Museum of Fine Arts
Museum of Fine Arts
1001 Bissonnet
Houston, TX 77005
PHONE: 713.639.7300
www.mfah.org
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is a dynamic cultural complex consisting of two museum buildings, two art schools, two decorative arts centers, and a sculpture garden.
- January 2012 Events at MFAH (.pdf)
With its encyclopedic collection and an exciting schedule of international loan exhibitions and award-winning programs, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is one of the premier destinations in the United States for art lovers.
Museum of Fine Arts Exhibitions
The Spirit of Modernism: The John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Gift to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Aug. 20, 2011 to Jan. 29, 2012)
The Spirit of Modernism pays tribute to the entrepreneurial spirit of businessman and art collector John R. Eckel, Jr. The friendship between John Eckel and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lasted only five years before his untimely death in 2009. His art collection, now known as the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Gift, lives on at the MFAH as an enduring legacy comprising 75 examples of Modernist American painting and sculpture, photography, and contemporary arts and design.
Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs (Oct. 16, 2011 to Apr. 15, 2012)
While about half of the more than 100 artifacts in Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, come from the boy king's tomb, the exhibit includes objects associated with 30 Egyptian dynasties spanning 2,000 years.
New Formations: Czech Avant-Garde Art and Modern Glass from the Roy and Mary Cullen Collection (Nov. 6, 2011 to Feb. 5, 2012)
Among the objects on view are outstanding examples from the flowering of Czech Surrealism; rare artists' books and avant-garde periodicals; and exquisitely molded and blown modern glass. Highlights include artworks by Surrealist pioneer and radical feminist Toyen; drawings by Josef Šíma; collages and photomontages by Karel Teige; and paintings, drawings, and photographs by Jindrich Štyrský. The title New Formations is taken from the Artificielismus (Artificialism) manifesto, published in the late 1920s by Štyrský and Toyen.
Highlights of the Peter Blum Edition Archive (Dec. 23, 2011 to Feb. 20, 2012)
A landmark MFAH acquisition, is the inspiration for this exhibition. The 1996 acquisition was spearheaded by MFAH curator Barry Walker, who retired in August 2011. Walker oversaw the museum’s purchase of all the prints and books that Blum—a print publisher who collaborated with leading contemporary European and American artists—had released from 1981 through 1994. The collection contains 44 finished projects by 23 artists, and Blum enriched it by donating all the related preparatory materials, providing a complete record of many of the projects.
Visions of Saints (Dec. 23, 2011 to Mar. 18, 2012)
This in-focus selection of nine prints and drawings highlights images of saints from the late 16th through 18th centuries and celebrates the museum’s recent acquisition of Guido Reni’s beautiful chalk drawing The Head of a Young Woman Looking Upward. Jusepe de Ribera and Sir Peter Paul Rubens are among the other artists represented.
Snail Mail (Feb. 1 to May 6, 2012)
A focused installation of photo correspondence from the MFAH collection, features objects that were, until recently, a common phenomenon in the photographic community. Before widespread use of e-mail, photographers would write letters on the backs of misprints or even fine-art quality objects. The MFAH photography collection contains more than 1,500 such objects that have been mailed to museum staff throughout the years as correspondence from photographers around the world.
Eye on Third Ward 2012: Jack Yates High School Photography (Feb. 5 to May 28, 2012)
Showcases photographs by students in the Magnet School of Communications at Jack Yates High School. Since 1995, photography classes at Yates have focused on Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood, and select images are presented in the annual Eye on Third Ward exhibitions at the MFAH.
Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London (Jun. 3 to Sep. 3, 2012)
Showcases 48 masterpieces from the collection known as the Iveagh Bequest. These magnificent paintings reside at Kenwood House, a neoclassical villa in London, and they make their U.S. debut at the MFAH.
View City of Houston Events Venues in Museum District in a larger map
(PINK) Contemporary Arts Museum, (BLUE) Museum of Fine Arts,
(BLACK) Museum of Natual Science, (GREEN) Health Museum,
(RED) Miller Outdoor Theatre, (ORANGE) Houston Zoo