Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1540686
COLLECTION CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM, VATICAN MUSEUMS, VATICAN CITY OBSESSIONS. DECORATION. SALIENT FACTS. 18 It all began with an email … In August 2024, Glasstire founder/arts writer Rainey Knudson opened her inbox to find an announcement from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on the eve of its 100th anniversary. Thus sparked a staunch but inspiring endeavor which turned into "a personal project that would be a love letter to my childhood museum," says Knudson. In the intro to her just-released book, The MFAH 100, she writes: "The idea came instantly: For 100 days, I would write 100 words each about 100 works from the museum's collection on my blog The Impatient Reader." Knudson's picks were culled from a collection of 80,000 objects MFAH at 100, the Book From Ancient Rome to a Galaxy Far, Far Away spanning centuries, continents, and media. This diminutive, brilliant volume serves up haiku contemplating the compelling meaning and allure behind works as disparate as Claes Oldenburg's Giant Soft Fan — Ghost Version, 1967; Wenzel Friedrich's steer- horn Rocking Chair, 1880-1890; Van Gogh's The Rocks, July 1888; and the 10th- through 11th-century Indian sandstone of Ganesh and a curvaceous Siddhi. No surprise, Texas artists loom large in Knudson's 100; included are works by Luis Jiménez, David McGee, Mark Flood, Jesse Lott, Susie Rosmarin, Geoff Winningham, Helen Altman, and — poignantly, at number 100 — the author's late husband, Michael Galbreth, and his collaborator, Jack Massing, aka The Art Guys, represented in this tome's finale by SUITS: The Clothes Make the Man, 1997- 1998. MFAH director Gary Tinterow, who commissioned Knudson to turn her blog into a book, writes in the foreword: "The MFAH 100 is a joyfully partisan and eclectic selection of works of art that resonated in Rainey's imagination." The MFAH 100, from $39.99, at MFAH Shop, mfashop.mfah.org, raineyknudson.com; Knudson and Tinterow in conversation, with book signing, Thursday, November 20, 6 to 7 pm, at the Lynn Wyatt Theater, Kinder Building, tickets mfah.org. Catherine D. Anspon Clockwise from far left: Wenzel Friedrich's Rocking Chair, 1880-1890. Vincent Van Gogh's The Rocks, July 1888. Louis Comfort Tiffany's A Wooded Landscape in Three Panels, circa 1905. A n ambitious pair of exhibitions defines fall at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — shows that demonstrate the depth and range of the MFAH. Both are installed at the Beck Building: "Gyula Kosice: Intergalactic" (through January 25, 2026) and "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" (November 2, 2025 – January 25, 2026). The former marks the most comprehensive survey ever presented outside the artist's native Argentina; the latter presents the first major U.S. exhibition devoted to one of the Good Emperors of ancient Rome, arriving with a hefty catalog that brims with new revelations, "Intergalactic" explores the oeuvre of one of the most forward-thinking artists of the 20th century. The Czech-born, Argentine sculptor Kosice (1924-2016) embraced utopian theories and avant-garde, often kinetic materials, from water and light to then-novel plastics, while positing a utopian future where earthlings live in orbiting intergalactic pods inside modular habitats. In contrast, "Trajan and His Times" transports the viewer back to the golden decades 98 to 117 C.E., when this Spanish-born soldier-emperor ruled, granting citizenship and rights to inhabitants of the far-flung Roman provinces. More than 160 objects, many loaned for the first time to a U.S. venue, are culled from the troves of Italian museums in Rome, Vatican City, and Naples, including fabulous artifacts (frescoes to opulent furniture) from the villas of Pompeii. mfah.org. Catherine D. Anspon Colossal Portrait of Trajan, 2nd century C.E., at MFAH