The MuseumThe Houston Arts, of Fine Report 2005–2006 Annual ˙ µ µ˙ The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Annual Report 2005–2006 deeply grateful to everyone deeply grateful to everyone he Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2005–2006. who contributed to the success of is T Thank You Thank Cover: Jean-Léon Gérôme Mary Cassatt The Expiring Eagle of Waterloo, c. 1902 Under the Horse-Chestnut Tree, 1896–97 Gilt bronze mounted on worked granite Drypoint and aquatint in colors Museum purchase with funds provided by Gift of The Brown Foundation, Inc. “One Great Night in November, 2005” 2005.974 2005.1066 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is dedicated to excellence in collecting, exhibiting, preserving, conserving, and interpreting art for all people. Leon Polk Smith Open Composition, 1946 Oil on canvas Bequest of Edward B. Mayo 2006.146 2 µ˙ The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Annual Report for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006 Juan Gris The White Tablecloth (La Nappe blanche), 1912–16 Oil on panel Museum purchase with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund 2006.389 3 Attendance July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006 Total Visits 4,294,315 Museum of Art 1,117,477 The Caroline Wiess Law Building provides an ideal space to exhibit the museum’s collection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century artworks, as well as installations of Oceanic art, Asian art, Indonesian gold artifacts, and Pre-Columbian and sub-Saharan African artworks. Of special interest is the Glassell Collection of African Gold, the greatest assemblage of gold objects in the world. The Audrey Jones Beck Building features selections from the museum’s collection of prints, drawings, photographs, and American art, as well as a sculpture court and extensive galleries designated for exhibitions on its first floor. Antiquities and European art are presented in twenty-eight classically designed galleries on the second floor. A tunnel featuring James Turrell’s art installation The Light Inside joins the Beck and Law Buildings at the lower level. Sculpture Garden 215,031 The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden houses more than twenty masterworks by some of the most acclaimed artists from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the MFAH and other major collections. Created by sculptor Isamu Noguchi, the Cullen Sculpture Garden also unites the pathways between the Caroline Wiess Law Building and the Glassell School of Art. Bayou Bend (House 40,447; Gardens 19,494) 59,941 Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the former home of philanthropist Ima Hogg, opened to the public in 1966. Miss Hogg donated her house and her acclaimed collection of American decorative arts to the MFAH, and the collection now contains several thousand objects installed in twenty-eight period room settings that showcase American decorative arts from 1620 through 1876. Top to bottom: The Caroline Wiess Law Building, designed in 1924 by architect William Ward Watkin, and later expanded upon by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with the addition of Cullinan Hall in 1958 and Brown Pavilion in 1974. The Audrey Jones Beck Building, designed by architect Rafael Moneo and opened in 2000. The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, created by sculptor Isamu Noguchi and opened in 1986. Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, designed by architect John F. Staub and constructed in 1928. 4 Rienzi 18,266 Rienzi is the center for European decorative arts at the MFAH. Comprising a remarkable art collection, a house, and gardens, Rienzi was given to the museum by arts patrons Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III and opened to the public in 1999. Glassell School (Junior School 51,056; Studio School 45,024) 96,080 The Glassell School of Art serves as the teaching wing of the MFAH, with a variety of classes, work- shops, and educational opportunities for students diverse in age, interests, experience, and needs. The school offers classes at the Studio School for Adults and the Glassell Junior School, as well as Community Outreach Programs, special programs for youths, and the Core Artist-in-Residence Program. Off-site 737,141 Off-site Exhibitions and Programs enable the MFAH to reach out into the community, bringing a variety of art-based experiences to diverse audiences in the Houston metropolitan area. Web Site 2,050,379 The Web Site, www.mfah.org, provides access to the museum through the Internet, with information provided in both English and Spanish. The MFAH’s Web site is a convenient on-line portal to the museum’s buildings, exhibitions, collections, programs, and services. Top to bottom: Rienzi, designed by architect John F. Staub and constructed in 1952. The Glassell School (illustrated) was designed by S. I. Morris Associates and opened in 1976. The Junior School Building was designed by Carlos Jimenez Architectural Studio and opened in 1994. 5 Dan, Ivory Coast/Liberia Female Mask, early 20th century Wood Gift of Isabel B. and Wallace S. Wilson 6 Contents Museum of Art 8 Board of Trustees 9 Officers and Committee Chairmen 10 Report of the Director and the Chairman of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 12 Highlights of Accessions 38 Exhibitions 44 Accessions Paintings, 44 Sculpture, 46 Drawings, 46 Prints, 49 Photography, 52 Film and Video, 74 Antiquities, 74 African Art, 74 Pre-Columbian Art, 74 Latin American Art, 74 Asian Art, 75 Decorative Arts, 76 Bayou Bend, 89 Rienzi, 91 100 Education Department 106 Conservation Department 108 Film Department 109 Publications Department 110 Museum Collectors 1 1 1 African American Art Advisory Association 112 Photo Forum 112 Design Council 1 1 3 The Garden Club of Houston 114 International Center for the Arts of the Americas Sarah Campbell Blaffer 116 Report of the Director Foundation of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Bayou Bend Collection 117 Report of the Director of Bayou Bend and Gardens 121 River Oaks Garden Club Rienzi 122 Report of the Director of Rienzi The Glassell School of Art 124 Report of the Director of the Glassell School of Art The Museum of Fine Arts, 128 Development Department Houston 141 Independent Auditors’ Report 143 Financial Statements 152 Staff 7 Board of Trustees Life Trustees Mrs. James L. Ketelsen In Memoriam, S. I. Morris tions were serving as president of Miss Carla Knobloch the Board twice (1960–62, 1967–68) Mr. Isaac Arnold, Jr. Ms. Martha Katherine Long and chairing the capital campaign Mrs. Charles W. Duncan, Jr. Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis for building the Brown Pavilion in Mr. Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. Mr. William N. Mathis the Caroline Wiess Law Building Mr. Frank J. Hevrdejs Ms. Sara Scholes Morgan (1970–71). He also served on many Dr. Marjorie G. Horning Mr. Charles J. O’Connell Trustee committees. Mrs. Joseph D. Jamail Mrs. David A. Ott Mrs. William S. Kilroy Mrs. George A. Peterkin Morris was a founding member Mr. Richard D. Kinder Mrs. Karen Pulaski of the museum’s Photography Mrs. Meredith J. Long Mrs. Harry M. Reasoner Accessions Subcommittee. He Mrs. Thomas R. Reckling III Mr. H. John Riley, Jr. also established the SI Morris Mrs. Wesley West Mr. Thomas Allen Roupe Photography Endowment, which Mrs. Wallace S. Wilson Mrs. Courtney Lanier Sarofim has enabled the museum to acquire Mr. Richard W. Wortham III Mrs. Richard P. Schissler ninety-two important works by Mr. Milton L. Scott artists such as Robert Adams, Elected Trustees Ms. Alice C. Simkins Eugène Atget, Brassaï, Richard Mr. Matthew R. Simmons The prominent Houston architect Misrach, Irving Penn, and W. Mrs. Nancy O’Connor Mr. Gerald B. Smith Seth Irwin “SI” Morris (1914–2006) Eugene Smith. Morris and his Abendshein Mrs. Stuart West Stedman was born in Madisonville, Texas, wife, Susie, also provided funds to Mr. Mark W. Albers Mrs. Charles W. Tate and moved to Houston when he help the museum acquire an addi- Mrs. Joan G. Alexander Mrs. Ann Trammell was two years old. He graduated as tional sixty-four photographs, Mrs. Robert H. Allen Mrs. Willie Trotty an architect from the Rice Institute including an important collection Mrs. Prabha Bala Mrs. W. Temple Webber, Jr. in 1935, and three years later he of photographs by teachers and Mr. Jack S. Blanton, Jr. Mrs. Margaret Alkek Williams founded his own firm with Talbott students at the renowned Bauhaus Mrs. John F. Bookout III Mr. William A. Wise Wilson. Morris continued practic- school of architecture and design Mrs. Celina Hellmund Brener Mrs. Melvyn L. Wolff ing architecture in Houston under in Germany. Mr. Charles Butt Mrs. Nina Zilkha various successor firms until his Mr. Paul W. Carlisle, Jr. retirement in 1984. These firms Morris was known as a man who Mrs. Bobby Smith Cohn Honorary Trustees designed residential, educational, made things happen. When he Mr. Peter R. Coneway and commercial buildings that received a long-distance call from Mrs. Franci Crane Mr. Raphael Bernstein have changed the face of Houston Europe, asking him to help raise Mrs. Harry H. Cullen Dr. Renato Bertani and have won many awards for funds to acquire the Bauhaus Mrs. Roy H. Cullen Mr. Philip J. Carroll architectural distinction. Morris’s photography collection for the Ms. Roxanne Decyk Mrs. Linnet F. Deily most well-known project is the museum, he responded in his typ- Mrs. Sara Paschall Dodd- Mrs. Diane M. Halle Astrodome (1965). Other projects ically terse fashion, “I’ll either give Spickelmier Dr. George S. Heyer, Jr. include the Houston Country Club it or get it.” He made decisions Mrs. John H. Duncan, Sr. Mr. A. Clark Johnson (1956), First City National Bank quickly and urged others to get to Mrs. Sheldon R. Erikson Mr.