DressDiversions

  • Art School: Final Classes

    August already? What happened? At the end of the spring class, I poured all my energy into preparing the paper required for course credit; one thing led to another, and now the summer is almost over! So…this is a look back, several months later, at the last few weeks of my class.

    Image by geralt from Pixabay

    “Learn to speak about your work.”

    White, Kit. 101 Things to Learn in Art School. Paperback edition, MIT Press, 2024.

    Over the remaining five weeks of class, our lectures focused on the following topics:

    • Forms of media such as photographs, prints, and drawings
    • Art movements from the School of Paris and Surrealism through Postmodernism
    • Art from Latin American and LatinX art
    • In-situ (site-specific) commissions and installations for MFAH

    We covered a lot of material related to the museum’s holdings, but one of my favorites was Mrs. Cameron’s Photographs from the Life, 1864-1869. The creator, Julia Margaret Cameron, received a camera from her daughter and son-in-law in 1863 when she was 48 years old. As a token of her appreciation, she presented the couple with The Norman Album about six years later.

    Source: Michael Pritchard. “Export Licence Deferred on Cameron’s Norman Album.” British Photographic History, 6 Feb. 2018.

    Cameron captured poignant images of well-known figures, including Charles Darwin and Alfred Lord Tennyson; stunning photos of women; and depictions of dramatic historical scenes.1 Acquired by the MFAH in 2021, her work of albumen silver prints from glass negatives is accessible online: https://jmc.mfah.yourcultureconnect.com/e/julia-margaret-cameron-album

    The Final Paper: Quarantania I

    I decided to write my paper about the sculpture Quarantania I created by Louise Bourgeois. While not required, students typically present their papers on the last day of class. Since I would be traveling that day, I was caught off guard when the instructor asked me to speak at the beginning of class a week early.

    Thankfully, being the last speaker helped to calm my nerves. Writing the paper expanded my knowledge of Bourgeois’s life and work, and it was an assignment I truly enjoyed. Immersing oneself in a project naturally injects enthusiasm into opportunities to share. Here is a short excerpt from my paper:

    “Today, Louise Bourgeois is probably best known for her enormous, spindly bronze spider sculptures. She was, however, a complex, multi-faceted artist whose oeuvre includes paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, and installations. In addition to Quarantania I, MFAH’s collection of Bourgeois’s work includes 61 prints, 10 drawings, and about a dozen other items. Cathartic and psychologically rooted in her memories of a traumatic and emotionally painful childhood, Bourgeois used her work to assuage her emotional struggles.”

    Thank you to our instructor and to the other students for the expertise and knowledge graciously shared throughout this course! I’m looking forward to the start of “Learning from the Masters I” in less than two weeks.

    1. Daniel, Malcolm. July 29, 2021. Newsletter to Friends of the MFAH Photography Department. https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12201168492?profile=original ↩︎

  • Art School: Weeks 7 and 8

    In our journey to learn about modern and contemporary art at MFAH, the class topics for the next two weeks centered on art media rather than art movements. The class content completely upturned my decision about what to write for my semester assignment.

    Week 7: Sculpture

    “Sculpture occupies the same space as our bodies.”

    White, Kit. 101 Things to Learn in Art School. Paperback edition, MIT Press, 2024.

    Over the years, visiting art museums, I’ve rarely spent time engaging with sculpture. Thankfully, the class topic for week 7, the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, is a much-needed start toward building a more informed appreciation of sculpture.

    Photographs taken at the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, April 1, 2026.

    The sculpture garden, opened in 1986, was designed by Isamu Noguchi, an American sculptor and landscape architect. Encouraging visitors to relax and interact with its features, the garden connects two major buildings on the MFAH campus, The Glassell School of Art and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. A feast for the eyes, a walk through the garden is a sensual experience blending art and nature.

    Week 8: Assemblages and Hybridization

    “Art can be anything.”

    White, Kit. 101 Things to Learn in Art School. Paperback edition, MIT Press, 2024.

    Like sculpture, an assemblage is three-dimensional, but the artist uses existing objects or materials, such as wood, paper, metal, or even trash, to create a finished work. Hybridization differs from assemblage in that it aims to blend or fuse concepts or styles to produce an entirely new form.

    Two well-known examples of assemblage are Pablo Picasso’s Bull’s Head (1942) and Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel (1913). Created with found objects, both works encourage us to use our imagination in a playful approach to decipher the message or meaning in the art.

    Pablo Picasso, 1942, Tête de taureau (Bull’s Head), bicycle seat and handlebars, Musée Picasso, Paris
    Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle wheel, 1913, this version 1964, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea , Rome

    Visual Analysis: Louise Bourgeois

    “Tell your own story and you will be interesting.”

    Louise Bourgeois (2008)

    At the conclusion of each class, one work from the lecture is the subject of an exercise in practicing visual analysis. Our discussion week 7 centered on Quarantania I, a bronze sculpture in the Cullen garden by Louise Bourgeois. I’ll admit, until recently, I knew very little about this remarkable artist.

    Photograph taken at the Lillie and Hugh Roy Sculpture Garden on March 28, 2026.

    A simple description of this piece belies the deeper associations embedded in her work. When Bourgeois was in her late twenties, she moved from her home in France to New York with her husband, art historian Robert Goldwater. This work, along with other similar sculptures, captures the emotions of loss and longing for the friends and family she left behind. The central structure, Woman with Packages, represents herself and her maternal bonds with her children, depicted as three oblong-shaped objects attached to her body.1 More information about this work is available on the MFAH website.

    Today, I begin writing my semester assignment, so I am taking a break for a couple of weeks. Next up will be Week 11: Minimalism and Pop Art.

    1. The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81955. Accessed March 26 2026.
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  • Art School: Week 6

    “The human brain is hardwired for pattern recognition.”

    White, Kit. 101 Things to Learn in Art School. Paperback edition, MIT Press, 2024.

    Interpreting the meaning of art can be particularly difficult when the subject or object isn’t familiar or “representational.” Typically, it’s easier to understand figurative art, for example, when a painting is a portrait or still life rather than abstract art. Historically, then, how did the art viewed as the best of its time evolve from depicting reality to undecipherable variations in color, line, and/or shape?

    Sonia Delaunay, Prismes Électriques, 1914, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France. Peter Barritt /Alamy

    Recognizing that students often have difficulty understanding abstract work, the professor started class with a discussion of why we liked or disliked it. The discussion was informative and set the stage for learning to view abstract work objectively, even when it isn’t personally appealing.

    During the late 19th century, artists such as Monet, an Impressionist, and Van Gogh, a Post-Impressionist, used innovative approaches to express a less formal, more subjective interpretation of the world. Using easels in the open air (en plein air), these artists captured perceptions of light and color in the moment. The quick brush strokes and unmixed pigments created an effect that seemed unfinished, a significant departure from the accepted classical style.

    Poster from my visit to the exhibition in 1997.

    In 1905, a group of avant-garde French artists presented work at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. So bold and intense were the paintings, both in color and brushwork, that art critic Louis Vauxcelles referred to the group as the Fauves, or “wild beasts.”  Fauvism paved the way for several art movements collectively known as Modernism, including Cubism, Expressionism,  and Orphism, ultimately leading to Abstract Expressionism by the middle of the twentieth century.

    At the end of class, students participated in a visual analysis of a 1912 work by Vassily Kandinsky. A key figure in the German Expressionism movement, Vasily Kandinsky also presented work at the Salon d’Automne from 1904 to 1910.1

    Vasily Kandinsky, Sketch 160A, 1912. https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/1551/sketch-160a. Accessed 12 Mar. 2026.

    At first glance, the sketch appears chaotic, full of wildly disorganized lines, contrasting vivid and subdued colors, and a confusion of shapes. On further study, recognizable images seem to emerge – perhaps a bird or fish. In the upper right-hand corner, a man appears to ride a horse, skyrocketing toward the edge of the sketch. Could a piano be hiding in the work as well? It would not be surprising. Kandinsky blended his sensual connection to music with the spirituality expressed visually in his art. According to the Beck Collection catalog, the composition is an “allegory of the struggle between good and evil.”2 

    One last note: I chose a topic for my writing assignment! The sooner I get started, the better. More to come after Spring Break.

    Next Up: The Cullen Sculpture Garden

    1. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Collection of John A. and Audrey Jones Beck. Edited by Audrey J. Beck, Rev, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1998, p. 70.
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    2. Ibid. ↩︎