PaperCity Magazine

PaperCity Houston November 2021

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been curated by Kanitra Fletcher, formerly of the MFAH (where she organized the Houston installation of "Soul of a Nation"); Fletcher is now associate curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic Art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Six thematic sections probe the history and legacy of the slave trade, encompassing Maps and Margins, Enslavements and Emancipations (including Kara Walker's unflinching silhouetted figure), Everyday Lives (watch for works by Clementine Hunter and Romare Bearden), Rites and Rhythms, Portraits (including the unforgettable self- portrait by Cameroon photographer Samual Fosso), and Resistance and Activism (which propels the story to the rise of Black activism during the Civil Rights era). "Calder-Picasso" promises insights via a dynamic dialogue between two titans of 20th-century art, told through 80 works. Houston is the final international tour stop for the exhibition, which was conceived by the artists' grandsons, Alexander S. C. Rower and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. It will no doubt resonate with hometown audiences, given the MFAH's long- standing commitment to collecting both artists, as demonstrated by the seminal Calder mobile that punctuates the ceiling of the new Kinder Building. Although they only met four times, Picasso and Calder were both celebrated talents of their generation, recognized by retrospectives three years apart (1940 and 1943, respectively) at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. This exhibition focuses on their shared embrace of the void: Calder forged a new language of sculpture where abstract space became part of the artwork, while Picasso conjured the psychological space contained within the inner self. This fall, the MFAH also welcomes "Incomparable Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston." Predicted to be a glorious crowd- pleaser, this exhibition marks the first time the venerable MFA, Boston, has shared this particular trove of 100 canvases and works on paper, and the MFAH is the show's sole American stop. From the Barbizon School through Impressionism and Post- Impressionism, the exhibit relays the grand narrative of French 19th-century painting — landscapes, portraits, still lifes, scenes of cafe society — told by its greatest practitioners, including Corot, Degas, Caillebotte, Monet, Manet, Sisley, Pissarro, Signac, Cézanne, Cassatt, Renoir, van Gogh, Morisot, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Head to the MFAH on Sunday, November 14, or thereafter, and you'll be rewarded with a day of splendid, prescient viewing when all four exhibitions simultaneously hold court. "Georgia O'Keeffe, Photographer," through January 23; "Afro-Atlantic Histories," through January 23; "Calder-Picasso," through January 30; "Incomparable Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," November 14 – March 27; mfah.org. FROM TOP LEFT: COLLECTION MUSEU DE ARTE DE SÃO PAULO, © DALTON PAULA. COLLECTION MFAH; © SAMUEL FOSSO, COURTESY JEAN MARC PATRAS GALERIE, PARIS. COLLECTION MFA, BOSTON; © MFA, BOSTON / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Previous page, clockwise from top: Todd Webb's Georgia O'Keeffe with Camera, 1959. Alexander Calder's La Grande Vitesse (1:5 intermediate maquette), 1969. Pablo Picasso's Woman Seated in a Red Armchair (Femme assise dans un fauteuil rouge), 1932. This page, clockwise: Dalton Paula's Zeferina, 2018. Samuel Fosso's Self Portrait (as Liberated American Woman of the '70s), 1997. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Woman with a Parasol and Small Child on a Sunlit Hillside, circa 1874-1876. 64

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