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.
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.
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.
- The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81955. Accessed March 26 2026.
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