This fall, The Grace Museum is pleased to present three art exhibitions featuring important Texas artists of the past and present. Sculpture, painting and photography will be on view in the galleries which will explore a rich diversity of style and media across time. Viewing art that is historic or fresh from the studio demonstrates the ongoing tradition of excellence in the visual arts in the state.
Texas Impressionism: Branding with Brushstroke and Color, 1885-1935 features over 100 paintings from private and public collections curated by leading art historian and authority on Texas art, Michael Grauer, curator at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas. This landmark exhibition will demonstrate how Texas artists contributed to and participated in the international style of Impressionism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The juxtaposition of Texas Impressionism within the context of the enduring popularity of French and American Impressionism will create an informative dialogue and enlightening presentation for all gallery guests. Artwork by major artists including Julian & Robert Onderdonk, Jose Arpa, Edward G. Eisenlohr, and Seymour Thomas, and many others will be included in the exhibition.
Two of the states most important practicing artists join forces in Wild Things: Sculpture by David Everett and Paintings by Billy Hassell to explore their signature subjects in very diverse media. Austin sculptor David Everett’s brightly painted wood sculptures and Fort Worth painter Billy Hassell create dynamic and energetic interpretations of animals in their natural habitats. David Everett grew up in the Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas. The forest and coastal environment was where he was inspired by the ancient pine and hardwood forest to work with wood. The swamp and coastal sea life that he features in his sculptures of allegorical figures in the form of totems show a rather poetic take on a natural order. Billy Hassell is also inspired by nature. Hassell’s large-scale paintings combine elements of abstraction and representation with a dramatic use of color and a whimsical use of pictorial space that often suggests an underlying narrative.
Quiet Beauty: Photography by David H. Gibson is an exclusive exhibition featuring 20 photographs by acclaimed Dallas photographer David H. Gibson. Gibson remains committed to Ansel Adams’ mid-century vision of moral uplift found within the poetic beauty of often uninhabited, light-struck spaces. His remarkable talent at translating the world’s natural beauty into elegant, finely printed photographs helps remind us of moments we have experienced in nature that were impossible to hold in the minds eye. The photographs selected for this exhibition emphasize the ethereal beauty of the natural world. Sylvan glades laden with light and mist are difficult subjects to photograph. Gibson ‘s mastery of capturing on film the basic elements of light, water, mist, smoke and fire are combined to create mysterious and memorable landscape photographs.
By: Judy Tedford Deaton, Chef Curator
Leave a Reply