Dish-Houston

What Enhance your experience of Koloman Moser: Designing Modern Vienna, 1897–1907 by slipping into Café Vienna to enjoy Austrian music, bites, coffee and wine in a café environment specially designed by Punita Valambhia Interiors in collaboration with Decorative Center Houston.

After refreshments, curators Cindi Strauss and Marissa Hershon discuss Koloman Moser’s work and invite guests on an exclusive tour of the exhibition. These special viewings take place on select Mondays, when the Museum is closed to the public.

Koloman Moser: Designing Modern Vienna, 1897–1907 is the first museum retrospective in the United States to focus on Viennese artist and designer Koloman Moser (1868–1918), a leading figure in the modern design revolution that swept Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. The exhibition surveys his career in 200 objects including furniture, jewelry, textiles, prints and designs for architectural interiors.

When: Mondays, October 28, November 4 and November 11

Seatings at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Where:  Lower Level, Audrey Jones Beck Building

5601 Main Street

Houston, Texas 77005

Details: Admission is $55 for MFAH Members and $65 for nonmembers. Find more information and purchase tickets online at www.mfah.org/cafevienna.  

Photo Credit Marianne Rafter

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, an internationally known authority on human sociology and sexuality and author of the book The Art of Arousal: A Celebration of Erotic Art throughout History, will be in conversation with MFAH director Gary Tinterow on the evening of Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 6:30 with a reception will follow the conversation. This discussion marks the second in the series Conversations with the Director, a new public program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, that brings an eclectic mix of cultural figures to the Museum’s Brown Auditorium three times a year. 

Tickets for the Conversations with the Director series are $15 for students, $25 for MFAH members and $35 for the general public. Tickets for the June 4 event with Dr. Ruth Westheimer are available online www.mfah.org by phone at 713.639.7771; or at any MFAH admissions desk.

On April 23, the Conversations with the Director series launched with a conversation between MFAH director Gary Tinterow and artist Jeff Koons. Additional guests for the series will be announced later in the year. The series is presented by Louis Vuitton. 

This series is presented by Louis Vuitton. A symbol of elegance and style throughout the world, Louis Vuitton has cultivated a close relationship with the world of art since its founding in 1854. Consistent with the creativity and craftsmanship that have inspired the brand, Louis Vuitton is dedicated to sharing its creative passion in each community it serves.

No doubt you've heard of the Turrell Skyspace on the Rice University Campus. It has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of Houstonians at dawn and sunset showing us a new way to watch the sun's transformation. 

James Turrell Skyspace, Rice University Campus

There is a new instilation coming from this amazing light master to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition is called James Turrell: The Light Inside.

James Turrell: The Light Inside explores the remarkable career of James Turrell (b. 1943), a pioneer in the Light and Space movement that transformed the landscape of American Art.  Open to the public June 9 through September 22, 2013, this monumental presentation fills the Museum’s 22,000-square-foot Brown Pavilion and features seven of Turrell's immersive light environments, ranging from his first projections of the late 1960s to his most recent Tall Glass series of 2010–13. Also on view are three major print portfolios and documentation of the evolution of Roden Crater, Turrell's life work in the Arizona desert. Drawn from the Museum's unparalleled collection, the exhibition takes its title from The Light Inside, commissioned by the Museum in 1999 as a permanent installation for The Wilson Tunnel. James Turrell: The Light Inside is part of a nationwide celebration of Turrell’s work and was conceived in conjunction with simultaneous exhibitions mounted over the summer of 2013 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

James Turrell, End Around: Ganzfeld, 2006, neon and fluorescent light, (2007 installation at Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA. © James Turrell / Photography © Florian Holzherr

This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.

The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Isabel B. Wilson, Chairman Emeritus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Opening November 11, 2012 and on view through February 10, 2013 is the Ewan Gibbs: Arlington National Cemetery at the Lower Brown Corridor, Caroline Wiess Law Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

This exhibition of drawings and photographs opens on Veterans Day and recognizes the impact of a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. British artist Ewan Gibbs (born 1973) trained his expert eye on the iconic site to create a series of 16 drawings based on photographs taken during previous visits. The exhibition also presents 36 photographs from the MFAH collection by artists who served as inspiration to Gibbs.

On display together, the drawings and photographs underscore Gibbs’s interest in visual perception, specifically the role the human eye plays in viewing and processing visual material.

This exhibition was conceptualized by the late MFAH curator Barry Walker. The exhibition is organized by Yasufumi Nakamori, MFAH -associate curator for photography; and Rebecca Dunham, MFAH curatorial assistant for prints and drawings.

Generous funding for this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue is provided by the following donors in memory of Barry Walker: John Blackmon and John Roberson; Jeanne and Michael Klein; Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee; Scurlock Foundation; Lynn Goode and Harrison Williams; Lea Weingarten; and Kelty and Rogers Crain.

Additional support is provided by Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman and Tassy and Mitch Beasley.

BY DISH CONSTIBUTOR MONIQUE WESTON:

Willem van Aelst (1627–1683) painted still lifes that are remarkable for their fine finish, carefully balanced composition, elegant subject matter, and rich, jewel-toned palette. He played an important role in the trending of Dutch painting at the time toward greater elegance and refinement.

The exhibition is co-curated by James Clifton, Director of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation and Curator of Renaissance and Baroque Painting at the MFAH, and Arthur Wheelock, Curator of Northern Baroque Painting at the National Gallery of Art. The project was conceived by Tanya Paul, Ruth G. Hardman Curator of European Art at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, following her Ph.D. dissertation on Van Aelst. The project developed while Ms. Paul was a curatorial fellow at the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation in Houston.