Have You Met the Big Four?

Painters by numbers. Canada has it’s Group of Seven. Cuba has Los Diez Pintores Concretos. The Taos Six applied academic techniques to indigenous themes, producing a uniquely American school of painting. Then there’s the international group of wildlife painters of the late 1800s and early 1900s — Richard Friese, Wilhelm Kuhnert, Bruno Liljefors, and Carl Rungius […]

Discovering the RCA+D Galleries

Beginning with 75 students and 13 faculty members in 1931, RCA+D has grown to more than 110 buildings on 48 acres (SEVEN of which are art galleries!), 1600 students, and 140+ faculty members. Today it is ranked as one of the top art schools in the nation. […]

Discovering the National Museum of Women in the Arts

At the angle of New York Ave. and H St. NW in Washington DC stands a 1908 landmark that was built as a Masonic Temple. In that capacity, women were not permitted to enter the building. Today, that same building is all about women — although men are more than welcome! Refurbished in accordance with the […]

An American in Paris: Donald Beauregard

When a man’s life is cut short at a young age one wonders what his future might have been – especially when he had already accomplished notable things. This is the case with Donald Beauregard.  “Who?” You might well ask.  Beauregard was an artist most of us have never heard of, but one who might […]

Discovering the Menil Collection

With a wink to Gene Autry and Tex Ritter who lauded the Lone Star state with the song, Deep in the Heart of Texas, I’m singing the praises of the Menil Collection, deep in the heart of Houston. In an idyllic tree-shaded art neighborhood covering 30 urban acres, the Menil campus includes five museum buildings, […]

Curiouser and Curiouser – The “Wundercammer” is a “Thing” in Houston

Not unlike Grandma’s curio cabinet, a 16th- and 17th-century ‘cabinet of curiosity” was filled with a collector’s treasures. Although a small collection might have been laid out in a drawer, or arrayed on shelves, the term cabinet originally was defined as a room rather than a piece of furniture (think water closet and the Italian equivalent, gabinetto). It […]

Have You Met Jules André Smith?

Jules Andre Smith’s experimental artist’s colony is an aesthetic masterpiece, created over 22 years by his singular artistic vision. Now the Maitland Art Center, and one of the only remaining examples “Mayan Revival” fantasy architecture in the Southeastern U.S. Smith’s compound is must-see National Historic Landmark. […]