Upcoming Exhibitions
Untitled (Structures): Leslie Hewitt in collaboration with Bradford Young
January 26 – May 5, 2013
This exhibition represents the premiere of Untitled (Structures), 2012. A dual-projection film installation by New York-based artist Leslie Hewitt in collaboration with independent filmmaker and experimental cinematographer Bradford Young, The work was co-commissioned by the Des Moines Art Center, the Menil Collection, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. It was initiated in response to the Menil’s extensive holdings of Civil Rights-era photography. Given to the museum by Adelaide de Menil and Edmund Carpenter, the collection consists of photographs by Bob Adelman, Leonard Freed, Bruce Davidson, Danny Lyon, Dan Budnick, and Elliott Erwitt.
Leslie Hewitt in collaboration with Bradford Young, Untitled (Structures), 2012. Poster. Courtesy of the artists and BURO-GDS.
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Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible
April 19 – August 18, 2013
Self-described “visionary” artist Forrest Bess (1911–77) is a unique figure in the history of American art. For most of his career, Bess lived an isolated existence in a fishing camp outside of Bay City, Texas, eking out a meager living by selling bait and fishing. By night and during the off-season, however, he read, wrote, and painted prolifically, creating an extraordinary body of mostly small-scale canvases rich with enigmatic symbolism...
Caption: Forrest Bess, View of Maya, 1951. Oil on canvas. The Menil Collection, Houston, bequest of Jermayne MacAgy. Photo: Paul Hester
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Byzantine Things in the World
May 3, 2013–August 11, 2013
Focusing on Christian works from the fourth to fifteenth centuries, Byzantine Things in the World presents a new way of looking at Byzantine art. Contrary to the contemporary conception, in which works of art are considered inert and passive, Byzantine thinkers saw objects as dynamic and changeable, fully capable of affecting the world. This exhibition proposes that Byzantine objects are best understood as being “alive,” possessing the agency to work, act, and transform.
Caption: Saint John the Baptist, Byzantium, by a painter trained in Constantinople, Early to mid 15th century. Tempera and gold leaf on wood. The Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: A.C. Cooper, London
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Late Surrealism
May 24 – August 25, 2013
Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement that began in the early twentieth century. Centered in Paris and interested in imaginary images, juxtaposition, chance, and the expression of the subconscious, it can be characterized as a retreat from the rational and an inquiry into the mysterious depths of the psyche.
Caption: Joan Miro, "Oeuf (galant ovale)," 1943 ca. © 2013 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris The Menil Collection, Houston, bequest of Marcia Simon Weisman. Photo: Hickey-Robertson, Houston
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Wols
September 13, 2013 – January 12, 2014
A draftsman, painter, and photographer, Wols (1913–1951) was one of the most ingenious and influential—if commercially unsuccessful—artists to emerge in postwar Europe. Along with Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, and Georges Mathieu, Wols was a leading figure in Tachisme, a movement in painting considered to be the European equivalent of American Abstract Expressionism. Named for the French word tache, meaning stain, Tachisme—an outgrowth of the larger Art Informel, or “art without form” movement—cultivated an automist style emphasizing free lines and forms drawn from the artist’s psyche.
Caption: Wolfgang Schulze Wols, Fish, 1949 © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. The Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Paul Hester
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