Annual Report Contemporary Arts Museum Houston 15–16 6 History of CAMH The Contemporary Arts Museum 11 Houston is a leading destination to Letter from the Director experience innovative art. CAMH actively 12 Exhibitions Series encourages public engagement with 22 its exhibitions through its educational Art on the Lawn programs, publications, and online 24 Touring Exhibitions presence. 32 CAMH Publication Program and Publication Archive 40 Education and Public Programming 60 Community Engagement 66 Development 82 Financial Reports 86 Board of Trustees 92 Staff Annual Report for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2015–June 30, 2016 Cover: Opening Reception of THE INTERVIEW: Red, Red Future at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2016. Photo: Max C. Fields. 2 Annual Report 15–16 Opening Reception of Jennie C. Jones: Compilation at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2015. Photo: Max C. Fields. Table of Contents 3 4 Annual Report 15–16 Opening Reception of Mark Flood: Gratest Hits at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2016. Photo: Martin Yaptangco. 5 HISTORY OF CAMH 6 Annual Report 15–16 1948 1950–1960 1970–1980 The Contemporary Arts Museum The success of these first efforts By the close of the 1960s, the Houston was founded in 1948 by a led in 1950 to the building of a Museum’s programs and audiences group of seven Houston citizens to small, professionally equipped had outgrown the 1950 facility, present new art and to document facility where ambitious exhibitions and the trustees secured capital its role in modern life through of the work of Vincent van Gogh, funds and a prominent site on the exhibitions, lectures, and other Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Max corner of Montrose and Bissonnet activities. The Museum’s first exhi- Ernst, and John Biggers and his where the new building, designed by bitions were presented at various students from the then-fledgling Gunnar Birkerts, was built. In 1972, sites throughout the city, such as Texas Negro College (now Texas the present facility opened with the The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Southern University), reflected controversial Exhibition 10, which and included This is Contemporary Houston’s receptiveness to new featured several artists working in Art and L. Moholy-Nagy: Memorial ideas. non-traditional media. Throughout Exhibition. the 1970s, the Museum continued In 1955, the once volunteer-run its commitment to showcasing Museum hired Jermayne MacAgy the newest national and regional as its first professional director. art in such exhibitions as John Ms. MacAgy organized such defin- Chamberlain: Recent Sculptures; itive exhibitions as The Sphere Dalé Gas: An Exhibition of of Mondrian, Mark Rothko (his Contemporary Chicano Art (one of second museum exhibition), The the first surveys of Hispanic artists Disquieting Muse: Surrealism, and in the U.S.); and a major thematic Totems Not Taboo: Primitive Art. exhibition, American Narrative/ During the 1960s, the Museum’s Story Art 1967–1977. Exhibitions of dedication to thematic exhibitions, new Texas talent gave early recog- architecture and design, and sur- nition and encouragement to James veys of individual artists continued. Surls, John Alexander, and Luis Landmark exhibitions included The Jimenez, among others. Emerging Figure and the influen- tial Combine paintings of Robert Rauschenberg. History of CAMH 7 The new millennium was celebrated 1980–1990 1990–2000 by the Museum with a look back at some of the most arresting In the 1980s, the Museum con- In the 1990s, the Museum sharp- and important installations of the tributed vigorously to the emer- ened its focus, concentrating on previous decade in the exhibition gence of Houston as one of the art made within the past 40 years Outbound: Passages from the most significant cultural centers and extending its reach interna- Nineties. Other thematic exhi- in the nation. From 1979 to 1984, tionally. Major one-person exhi- bitions of the new century have the Museum grew, extending its bitions included Art Guys: Think included Afterimage: Drawing reach with major exhibitions that Twice; Tony Cragg: Sculpture Through Process; Subject Plural; presented and toured thematic 1975–1990; Ann Hamilton: kaph; and The Inward Eye. One-person surveys of installations for per- Richard Long: Circles Cycles shows have focused on ground- formance art; contemporary Mud Stone; Nic Nicosia: Real breaking figures in all media and still-life painting; an important Pictures 1979–1999; Introjection: have included Uta Barth; When group exhibition of work by Texas Tony Oursler: 1976–1999; Lari One is Two: The Art of Alighiero e artists; and one-person shows of Pittman; Robert Rauschenberg: Boetti; William Kentridge; and nationally-known artists such as A Retrospective; James Turrell: Juan Muñoz. Ida Applebroog, Robert Morris, Pat Spirit and Light; William Wegman: Steir, Bill Viola, and Frank Stella, Paintings and Drawings, as well as exhibitions of the work of Photographs and Videotapes; Texans Earl Staley, Melissa Miller, and Robert Wilson: Vision. and Vernon Fisher. At the start The Museum closed on January of the decade Director Linda L. 1,1997 for its first major facility Cathcart established Perspectives renovation in 25 years. Funded by in the Museum’s lower gallery. a highly successful capital cam- Perspectives is a fast-paced paign, the Museum reopened to the series of medium-sized exhibi- public on May 10, 1997 with Finders/ tions focusing on cycles of work by Keepers. This landmark exhibi- emerging and well-known artists tion documented the institution’s not previously shown in Houston. relationship to the community, Over 170 shows have taken place borrowing back important works within the series. of art that had remained in the region after first being presented in exhibitions at the Museum. Other important thematic presentations during the decade included Elvis + Marilyn: Two Times Immortal; Abstract Painting Once Removed; and Other Narratives. 8 Annual Report 15–16 full curatorial staff—Valerie Cassel 2000–2010 2010–Present Oliver and Dean Daderko—each organized two exhibitions that In the 2000’s CAMH presented CAMH began this decade with an were installed in two rounds in several award-winning exhibitions, award from AICA for “Best Show both the Brown Foundation and including Andrea Zittel: Critical Involving Digital Media, Video, the Zilkha galleries, uniting the Space, which was named “Best Film, or Performance” from AICA/ whole museum in one thematic Architecture or Design Show” by USA for the 2011 exhibition Stan exhibition for the first time. The the International Association of VanDerBeek: The Culture Intercom. opening reception for the first Art Critics/USA (AICA) in 2005- The exhibition, co- organized with part was held on October 31, 2013 2006; and The Old, Weird America: MIT List Visual Arts Center, was with the city of Houston declaring Folk Themes in Contemporary Art, the first museum survey of the it “Contemporary Arts Museum which was awarded “Best Thematic work of media art pioneer Stan Houston Day.” The anniversary Museum Show Nationally” by AICA VanDerBeek (1927–1984). Other was also marked with a high in 2008. Cinema Remixed and major retrospective exhibitions profile art auction at Christie’s Reloaded: Black Women Artists included Benjamin Patterson: Born New York to benefit the museum. and the Moving Image since 1970 in the State of FLUX/us (2010); Among the thirty lots were works was nominated by AICA/USA in Donald Moffett: The Extravagant by noted artists, including Mark the “digital media, video, or film” Vein (2011); Trenton Doyle Hancock: Flood, Marilyn Minter, and Cindy category. Co-organized by Valerie Skin and Bones, 20 Years of Sherman. Cassel Oliver and Dr. Andrea Drawing (2014); and Marilyn Minter: The Contemporary Arts Museum Barnwell-Brownlee, director of Pretty/Dirty (2015). Houston continues to look forward the Spelman College Museum of In 2012, CAMH, alongside Spelman with exhibitions that exemplify Fine Art, the exhibition featured College Museum of Fine Art, the art of today. From emerging the contributions of black women reprised their co-organized artists like Angel Otero and MPA artists to the cinematic and visual exhibition Cinema Remixed and to established artists with careers arts arenas, and was presented in Reloaded: Black Women Artists spanning 30–40 years such as Atlanta in two parts (2007/2008) and the Moving Image since 1970 Mark Flood and Marilyn Minter, and at CAMH (October 17, 2008– (2008) for inclusion in the 11th CAMH is proud to continually January 4, 2009). Havana Biennial in 2012. The exhi- present what is current and con- bition marked the first presenta- temporary to the public. tion of a curatorial team from the United States as a participant in the main program of the Biennial. In 2013, CAMH celebrated its 65th anniversary with Outside the Lines, a six-part exhibition series conceived as an evolving dialogue on contemporary abstraction. CAMH’s director Bill Arning and History of CAMH 9 Musician Michael Stipe, artist Marilyn Minter, CAMH Director Bill Arning, and artist Thomas Dozol at the opening reception of Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2015. Photo: Daniel 10 Annual Report 15–16 Ortiz. Bill Arning Director Welcome to the wildest gathering in Houston. The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, newcomers to an institution with a six- by its very nature and founding documents, ty-eight year history, but I feel confident that is committed to bringing to the community we are generally aligned in believing that the an international panoply of arts that has a core value of bringing the new in arts, cul- few overriding goals—to be stimulating, to be ture, and discourse holds true. provocative, and to induce heated discussion. The thorny questions of where and in what In a city which has access to a lot of widely ways we need to grow and where we need ratified artworks whose importance have to reinvest in infrastructure to maintain been given the consensus of teachers, histo- our current successes will be up to us to rians, curators, and collectors, CAMH gets debate over the next months.