REAL/SURREAL
SELECTIONS FROM THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
February 13 | May 19, 2013

Drawn entirely from the deep holdings of the Whitney’s collection, Real/Surreal: Selections from the Whitney Museum of American Art focuses on the tension and overlap between two strong currents in 20th-century art: realism and Surrealism. Real/Surreal features paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints that elucidate how artists—depending on intention and influence—developed degrees of reality in which imagination held more or less sway. Among the notable artists included in the exhibition are Charles Burchfield, Paul Cadmus, Joseph Cornell, Philip Guston, Edward Hopper, Man Ray, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Yves Tanguy, George Tooker, and Andrew Wyeth. While a basic connection to the observable world underlies realist works, the term realism has many facets. Subverting reality through imagination and the unconscious rests at the heart of Surrealism. Yet convergences in these different, even oppositional, approaches encourage new ways of looking at art of the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s in America. The exhibition . Real/Surreal offers visitors the opportunity to view additional works by artists represented in the McNay’s collection, which includes singular examples from this period by the same artists in the Whitney’s collection.

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This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. and Carolyn and Allan Paterson are generously providing lead sponsorship.

As of December 3, 2012, additional sponsors are the G. A. C. Halff Foundation, the Nathalie and Gladys Dalkowitz Charitable Trust, Janet and Jim Dicke, Mary Beth and Jack Williamson (a gift of the James Family Charitable Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation), the Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation, Martha Landsman, Barbara and Stanley Spigel, Jo Ann Wigodsky, the Director’s Circle, and the Host Committee.

Image: Jared French, State Park, 1946. Egg tempera on composition board. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Donnelley Erdman 65.78.

MAJORITY RULES 
A DECADE OF CONTEMPORARY ART ACQUISITIONS
January 23 | September 15, 2013

Supporting acquisition of contemporary art for the McNay Art Museum is a vital part of the mission of the McNay Contemporary Collectors Forum (MCCF). Since 2003, MCCF has purchased one or two works of art for the McNay’s collection at the group’s annual fall View & Vote. To date, MCCF has acquired 12 contemporary works in various media. Acquisitions include works by:

2003     John Miller
2004     Ed Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz
2005     John Fraser; Susie Rosmarin
2006     Lesley Dill; Sandy Skoglund
2007     Chakaia Booker
2008     Roger Shimomura
2009     Lance Letscher
2010     Whitfield Lovell
2011     Radcliffe Bailey
2012     Vik Muniz

MCCF’s selection for 2012 is a large color photograph by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz (born 1961). To create this vibrant work titled Pictures of Pigment: Mill in Sunlight, after Piet Mondrian, the artist sprinkled powdered pigment over a reproduction of a work by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872–1944). Muniz then photographed and printed the image on such a massive scale that viewers can see individual particles of pigment and shadows cast over the composition. Mondrian’s reproduced painting that underpins Muniz’s photograph is one of the first in which the Dutch artist used bold primary colors with black and white—an element that came to define his work. An illustrated gallery guide accompanies Majority Rules: A Decade of Contemporary Art Acquisitions.

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This exhibition was organized by the McNay Art Museum.

THE HUMAN FACE AND FORM
February 13 | September 1, 2013

Focusing on the most universal of subjects, the human body, The Human Face and Form brings together nearly 40 modern sculptures, ranging from the early 1800s to the present day. Nearly all are from the McNay’s collection, with a few from private lenders. Organized by type rather than chronologically or stylistically, the exhibition shows ways that sculptors deal with different aspects and moods of the body, from portrait busts and other fragmentary forms such as torsos; to full reclining or standing figures, as well as human bodies in action.

Edgar Degas, Alberto Giacometti, Aristide Maillol, Henry Moore, and Auguste Rodin are among the European artists in the exhibition. American sculptors include Malvina Hoffman, Paul Manship, George Segal, Kiki Smith, and Charles Umlauf. Only the second exhibition devoted exclusively to sculpture in the Stieren Center, The Human Face and Form follows upon the George Rickey kinetic sculpture exhibition in 2008. The Stieren Center’s adaptable lighting system allows us to see these varied works under natural light.

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This exhibition was organized by the McNay Art Museum.

The Elizabeth Huth Coates Exhibition Endowment and the Arthur and Jane Stieren Fund for Exhibitions are generously funding this exhibition.

 

LISA HOKE
“The future ain’t what it used to be”

Sculptor Lisa Hoke uses found materials in her large, brightly colored wall and window works, creating joyous, swirling compositions from plastic cups, cereal boxes, six-pack holders, pinwheels, and other everyday objects. Working in her New York studio, Hoke selects materials from color-sorted bins of salvage and arranges items on the floor through an intuitive working process. Titled “The future ain’t what it used to be,” the installation was commissioned by the McNay to initiate a new series of wall works in the Stieren Center for Exhibition’s AT&T Lobby. The title is a nod to baseball player Yogi Berra’s paradoxical prediction, as well as to the installation’s ephemeral images of consumer excess.

Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1952, Hoke received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1974, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1978. She has created temporal works for many exhibitions, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA), North Adams; the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts; New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, Texas; and Serpentine Gallery, London, England. In 2013, Hoke premiers another new work at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.

This installation was commissioned by the McNay Art Museum.

Leonard Brooks of San Miguel de Allende 

January 30 | May 19, 2013

In the late 1940s, Canadian artist Leonard Brooks (1911–2011) moved with his wife, noted photographer Reva, to San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, Mexico. The couple became pillars of the small art community there for the rest of their lives, teaching classes alongside David Alfaro Siqueiros and helping establish San Miguel as a destination for artists and musicians. Strongly influenced by Pablo Picasso and Kurt Schwitters, Brooks excelled at combining drawn elements with printed and found papers. While mostly abstract, his collages often suggest meanings with texts that hint at the work’s content. Many collages in the exhibition were poster designs for the Festival de San Miguel de Allende, an annual international chamber music event, and include names of composers as well as music titles. All of the collages on view are recent gifts to the McNay from Gilberto Munguia, an internationally recognized cellist, founder of the Festival de San Miguel, and a good friend of Leonard Brooks. These collages are on public view at the McNay for the first time.

This exhibition was organized by the McNay Art Museum.

The Elizabeth Huth Coates Exhibition Endowment and the Arthur and Jane Stieren Fund for Exhibitions are generously funding this exhibition.

As a native Minnesotan, Chris Larson is well acquainted with the cold. However, in his single channel video, Deep North (8:16 min.) the artist’s familiarity with subzero temperatures is taken to an extreme. After experiencing a severe ice storm while visiting Versoix, Switzerland, in 2005, Larson decided to recreate the scene, one he recalled as being at once “gorgeous and apocalyptic.” In February of 2008, he constructed a small house (including a makeshift factory), doused it in water, and allowed thick icicles to form. Deep North depicts the artist’s construction both frozen in time and hard at work. Still, quiet images of the home’s interior precede those of the factory, noisily churning out mysteriously shaped ice products. Larson’s work seeks to comment on a range of themes, from climate change to the monotony of industrial life; however, the ultimate interpretation is left for the viewer to decide.

Born in 1966 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Chris Larson earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Bethel College, St. Paul, in 1990, and his Master of Fine Arts at Yale University School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1992. His work is found in the collections of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota; the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; the Staatliche Museum, Berlin; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Chris Larson currently lives and works in St. Paul.

Deep North is presented courtesy of Magnus Müller, Berlin, and the artist.

Fiesta, Fête, Festival
Selections from the Tobin Collection
January 16 | June 9, 2013

Fiesta, Fête, Festival moves from San Antonio to Seville, Venice, Versailles, St. Petersburg, and other cities to celebrate some of the world’s great festivals. Scene and costume designs from the Tobin Collection reveal that San Antonio’s own Fiesta—from NIOSA and Charreada to the Coronation of the Queen of the Order of the Alamo and Cornyation—belongs to a rich tradition of popular and court celebrations. The exhibition focuses on festivals in Spain, Italy, and Russia: Feria de Abril, with its flamenco dancers and matadors; pre-Lenten Carnevale, with its masked balls; and Shrovetide Fair and Yarmarka (yearly markets), with their fairground amusements. Full of human drama and local color, festivals inspired modern ballets and operas by Bizet, Ravel, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, and Verdi. These musical works are brought to life in scene and costume designs by some of the Tobin Collection’s most famous artists, including Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois, and Natalia Gontcharova. Other showcased treasures from the Tobin Collection are festival books from the 1600s to the 1800s that resonate with Fiesta today. European courts—the Medici, the Bourbons, the Hapsburgs, and the Romanovs—all used elaborate pageantry as tools of domestic politics and international statecraft. Engravings record a river parade on the Arno in Florence, fireworks in the gardens at Versailles, and the coronation of Tsar Alexander II in Kremlin Square. These and other courtly fêtes offer fascinating parallels with San Antonio’s Fiesta events.

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This exhibition was organized by the McNay Art Museum and is a program of the Tobin Theatre Arts Fund.