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13 TEXAS DESIGN ICONS T H E S A N J O S É T I L E WORKSHOPS, San Antonio (1931-1977): Founder Ethel Wilson Harris and her designer, Fernando Ramos, reigned over three successive tile factories known as the San José Workshops, reviving a dying Mexican art form. The colorful tiles — rediscovered and prized today — depict bygone scenes of folk culture and cowboy life. Originally sold in the Mission San José gift shop, they were used extensively in homes and gardens from the Great Depression onward. The charming craft form soon gained a national following after showing in global fairs, from the Chicago World's Fair 1933-1934 to HemisFair '68 in San Antonio. D AVE HICKEY, Austin (1940 – 2021): The iconoclastic Texan's nicknames were The Bad Boy of Art Criticism and L'Enfant Terrible of Art Criticism. With attire more long-haul trucker than art critic, he was provocative and insightful, even as he tried his best to offend readers' sensibilities with his writings for Rolling Stone, ARTnews, Art in America, Artforum, and Harper's Magazine. A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (after the Hemingway short story) was his short-lived but influential Austin art gallery opened in 1967. There he developed a niche for unconventional contemporary art. Hickey received a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship (Genius Grant) in 2001 and a Peabody Award for his PBS documentary about Andy Warhol. S OUTHWEST AIRLINES HOSTESS UNIFORMS, Dallas (1971): It was a half- century ago when "the love airline" took off. Southwest changed the airline industry forever with low fares, no frills, and hostesses wearing hot pants and white leather lace-up go-go boots. The start-up recruited its first batch of attendants with an open letter to Raquel Welch. Love bites (complimentary peanuts), love potions (special cocktails), and love machines for ticketing were key to finally separating Texans from their cars. What had been a rarefied form of travel for the select few — with severely attired attendants — became a relaxed social occasion that brought Texans together as never before. P ANHANDLE - PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM, C a n y o n ( 1 9 3 3 , l a t e r expansions): This distinguished Moderne structure was built at ground zero of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. Stonework bas reliefs of Panhandle fauna peer through cornice roundels, and carvings below each window trace scenes from indigenous life. A grid of more than 75 prominent Panhandle cattle brands frames the entrance. H.D. Bugbee murals recount regional history from ancient peoples to the ranching, industry, and commerce of the day. Expansions and bequests have made the PPHM the largest history museum in Texas with a repository of three million artifacts. The original building is a State Antiquities Landmark. J ERMAYNE MACAGY, Houston ( 1 9 1 4 - 1 9 6 4 ) : A b r i l l i a n t innovator in museum education and exhibition design, MacAgy was brought to Houston by John and Dominique de Menil as the first professional director of what is now the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Renowned for mounting shows that were both scholarly and alluring to the public, MacAgy put Houston on the art-world map and influenced a young Walter Hopps (founding director of The Menil Collection) when he saw one of her early shows at San Francisco's California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Above all, MacAgy profoundly transformed Houston through her impact on the de Menils. They memorialized her untimely death by commissioning the Rothko Chapel and a series of Warhol portraits; the innovative curator/museum director is buried next to the de Menils at Forest Park Lawndale. Dave Hickey, circa 1970 FROM THE BOOK THE INVISIBLE DRAGON: ESSAYS ON BEAUTY AND OTHER MATTERS BY DAVE HICKEY (ART ISSUES PRESS) PHOTO COURTESY THE AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon PANHANDLE–PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM: FROM THE BOOK DUGOUT TO DECO: BUILDING IN WEST TEXAS, 1880 - 1930 (TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY PRESS) A Southwest Airlines stewardess uniform, 1973 FROM THE BOOK AIRLINE: IDENTITY, DESIGN AND CULTURE (TENEUS, 2000) Indigenous Mexican dance depicted on tile by Fernando Ramos FROM THE BOOK COLORS ON CLAY: THE SAN JOSE TILE WORKSHOPS OF SAN ANTONIO (TRINITY UNIVERSITY PRESS) 106