted in a …
The Characters of Kenwood: Kitty Fisher August 30, 2012
During the run of the exhibition Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London, we have filled you in on the lives of the characters that add to the colorful history of the Kenwoodestate. Quite a few of these 18th-century beauties—including actresses, courtesans, and other celebrities—would have recognized (and in some cases snubbed) each other had they entered the …