NOW OPEN: The FABULOUS Fifties

Houston Art at the Dawn of the SPACE AGE, 1945-1961

The show is now open! (See below for opening days/times.)

We are lucky once again to be able to mount the show in the splendid gallery in the historic Julia Ideson Building of Houston Public Library Downtown, where we have installed a series of exhibitions over the last 12 years that have focused on the earlier history of art made in HOUSTON by HOUSTON artists, spanning the decades from 1890 to 1960.

This capstone exhibition in the series includes 150 paintings, sculptures and objects made in Houston by Houston artists. The spark for the show grew from an intriguing observation made by Houston astronaut/artist, Alan Bean (1932-2018), the first artist to walk on the moon, when he saw an early watercolor by Emma Richardson Cherry (1859-1954), founder of the modern Houston art culture. (To learn more about that, you’ll have to come to the exhibition, and read the catalog, which will be available soon!)

Between the end of World War II and the decision in 1961 to locate the headquarters of NASA here, Houston transformed from Magnolia City into Space City. The population more than doubled, the economic and social realms altered radically and the city moved from regional hub to international metropolis. The influx of new people, new fortunes and new influences had their impact on all aspects of the city including the arts.

A gathering of paintings by Nione Carlson.

Houston’s population grew by more than 150% from 1940-1960.

Houston in 1950 and 1960.

Paintings by Lowell Daunt Collins, Herb Mears, Henri Gadbois, Leila McConnell, and Bill Condon.

The chemical and oil/gas industries grew exponentially.

Paintings by Margaret Webb Dreyer, Chester Snowden, Buck Schewitz, Don Edelman and others.

Houston transformed from a regional to an international city.

Ceramics by Ruth Laird, carvings by Lowell Daunt Collins, painting by Leila McConnell.

The arts, building on the foundation of pre-WWII, exploded with activity, based on new participants coming in and ever-increasing exposure to the national and international art worlds.

Paintings by Dorothy Hood, Dick Wray, Leila McConnell and Henri Gadbois.

Racial integration came to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and some other Houston organizations.

Jack Boynton (l) and John Biggers (r) had a joint exhibition at MFAH in 1954.

The Ludwig Mies van der Rohe addition to MFAH opened, expanding exhibition space and a new modern spirit for the museum and the city.

Cullinan Hall, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1958, designed by modernist architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Federation of the Arts national convention took place in Houston in April 1957, at which Marcel Duchamp delivered his now famous lecture “The Creative Act.”

Lowell Daunt Collins, Marcel Duchamp and Paul Maxwell at the Federation of the Arts Conference in Houston, 1957 (l); and a mixed-media work by Maxwell 1956 (r).

In 1959, Houston gallerist Meredith Long took Texas artists (Jack Boynton, Paul Maxwell, Dan Wingren) all the way to Paris in an exhibition at Galerie du Colisée, when, according to Long, a cowboy rode the streets of Paris on opening night. (Note: The cowboy pictured here is not that cowboy, whose photo is still being sought, but he might have looked somewhat the same - and the painting did hang on the gallery walls that night.)

Paintings by Jack Boynton, Paul Maxwell and Dan Wingren. Some of these were in the Paris show.

Not a photo of that cowboy - but maybe he looked something like this.

Who is in the show: Artists who had gallery shows here or appeared in Houston Annual Exhibitions from 1945 to 1961 – including John Biggers, David Adickes, Herb Mears, Henri Gadbois, Leila McConnell, Pat Colville, Dick Wray, Jack Boynton, Richard Stout, Gene Charlton, Mildred Wood Dixon, Stella Sullivan, Ruth Laird, Frank Dolejska, Chester Snowden, Erik Sprohge, Paul Maxwell, Frances Skinner, Nione Carlson, Robert Preusser, Frank Freed and more.

And pieces from the local artist-driven crafts cooperative, Handmakers, founded in 1957, which grew and thrived during the period, as well as examples from others making 3D works.

Ceramics by Ruth Laird, painting by Frank Dolejska, both participants in Handmakers.

Paintings by Robert Preusser, Lowell Daunt Collins, Paul Maxwell, Gertrude Levy Barnstone, and Gene Charlton.

Check the Houston Public Library website to be sure the Julia Ideson Building will be open the day you want to visit. Paid parking is available under the Central (Main) Library building, entrance off Lamar.

Ceramics by Ruth Laird, sculpture by Lowell Daunt Collins, painting by Gene Charlton.