A collection of works of diverse artists who changed the aesthetic landscape in Texas.

September 18–October 8, 2014

Texas might have been one of the last states of the Union where a person could expect to find a vital current of modernist painting and sculpture in the mid-twentieth century. Texas popular taste in art, like the majority of Americans, favored traditional modes. Modern art originated in Europe, a fact that seems antithetical to the independent spirit of Texas, with its historical struggles against foreign intervention. Yet the same Texas that encouraged political independence and free-spirited citizens turned out to be fertile ground for an autonomous spirit in sculpture and painting. For centuries, Texas has been shaped by the geologic characteristics of its land as well as by the rugged determination of those who choose to inhabit it. The state's vast geography and secessionary zeal allowed artists to work in whatever style of art they pleased. Many drew literal and metaphoric inspiration from the land; still others abandoned any semblance of mimetic representation. Some Texas modernists were indeed independent-minded and passionate, embodying a new incarnation of the Texas myth.

Adapted from Katie Robinson Edwards, Ph.D, Midcentury Modern Art in Texas (University of Texas Press, 2014)

Curated by Sally Reynolds

In cooperation with the artists and William Reaves Fine Art, LLC

Photographs by Dawn Baxter