MFAH’s Ceramics, Modernity and Royals Exhibits Coming to a Close

Visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, have a few weeks left to view some incredible sights with several exhibits and even events to commemorate the Royals who have been visiting.

Don’t miss out on some of the fun and distinctive, beautiful art. Get all the details for admission and more at www.mfah.org.

Andy Warhol, Queen Elizabeth II

EVENTS:

“Royals” Doggie Day: (Saturday, January 12: 1–4 p.m.)

Bring your favorite canine pals to a fun-filled afternoon on The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza. Dress up your crowd-friendly, leashed dogs in their regal best for a royal pawrade and costume contest with special guest judges. Enjoy a doggie portrait photo booth, art-making activities, refreshments, and more.

The winner of the “Most Regal” dog costume competition receives a dog-spa appointment valued at $150. Be sure to visit Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol before or after the event for inspiration from 500 years of British royalty.

This event is free. Admission to “Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol” is available separately.

EXHIBITS:

The Connoisseur’s Eye: New Perspectives on Ceramics in the Rienzi Collection, closing Sunday, January 13

photo: MFAH

Rienzi, the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts, presents special exhibitions twice a year. The estate is the former home of philanthropists Carroll Sterling Masterson and Harris Masterson III, who were known for collecting fine ceramics. The Connoisseur’s Eye: New Perspectives on Ceramics in the Rienzi Collection highlights their extensive collection of porcelain.

Recent research has uncovered new information on pieces from lesser-known factories in Europe, including Longton Hall Porcelain, the Naples Royal Porcelain Factory, and St. James’s Porcelain Factory.

These discoveries shed new light on the Mastersons’ wide-ranging interests as collectors. The Connoisseur’s Eye expands the story of 18th-century ceramics in the Rienzi Collection beyond the holdings from major porcelain factories such as Meissen, Sèvres, and Worcester.

Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975, closing January 21

Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975 charts the trajectory of the Venezuelan Informalist movement from the mid-1950s through its last manifestations in the 1970s. More than 100 works of art across a variety of media—collage, painting, assemblage, photography—showcase the richness and complexity of the underrepresented movement.

Informalism embraced many of the abstract gestural tendencies that developed in Venezuela at the same time as North America’s Abstract Expressionism and Europe’s Tachisme and Art Informel. This exhibition brings together works of art from the collection of Mercantil Arte y Cultura in Caracas as well as from other public and private collections in Venezuela and the United States.

Organized into five sections, Contesting Modernity presents works by internationally renowned figures such as Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gego, Alejandro Otero, and Jesús Rafael Soto. Many practitioners of the movement are represented, including Alberto Brandt, Elsa Gramcko, Fernando Irazábal, Francisco Hung, Mercedes Pardo, and Maruja Rolando to name a few.

photos: V. Sweeten

Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol, closing January 27

Paul Delaroche, The Execution of Lade Jane Grey

Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits from Holbein to Warhol sheds new light on changing ideas of monarchy and nationhood in Britain. The exhibition features portraits of British royalty spanning 500 years, by artists from Hans Holbein and Sir Joshua Reynolds to Annie Leibovitz and Andy Warhol.

In a sweeping survey, Tudors to Windsors covers the cavalcade of kings, queens, princes, and princesses who have graced the British crown.

The MFAH is the only U.S. venue to host this unprecedented exhibition, part of a major partnership with the National Portrait Gallery in London. Some 150 objects—most never before seen outside of England—tell the story of Britain’s monarchy through masterworks of painting, sculpture, and photography.

Visitors have an extraordinary opportunity to come face-to-face with the fascinating figures of British royalty. Tudors to Windsors explores four royal dynasties: the House of Tudor (1485–1603), the House of Stuart (1603–1714), the House of Hanover (1714–1901), and the present-day House of Windsor.

Among the many works of art on view are portraits featuring King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I, King George I, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, and Prince William.

photos: MFAH