the new masters

Provocative, awe-inspiring Kehinde Wiley MFAH showcase remains this season's must-see exhibit

Houston art lovers who haven’t yet attended the “Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence” exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston are missing out on a showcase of jaw-dropping art.

The recently opened exhibit is an awe-inspiring collection of paintings and sculptures from the Los Angeles-born, Brooklyn-based artist of color, best known for creating a majestically leafy portrait of former President Barack Obama. Locals will remember that the MFAH was one of the rare museums to showcase the works — starting with a free opening weekend that became a city celebration.

While “An Archaeology of Solace” premiered earlier this year at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the MFAH is actually the first stop on its tour. Located in the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the exhibit is an overwhelming experience of Black power.

And it’s a power shift. While Wiley’s large-scale paintings and sculptures call to mind the heroes, martyrs, and saints of Western European historical art, they are unmistakably Black and brown subjects who suffer under “the specter of police violence and state control over the bodies of young Black and Brown people all over the world,” Wiley notes in an artist statement.

Thus, the rooms are all Black, as the gigantic oil-on-canvas paintings (a couple are practically the size of billboards) of laid-out Black bodies – usually rocking streetwear gear – are brightly spotlighted. Many of these works were inspired by historical pieces, mainly German artist Hans Holbein’s The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb.

The bronze sculptures are equally grand and striking. The most impressive one is the titular statue, a reworking of his 2019 sculpture Rumors of War. While the Rumors sculpture depicts an upright Black rider on a general’s horse, this sculpture features a fallen figure atop a horse.

Both sculptures are based on a monument to Confederate army General James Ewell Brown Stuart, which was removed and placed into storage in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd murder.

This entire exhibit was inspired by the worldwide outrage that transpired after Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Wiley himself explains the inspiration for the exhibit via the audio guide given to visitors:

The birth of the show starts as the world shuts down. As we see George Floyd slain in the streets of America, I get to work. I start thinking not only about this explosive moment that triggers the whole world into thinking about Black bodies in a different way, But I start thinking about imaging of bodies slain historically.

Fans of the artist can look forward to Kehinde Wiley merch upstairs in the gift shop. An obligatory exhibition catalog is for sale, as well as hoodies, umbrellas, bookbags, playing cards, coloring books, and more. Proceeds will go to the Black Rock Coalition, a New York-based artists’ collective.

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“Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Solace” will be on display at the Audrey Jones Beck Building of the MFAH (5601 Main St.). For exhibition schedule, tickets, and more, visit the MFAH online.

Kehinde Wiley, The Death of Hyacinth (Ndey Buri Mboup), 2022, oil on canvas

Wiley's The Death of Hyacinth (Ndey Buri Mboup), 2022.

MFAH will host two impressive American art exhibits this fall

Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Winslow Homer, Children Playing Under a Gloucester Wharf, 1880.

Houston art lovers can get a glimpse of a couple of impressive exhibits this fall at the MFAH. One is from a private Texas collection of American modernist paintings. The other is a collection of rarely seen Winslow Homer watercolors from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Opening October 25, American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection marks the first exhibition drawn from the renowned private collection of Texas philanthropist Charles Butt. With some 80 works, including by such iconic artists as Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Jacob Lawrence, this landmark presentation highlights a deeply personal collecting vision, offering a fresh perspective on American modernism and illuminating key movements and artistic voices that shaped the course of 20th-century art.

The exhibit’s sections reflect Charles Butt’s lifelong passions, which span a love for the sea, developed over Butt’s childhood spent in Corpus Christi, as well as works showcasing how landscape shaped America’s response to modernism, and how artists subverted landscape conventions to chart more personal journeys. A special section in the Houston presentation will be devoted to seven visionary watercolors by Charles Burchfield.

“Charles Butt is widely known in Texas for his philanthropy and abiding commitment to education,” Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, said in a statement. “Less known, until now, is his discerning eye and passion for American art, as expressed by some of our most accomplished artists in the 20th century. We are pleased to host his distinguished group of American modernist paintings in Houston, and grateful to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art for organizing the exhibition and this statewide Tour.”

The exhibit runs through January 18, 2027.

Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston opens November 1. This is a once-in-a-generation exhibition showcasing the watercolors of this quintessential New England artist, who captured the fleeting effects of light, atmosphere, and landscape on daily life in America during the transformative decades of the late 19th century. Houston is the only travel venue for this exhibition, following its debut last fall in Boston. The exhibit runs through February 7, 2027 and includes 50 watercolors by the artist, alongside a selection of his oils, drawings, and prints.

“We are thrilled that our colleagues in Boston have consented to share with us their definitive collection of works by Winslow Homer,” said Tinterow. “The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is not only one of the world’s premier art museums, but the longtime steward of the singular legacy of Winslow Homer. As a quintessential New England artist, Homer — much like his exact contemporary Mark Twain — captured life in America as it transformed from an agrarian economy to an industrial powerhouse. Because Homer's light-sensitive works on paper are normally kept in dark storage, this exhibition provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to see Homer's vision of our country, made visible only in Houston on the occasion of the nation’s semiquincentennial.”

Museum goers will find the exhibit organized chronologically, focusing on major chapters in Homer’s life. The arc demonstrates his evolution as an artist, capturing his fascination with the world around him. Paintings include Leaping Trout, from 1889, his first watercolor to be purchased by any museum, and Driftwood, his last watercolor.

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and originally apprenticed to a print shop, Homer covered the Civil War for Harper’s Weekly as an artist. Working in watercolor in the 1870s, he traveled through the Adirondacks, Massachusetts, Florida, and the Caribbean. He died in 1910, having spent the last decades of his life painting and working in Maine.

These two exhibitions are presented in conjunction with America 250 marking the semiquincentennial of America’s founding with a roster of more than 70 artworks from across its campus and collections that speak to the American experience.

Winslow Homer, Children Playing Under a Gloucester Wharf, 1880.

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