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I t was nearly three decades ago, but it seems like yesterday. As a fledgling gallerist at Meredith Long & Company, I met Dorothy Hood, even then an icon of Houston's art scene. She was a formidable presence, both as an artist in command of her medium and as a forceful personality who demanded respect among her male peers. A charismatic woman devoid of small talk, she often came to the gallery to check on sales, oversee how and where her work was displayed, and to speak to Meredith Long about collector prospects and future shows. Most conversations with Hood were left to Long or a more seasoned colleague. I was a junior member of the ML & Company team; the artist and I were not peers. So, regretfully on my part, we never engaged in dialogue about her painting. In many ways, her towering canvases, with pools of deep space and depths that pull the viewer in with the force of a black hole, speak for themselves. Even more so in our age of zombie painting, these works are fi lled with God. I've often wondered: When will we see the artist's work enshrined at the Whitney Museum of American Art, or extolled in the arts section of The New York Times. Perhaps the time is at hand. DECIPHERING DOROTHY Rediscovering Dorothy Nearly 20 years have passed since Hood's death, and at last our turbulent era seems aligned to rethink the contributions and creations of an artist claimed by many to be Texas' greatest 20th-century painter. No fake news here: This is the talent held in major museum collections coast to coast, as well as the subject of two recent critically acclaimed Texas museum exhibitions. One was a 2018/2019 focus show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, curated by Alison de Lima Greene, which paired Hood with American sculptor Louise Nevelson; the other was the sweeping 2016 survey "The Color of Being/El Color del Ser: Dorothy Hood, 1918 – 2000," curated by Susie Kalil, that took over two buildings at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi. Both exhibits generated buzz in Houston art circles, but since neither traveled, their impact didn't register with mainstream art press. Nonetheless, both contributed to Hood scholarship. The Corpus Christi exhibition also produced an authoritative book written by art historian and exhibition curator Kalil, documenting the artist's work and life between NYC, Mexico City, and Houston. This month, McClain Gallery unveils "Dorothy Hood: Illuminated Earth," signaling the next chapter in the quest for parity and respect for Hood from national and international art-world power brokers. Working with the Art Museum of South Texas, McClain Gallery now offi cially represents the artist's estate. In collaboration with AMST, the gallery will bring to market a series of exhibitions, presenting canvases, drawings, and collages not accessioned into the permanent collection of the museum, which owns a hefty trove of the artist's works and her archives. The gallery's fi rst foray in reintroducing Hood occurred last spring in McClain's booth at the Dallas Art Fair. In December, ALL VINTAGE PHOTOS COURTESY DOROTHY HOOD ARCHIVES, ART MUSEUM OF SOUTH TEXAS, CORPUS CHRISTI. PAGE 76 ARTWORK, COLLECTION AND COURTESY AMST. PAGE 77 ARTWORK, FROM TOP: PRIVATE COLLECTION, PHOTO AMST; PHOTO ADAM NEESE. A new retrospective — and plans to exhibit in Miami and New York — make this fall an important time to rethink the legacy of late Houston artist Dorothy Hood. Will the painter fi nally get the respect she deserves and re-emerge upon the national stage. Catherine D. Anspon investigates. Dorothy Hood, Mexico City, early 1940s