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Recent Acquisitions Releases Press Release Archive |
New Exhibition Opens at Tyler Museum of Art Focusing on Texas Artists A new exhibition, The Eyes of Texas: The Lone Star State as Seen by Her Artists opens at the Tyler Museum of Art on Friday, September 17 and continues through January 2, 2005. The works in this exhibition make a powerful statement about the artistic excellence of Texas artists, who, because of their “regionalist” status, were often relegated to a secondary position in the history of American art. Today there is a resurgence of interest in early Texas art, accompanied by a growing esteem for the talent it reflects. The works in this exhibition will provide an opportunity to rediscover and reconfirm the Texas heritage of land, people and history. This exhibition features over 60 paintings and works on paper from the collection of Dallasites Bill and Mary Cheek. The Cheek Collection is one of the most important private collections of “early” Texas art, generally regarded as artwork produced by Texas artists on Texas subjects and themes prior to the end of World War II. The collection includes many of the state’s leading artists, such as Reveau Bassett (1897-1981), Ed Bearden (1919-1980), Jerry Bywaters (1906-1989), Dawson Dawson-Watson (1864-1939), Otis Dozier (1904-1987), and Olin Travis (1888-1975). There will also be works on display by Alexandre Hogue (1898-1994), Florence McClung (1894-1992), Porfirio Salinas (1910-1973), Everett Spruce (1908-2002) and many more. Early Texas artists worked all across the Lone Star State, but Dallas was especially recognized for its style of regional expression. Bywaters, Bearden and Travis all worked for the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, now known as the Dallas Museum of Art. The Museum supported many annual art competitions and purchased many of the prizewinning entries each year, thus enabling them to amass the strongest and deepest collection of early Texas art in any institution. In 1932, the Dallas Free Public Art Gallery (also a predecessor to today’s DMA) organized an exhibition of nine local artists titled Exhibition of Young Dallas Painters. A New York writer dubbed them the “Dallas Nine” and it wasn’t long until Texas artists began to make an impact on other parts of the country. In 1933 the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) organized and toured an exhibition featuring the art of 16 American cities, including Dallas. After being shown in separate New York World’s Fairs, artists Spruce and McClung had their works acquired by MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The end of World War II, however, brought about a realignment in the art world. Regionally inspired art was pushed aside as artists embraced various forms of abstraction. Early Texas art was largely forgotten for many years except for the efforts of a small group of determined individuals who continued to champion the importance and historical significance of this work. An important exhibition organized by the Dallas Museum of Art in 1985 titled Lone Star Regionalism ignited a resurgence of interest in the genre. Lone Star Regionalism was on display at the Tyler Museum of Art from September, 1985 to January, 1986. For advocates of early Texas art like Bill and Mary Cheek, this exhibition inspired a wave of interest in collecting that it still going strong today. The Tyler Museum of Art has long had an emphasis on contemporary Texas art in its permanent collection and has recently committed to adding early Texas art to the collection as well. The exhibition is curated by Michael R. Grauer of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas. Support for the exhibition has been provided by Bill and Mary Cheek and the Summerlee Foundation, Dallas, Texas. |