West Coast art via East Coast collectors
The Eagle (collection) has landed in Houston: MFAH secures another arts coup
Torque Vessel, 1986. John Mason, American, born 1927. Stoneware. The Leatrice S.and Melvin B. Eagle Collection; gift of Leatrice and Melvin Eagle© John Mason
Lectern, 1975. Wendell Castle, American, born 1932. Oak. The Leatrice S. andMelvin B. Eagle Collection; gift of Leatrice and Melvin Eagle© Wendell Castle
Design devotees will soon be able to feast on a fresh collection of decorative art arriving at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Anticipate a crash course in California ceramics with the arrival of this West Coast-centric collection, which will offer selections by previously unrepresented artists in the museum collection.
The more than 160 works dating from the 1940s have been acquired through gift and purchase from Potomac, Md.-based collectors Leatrice and Melvin Eagle. The couple, who began assembling the works in the 1960s, may be unfamiliar names to Houston audiences, but attests MFAH director Peter C. Marzio, "Lee and Mel Eagle have been strong advocates of decorative arts and craft for decades and have been generously giving artwork to the museum for the past three years, now culminating with their gift of the collection itself."
Marzio adds, "Their collection is notable for its high level of quality, progressive aesthetic, and focus on the leading practitioners in the field. The museum and its trustees are grateful for this big-hearted gift that will further our ability to provide a comprehensive look at contemporary craft."
The represented artists revolutionized the design arena by advocating a sculptural and abstract aesthetic rather than the functional forms that had previously dominated the field.
"The addition of the Eagle Collection builds on the existing strength of the MFAH's ceramics holdings and fills some important gaps, including our holdings of works by seminal West Coast American artists and pioneering British potters of the 1940s to 1960s," says Cindi Strauss, MFAH curator of modern and contemporary decorative arts and design. "In addition, the Eagle's fiber art, studio furniture, jewelry, and other media make this a truly comprehensive collection and one which will have a great impact on future MFAH installations and special exhibitions."
The Eagle Collection includes extensive holdings of first generation California ceramists such as Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, David Gilhooly, John Mason, Ron Nagle, Ken Price and Peter Voulkos.. Represented artists that later picked up their mantle and further cemented California's reputation as an innovator in the field include Ralph Bacerra and Adrian Saxe.
What's more, the funk and assemblage works of West Coast ceramists will add new depth to the museum's collection, as the institution previously had only a small group of objects that address this distinguished period in American post-war art. While the collection is primarily American in scope, artists from Western Europe, Japan and Latin America are also thrown into the mix.
Works in other media substantiate the craft items, including furniture by Wendell Castle and Sam Maloof, two of the most renowned American studio craft furniture-makers. Expect to see major wall-hangings by Colombian artist Olga de Amaral and American fiber artists John Garrett, John McQueen and Cynthia Schira. Heavyweights in the represented jewelry and metalwork arena include Albert Paley, Robert Ebendorf, William Harper, Joyce Scott and Earl Pardon.
Master minimalist and stylistic shape-shifter Frank Stella will also come to the fore amid the collection's works on paper.
All together, the collection offers a perspective on the work of pioneering American artists of the mid-to-late 20th century.
These are precious items that have been spotlighted at retrospective and themed exhibitions throughout the United States, and they are now finding a permanent museum home in Houston. The Wendell Castle "Lectern" is already on view in the American galleries, and a grand exhibition of the collection is slated for late 2013.
Combined with the MFAH's sizable Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection of design objects, blossoming Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, emergence of award-winning furniture designer Michael Garman and a nascent program in industrial design at the University of Houston, the Eagle Collection should substantiate Houston's reputation as a preeminent axis for exhibiting and producing influential contemporary design.
