Month: November 2021

Victory in Jesus truck
Cullman County AL, 2019.

It was great to get to do my usual annual visit to the Rothko Chapel, the Menil, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts this year.

This was my first time in since the Rothko Chapel underwent a renovation and reopened late last year. This video explains some of the changes:

No photography inside, but completely appreciated — a terrific experience to just be absorbed by the large-scale works.

At the Menil:

Photography is only allowed in the hallway and not in exhibit areas. I did get to see the Cy Twombly Gallery in another building, which was great to be able to take in how his work transitioned over the years. Also, right now, interior designers seem especially taken with…let’s say very-very-very Twombly-inspired works…so in my mind, comparing those with the genuine articles was particularly interesting. From the Menil’s site:

The works on view in the Cy Twombly Gallery, dating from 1953 to 2004, comprise a veritable retrospective of the artist’s career, including a number of large canvases, sculptural works, and suites of paintings and drawings. Among the works on display are five paintings from 1959, featuring subtle graphic notations on white grounds; the vividly colored Bay of Naples and Triumph of Galatea, both from 1961; three of the so-called “Blackboard” paintings of the late 1960s; five paintings dedicated to German Romantic poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1985; and the untitled “Green Paintings” that Twombly showed at the 1988 Venice Biennale. An entire room is given over to the artist’s monumental Untitled (Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor), 1994. 

At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, a fabulous visit. Some highlights:

Pablo Picasso, Portrait Bust of a Woman

Thornton Dial, Roosevelt: A Handicapped Man Got The Cities to Move

William Edmondson, Eagle, 1935

Carmela Gross, A Negra (The Black Woman)

Thomas Demand’s Cardboard Recreation, Control Room

John McQueen, Untitled #125

Jasper Johns, Cicada

Mary A. Jackson, Low Basket with Handle

Jaydan Moore, Platter #4

Settee from Hard Times Plantation, Vicksburg

El Anatsui, Aso Oke

Niki de Saint Phalle, Gorgo in New York

And here, Gyula Kosice, The Hydrospatial City:

Couple of quick things: Texas Monthly declared the MFAH’s restaurant, Le Jardinier, as the best museum restaurant in the state. It was terrific to see the museum’s new Kinder Building. Lots about it here.

…and more in the kitchen.

This year (in Bubba’s voice): you got yer pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate swirl, your sweet potato, your pecan, your chocolate pecan, chocolate brownie pie…

Those two pumpkin pies above — one in the middle and one lower-left — with the chocolate swirl were interesting and good, but not so much so I’ll do those again.

48 pies to shelters, three pies for the family. Happy Thanksgiving! xoxo!

Daufuski Fancy Whole Boiled Oysters
S&S Foods
Holly Pond AL, 2018.

Cornersville TN, 2019.

Yesterday’s post on the Detroit Institute of Arts included several van Gogh works, and we wound up attending the preview last night for Beyond van Gogh: The Immersive Experience last night at Birmingham’s BJCC.

I walked in with no expectations of what the exhibit would be like — Omega Mart but trippy sunflowers and starry, starry nights?  Candytopia-ish so works in lots of unexpected media (our visit to the Atlanta Candytopia here) and spaces built for selfies?

It was more along the lines of the new projector-based show written about at  Artnews yesterday — the Mexican Geniuses: A Frida & Diego Immersive Experience that’s opening in London and DC next year.

First, there’s a walk-through timeline of several screens to set things up

the set-up

and the finale room, where there’s a :45 show of works looping, changing, morphing — this is where you want to stay

I’m smiling under this mask, but this is also a chance to say I felt “safe” the whole time — everyone was masked and plenty of room all around

Tickets here.

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Completely different, but I got a media invitation back in September to Downtown Abbey: The Exhibition in Atlanta and didn’t get a chance to go, but it’s completely open now and looks terrific.