Current Exhibitions
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...
Forrest Bess, Untitled, 1947, The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of the artist. Photo: Paul Hester
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Byzantine Things in the World
May 3 – August 18, 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: Crosses, Byzantine. Bronze and soapstone, heights 1–4 inches (2.5–10.2 cm). The Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Paul Hester
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