Douglas Newby Insights - Page 17
For a Dreamer of Houses
For a Dreamer of Houses. This Dallas Museum of Art installation is a perfect exhibition for someone like me who likes looking at art that celebrates houses more than going through a conveyor belt of generic houses. Most real estate agents and many others love going through any house. I don’t particularly love going through houses, but I do love spending enormous amounts of time in a home that captures my imagination. It might be the proportions, the materials, the relationship to the site, the context to the neighborhood, city, history, or might provoke a feeling of contentment, nostalgia, or optimism. I maybe even love more looking at art about homes. Art, whether it is photographs, paintings, sculpture or mixed media, goes deeper on why homes impact us in such a powerful and sometimes unknown way. Why does one enter one home and feel good and then enter another home and feel like one’s consciousness has just taken a beating? This exhibition curated from the DMA’s permanent collection conveys grand homes, futuristic spaces, modest homes and sacred spaces, but each piece provides a sense of exhilaration and is a reminder of the impact residential space has on the essence of one’s being. As you enter the art exhibition, you will see at the end of a long approach a simple classic shape of a pitched roof house framed by a glorious and grand barrel vault. This is the perfect site for a house framed by neon tubes generating joy. *For a Dreamer of Houses
@DallasMuseumArt #DMA #Art #Neon #VideoArt #ContemporaryHouse #BarrelVault #Dallas #DallasArtsDistrict #ArtExhibition #DowntownNeighborhood #ArtOpening #Sculpture #ArtsDistrict #ContemporaryArt #ModernArt #House #Home
Morse Curate and Illuminate
Jed Morse curates and illuminates the Barry X Ball Remaking Sculpture exhibition and animates the Renzo Piano-designed Nasher in the heart of Dallas’ downtown neighborhood. The translucence of stone sculptures intensely lit radiates a jewel-like quality while exuding equal parts historicity and technology. We are so lucky to have Nasher Director Jeremy Strick and Curator Jed Morse in Dallas bringing an outstanding series of exhibitions to Dallas and the Arts District. Thank you, Jeremy and Jed. *Morse Curate and Illluminate
@barry_x_ball #barry_x_ball #JedMorse #JeremyStrick #NasherSculptureCenter #ArtsDistrict #DallasArtsDistrict #Dallas #MuseumOpening #ArtOpening #Art #Artist #Sculpture #StoneSculpture #DallasNeighborhood #Design #ModernArt #ContemporaryArt #DowntownDallas #Downtown #Exhibition #modern #city
History Files
History is filed in so many ways. The history of neighborhoods is exhibited like the rings of a tree. Newspaper files are a treasure trove of illuminating the history and the provenance of houses, architects, and events that shape a city. The hidden artwork stored in museums express the collecting fashion of past eras. A chronological sequence of presidential portraits, whether seen while in line at the original Highland Park Cafeteria, or at the Presidential Portrait Museum in Washington, D.C., provides a synopsis of U.S. history. What a fun surprise to see busts of historical figures at the Royal Academy mined from the archives. This exhibition reminds us how the temporal importance of an individual today fades to memory, while the impact of that person might linger forever. Historical exhibitions can seem like a dreary trudge through time, or like this vibrant collection of portrait sculptures, they can heighten one’s energy and awareness. I am still smiling at the visual of a bust of historic figures mounted on a file cabinet pedestal. Down the hall of the Royal Academy, one can see the retrospective and evolution of self-portraits of Lucian Freud—another march through history. At the National Gallery in a nearby neighborhood, the exhibition of Paul Gauguin portraits provided me the best understanding of Paul Gauguin as an artist in the time period in which he lived. Portraits capture the essence of the moment. Art retrospectives give us our clearest view of history. *History Files
#Busts #RoyalAcademy #History #HistoryFiles #Archives #Art #Sculpture #Neighborhood #Portrait #London #Exhibition
Archer Tales
Is there a better living storyteller than Jeffrey Archer? One of the things I love about Dallas is that prominent readers, artists, and authors will come through Dallas and one has a chance to meet them in a very intimate setting, where in New York one might be relegated to a back room for videofeed. Outside of Dallas, London is my favorite city because it is large and imposing like New York, but it has incredible intimacy and accessibility like Dallas. At Hatchard’s, my favorite bookstore, Jeffrey Archer spoke for over an hour and conversed for almost another hour with about 70 people that included his wife, son, original publisher that is pictured, his current editor, and many of his friends at the 40th Anniversary of the publication of Kane and Abel. I have always enjoyed his writing through the years, but there is something special about listening to an author, their thoughts, approach, and personal interest that gives even greater depth to their stories. Jeffrey Archer’s most current book Nothing Ventured is another one of his books I could not put down and read within a day or two. Thank you Hatchard’s for being such great literary sherpas and bringing in authors that revere Hatchard’s as much as we revere the authors. *Archer Tales
#JeffreyArcher #Author #BookSigning #Neighborhood #London #Books #Hatchards
Art Floods Architecture
One of my favorite pieces of art is from the collection of Heidi Dillon, a photograph of a model of a flooded room by James Casebere. Now to see at the Royal Academy an extraordinarily elegant and important historic room really flooded with a saline solution of clay by Antony Gormley was breathtaking. This transgression violates all principles of great architecture and yet it celebrates architecture. Rather than the panic that comes if a room in one’s own home floods, here there is a tranquility that transpires by the reflective depths of this flooded surface. The room is solid, it still stands, and might be even more beautiful as art floods the floor. *Art Floods Architecture
#AntonyGormley #RoyalAcademy #BurlingtonHouse #Architecture #Neighborhood #Gallery #Architect #Artist #Art #Sculpture #Historic #Modern #ContemporaryArt #HistoricallySignificant #Exhibition @heididillon_hfd
Architecture and Art
The Royal Academy is always one of my first stops in London. The approach to the Burlington House is a splendid prelude to the art and architecture one is about to see. Rather than an academy thwarting creative expression, it gives art and architecture a thoughtful curatorial foundation. The combination of artists and architects comprising the Academy tends to tether the artists by the precision and engineering of architects, and architects, in turn, might be provoked to work outside a grid. This combination of the influences of the Royal Academy always creates shows in an imposing historic space that is beautifully composed, exquisitely proportioned, and beautifully hung. The work of Antony Gormley creates additional appreciation for the architecture of each space that submitted to his strong work, with different expressions cascading from one gallery to the next. Art and architecture is so different, which makes both more powerful when it is intertwined at the Royal Academy. *Architecture and Art
#BurlingtonHouse #RoyalAcademy #AntonyGormley #Gallery #LondonNeighborhood #Architecture #Architect #Artist #Art #Sculpture #Historic #Modern #ContemporaryArt #HistoricallySignificant #Exhibition
Café Pacific – Menu for Holiday
New red menus were just published for the holiday season at Café Pacific. Jack Knox’s iconic Highland Park restaurant is on the holiday menu for so many in Dallas. Its clublike atmosphere has the best combination of great food by the talented chef Terry Cook, the finest wait staff in Dallas, tradition and vibrancy that transcends the age and wealth of many of its longtime patrons. Holiday cheer exudes from Café Pacific for those returning to Dallas, those currently living in Dallas, and those new to Dallas that quickly discover Café Pacific. No restaurant says Highland Park and Dallas better than Café Pacific. Thank you, Jack Knox! And many thanks to all of those that contribute to the service, fun, and civility that one always enjoys at lunch or dinner—Manager Dieter Krappl, Elizabeth, Emory, Peter, Mark, Lazlo, Walter …
*Café Pacific – Menu for Holiday
#CafePacific #JackKnox #HighlandParkVillage #Holiday #DallasRestaurant #DallasInstitution #HighlandPark #Dallas #dallasneighborhoods
Shoots Legends – Is Legend
Andy Hanson was a high society and event newspaper photographer that shot and captured Dallas. The lens of Andy Hanson chronicled the history of Dallas and interpreted Dallas for the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century. Andy Hanson was a prominent figure with a subtle presence that caught the essence of celebrities, entertainers, sports figures, Dallas leaders, and socialites. I purchased three of his photographs at a gallery over 30 years ago because they were fabulous photographs and to me conveyed Dallas. His portrait of H.L. Hunt at his desk with an oil derrick on it, looking out his office window at the Dallas skyscrapers, projected the iconic bigness of Dallas. The photograph of the Beatles at their Dallas press conference, when on their first U.S. tour, showed that Dallas was an emerging city attracting this Fab Four sensation. The photograph of Judy Garland on a rainy night looking out her limousine rear window, leaving the Majestic out the backdoor just a step ahead of the tax man as she made her escape, invoked the stories I heard from longtime Dallas residents and their memories of Dallas. Memories have been shared from a time when Dallas had one foot in an intimate small town and one foot in a bigtime city. Even when Dallas was small, it attracted national politicians and talented artists, both those emerging and those that had arrived. Dallas has been a city big enough to attract the most prominent figures and small enough for the average person to meet them. We were always able to meet them in the newspaper where Andy Hanson photographs would greet us. I would never think of having a party without Andy Hanson both as a guest and a photographer. Everyone with an interest in art, photography, or Dallas, should see this exhibition at the SMU DeGolyer Library. *Shoots Legends – Is Legend
#DeGolyerLibrary #SMU @AllisonVSmith @avose #AndyHanson #evanscaglage #photographer #SocietyPhotographs #art #art opening #photography #DallasTimesHerald #Dallas #photograph #dallasneighborhoods @ecaglage
I.M. Pei Eye
Now, whenever I see the Chillida sculpture in front of the Meyerson Symphony Center, I will think of the triangulation of the architect I.M. Pei, the artist Eduardo Chillida, and Dallas inspirational citizen Margaret McDermott. A letter from I.M. Pei to Eduardo Chillida expressing his pleasure of meeting Eduardo Chillida and seeing his work is displayed next to the letter from Margaret McDermott to Eduardo Chillida. *I.M. Pei Eye
#Architect #IMPei #MargaretMcDermott #MeyersonSymphonyCenter #ChillidaSculptureDallas #DowntownDallas #DallasNeighborhood #ArtsDistrict #DallasArtsDistrict #PublicArt #Architecture #LandscapeDesign #Museum #Art #Artist #Sculpture #SculptureMuseum @ChillidaLeku #Chillida #ChillidaLeku #EduardoChillida #Basque #HernaniSpain
Basque Artist Links to Dallas
The letter from Margaret McDermott to Eduardo Chillida was the biggest surprise of the museum. I had already been surprised by the size and seclusion of the glorious land, the captivating sculpture, and you can imagine how surprised I was by finding on the display table inside the museum a letter from Margaret McDermott to Eduardo Chillida inviting him to lunch at her home in Dallas to further discuss this site and his sculpture for the new Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. I am sure I am not alone in not knowing or forgetting that the sculpture in front of the Meyerson Symphony Hall in Dallas was designed by Eduardo Chillida. This is an important piece for Dallas and was an important commission for the artist. How fun that Margaret McDermott linked the two in Dallas. *Basque Artist Links to Dallas
#MargaretMcDermott #MeyersonSymphonyCenter #ChillidaSculptureDallas #DowntownDallas #DallasNeighborhood #ArtsDistrict #DallasArtsDistrict #PublicArt #Architecture #LandscapeDesign #Museum #Art #Artist #Sculpture #SculptureMuseum @ChillidaLeku #Chillida #ChillidaLeku #EduardoChillida #Basque #HernaniSpain