The Mandell Drawing Institute

Of Earlier Houston Art

Sep 25, 2024

Last Thursday I was invited to join walk-throughs of new installations of Drawings and Prints at both the Menil Drawing Institute (MDI) and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). With the curators leading the way, I saw many beautiful and inspiring works. I encourage you to go visit the shows at both museums if you can. You won’t regret it. At the Menil, Fragments of Memory and Out of Thin Air: Emerging Forms. And at MFAH, Object Lessons: Contemporary Still Life and “Vital and Abundant Talent”: 20th-Century Abstract Women Artists in the Prints and Drawings Gallery of the Kinder Building.

Seeing so many fabulous drawings, including many by Houston artists at both museums, inspired me to go straight home and found the MANDELL DRAWING INSTITUTE OF EARLIER HOUSTON ART (MDI-EHA). (Some of you will know that the Menil DI itself is just off Mandell Street – get the pun?; and EHA is pronounced like YeeHaw! to show proper exuberance for this new venture.)

MDI-EHA is a collection that has existed for quite a while already, but in a larger context that didn’t let it sing its own song – as often seems the case with prints and drawings in larger collections, unfortunately (blast those prima donna oil paintings) - even in a way at MFAH and Menil. But once allowed to take center stage, prints and drawings can often sing beautifully indeed.

So here it is – the first official exhibition of works from the

MANDELL DRAWING INSTITUTE

OF EARLIER HOUSTON ART

I thought of titling the exhibition SING A SONG OF SIXPRINTS, to continue the rye punny business (I see your eyes rolling!) – but there are more than six. And they are much more than nursery rhyme ditties.

Emma Richardson Cherry, 1859-1954 - always the beginning figure with Houston Art.