Douglas Newby Insights - Page 15
DMA Collection
There are many people responsible for acquiring an art museum’s collection and making an exhibition of some of that collection come to life. Dallas has many great art patrons. Dallas Museum of Art also has a fabulous director and innovative curators, along with a collection committee that acquires local, national and international work. Here, one enters this chapel sculpture, and I, by chance, had the opportunity to meet the artist and see the chair of the Art Acquisition Committee of the DMA admiring this work. It was fitting that I was in this sculpture of a chapel as I occasionally pray that the artwork buried somewhere in the Dallas Art Museum is unearthed and displayed. It was fun to see how excited Gayle was to see this piece of art in person that she had only previously seen in slides. What better way to view the graphically illustrated interior of this structure than with the artist and chair of the Art Acquisition Committee. *DMA Collection
#GayleStoffel #Chapel #GraphicArt #GraphicIllustrations #ArtMuseum #ArtInstallation #DallasMuseumOfArt #DMA #Art #Artist #DallasNeighborhood #Dallas #Modern #GraphicArt #GraphicIllustration
Narrow Perspective
Many acclaimed houses project a rather narrow perspective. They emphasize the architecture, design, art, engineering, technology, the latest materials and many windows. This piece of art captures all of that successfully, visually drawing me to it. However, the rugged modest representations of dwellings and space still have a more lingering effect and lasting impression on my imagination. *Narrow Perspective
#ContemporarySculpture #Design #ContemporaryArt #ModernArt #ArtMuseum #ArtCollection @DallasMuseumArt #DMA #Dallas #DallasArtsDistrict #Design #Contemporary Design #downtownneighborhood #dallasneighborhoods
Primitive Look at Houses
An artist pictures the life of a home that does not show up on an architect’s drawing board. This painting quickly caught my attention as one of my favorite clients who is from New Orleans has a painting by this female artist in her home. When I first saw it in her home I did not know the name of the artist. It was not prominently displayed over the fireplace, but it had museum quality about it. Sure enough, this artist was collected by the Dallas Museum of Art and displayed in this art exhibition about houses. The foremost quality of a home is that it should make people happy. The artist captures the happiness this home generates. *Primitive Look at Houses
#LouisianaArt #PrimitiveArt #PaintingOfHome #House #LouisianaNeighborhood @DallasMuseumArt #DMA #ArtCollection #Painting #Art
House of Illumination
Lighting is so critical for a home. In a forest or on a lake, a home might be illuminated by moonlight. In Highland Park, lighting designer John Watson invented moon lighting in trees that became a signature look of Dallas. Clear white light inside a home pleases homebuyers. Art lighting focuses attention on spaces or objects that are desirable attributes of a home. Windows create a desire to look inside a home, and once inside look out. What is better than multilight windows providing a glimpse of cupid inside that suggests pleasant residential dreams. In this art installation of a house, lighting is not serving as an amendment to the house, but it is the house. *House of Illumination
#NeonHouse #NeonVideo #VideoArt #ModernArt #ContemporaryArt #ContemporaryDesign #ArtOpening #ArtExhibition #Sculpture #Dallas #Neighborhood #DowntownNeighborhood
#DMA @DallasMuseumArt #Design #ContemporaryHome #ModernHomeCity #JoySpotting
Residential Angle
One of the great things about bringing work out of the DMA archives is that we have a chance to see great art that has been hidden. We also have the opportunity to see works of art we know and be reminded of the art collectors who donated the work to the Dallas Museum of Art. In Dallas, Roger Winter is a much-admired artist. I have always loved his work and even more his artist friendship with David McManaway, a longtime friend, neighbor and an artist I revere. Artists have a way of integrating art into their lives and incorporating their studios into their homes, or in some cases their home into their studios. I saw this early on from the home and studio of James Surls and many important Tremont artists who did much of their early work in Munger Place. Deep Ellum is a neighborhood with which I was very involved in the rezoning, preservation and early revitalization. I would visit the original 1800s formal living quarters over an original office or retail shop. This painting by Roger Winter, for me, is both nostalgic and hopeful. On the corner of the mixed-use neighborhood, you see the neoclassical columns that lead to a second-story residence over the Oasis restaurant. Streets are not closed off, forcing people to inhabit Disneyland-like plazas. Cars are still allowed on streets and pedestrians are still shown on the sidewalks with park benches nearby. The neighborhood looks like it might have had a better past and that it might have a better future, but it conveys opportunity and affordability and a pleasant scale that is lost with government subsidized five-story apartment buildings. *Residential Angle
#RogerWinter #MixedUseNeighborhood #ResidenceOverShop #Dallas @DallasMuseumArt #DMA #Painting #ArtOpening #Neighborhood #Residence #Home #art #artexhibition
Home Sweet Home
When I see affordable housing in the form of government projects, I recoil at how grim they are or will become. Whenever I see a modest single-family home in person, or a shotgun house, or simple houses depicted in art, I feel so happy that a low-income person can claim a home as their own. In the last few generations there are many prominent Dallas residents who spent their youth in sod houses such as architect David Williams, or Dogtrot frame houses, or small cottages, or even childhood homes like that of our former great city manager, John Ware, who was raised in a home with polished dirt floors. Aesthetically, I find this home poetic and beautiful—its materials, context, simplicity and what it represents. *Home Sweet Home
#AffordableHomes #SimpleHome #Art #PaintingOfHome #TinRoof #MetalRoof #Painting #Low-IncomeNeighborhood #ArtMuseum #ArtOpening #ArtExhibition #DMA @DallasMuseumArt #Dallas #Neighborhood
Lovers of Houses
Here is a house that I think @IngridFetell would love—a house that provokes dreams of joy. Here architecture and art from a distance transform, and as one gets closer, into a sense of play, an underrated aspect of any home. Flower boxes and cupid—what better way to bring in spring. *Lovers of Houses
#JoySpotting #Cupid #Neon #NeonSculpture #House #Windows #Home #Sculpture #ArtMuseum #DMA @DallasMuseumArt #Design #ContemporaryArt #DallasNeighborhood #DowntownNeighborhood #ArtsDistrict #DallasArtsDistrict #ArtOpening #ArtInstallation #ModernHomeDallas #art #architechture #home
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