Looking South: Collecting the Arts of Mexico September 1, 2022–February 26, 2023
William Spratling, Pair of Pricket Candlesticks, 1950–67, rosewood and silver, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Rienzi Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harris Masterson III.
The Mexican Room at Rienzi
Rienzi, the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts, presents special exhibitions twice a year. Exhibitions are included with general admission.
Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III, Rienzi’s founders, had a lifelong love of Mexico. Their affinity for the country was part of a larger American fascination with Mexico between the 1910s and 1940s.
Harris attended high school in Mexico City in the late 1920s. Carroll lived in Mexico in the 1940s with her children, Bert and Isla, and second husband, John Cowan.
Looking South: Collecting the Arts of Mexico reflects the Mastersons’ captivation with Mexico, seen in their collection of objects and ephemera from the 18th to the mid-20th century and in Rienzi’s Mexican Room, which they added in the 1970s. This wealth of Mexican material provides a fascinating lens through which to view 20th-century collectors and collecting.
Looking South: Collecting the Arts of Mexico / September 1, 2022–February 26, 2023
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.