Inside the MFAH Archive for February 2012


“Inside the MFAH” provides perspectives, conversations, and opinions from insiders at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.


  • Anne Wilkes Tucker - Press Room
    The Kodak Era: A Conversation with MFAH Curator Anne Tucker (part 1 of 3) February 17, 2012
    When Eastman Kodak Co. filed for bankruptcyin January, the news didn’t just mark a drastic point in a company’s history—it marked the end of an era. After all, the story of Kodak is not simply one of economics, but one of innovation, nostalgia, and heritage. With its invention in 1935 of Kodachrome film, the first commercially successful amateur color film, Kodak forever changed how we view the …
  • Smith- Sampler
    Sampling History: A Hidden Chapter Revealed February 16, 2012
    Bayou Bend has acquired a rare sampler, skillfully stitched by an African American girl born in 1829. Mary J. Greenfield Smith was a student at the school of the Oblate Sisters of Providence—the first Roman Catholic society for women of African descent in the United States. The Oblate sisters founded a school that embraced a curriculum similar to schools for white girls of the time: preparing …
  • Olitski- Patutszky Pleasures
    Stains, Sprays, and Splendor Fill the Canvases of Color Field Painter Jules Olitski February 15, 2012
    Color Fieldpainter Jules Olitski didn’t stay in one place very long, artistically speaking. Unlike his contemporaries—Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland—Olitski changed his artistic techniques frequently. “Olitski is unique among the Color Field painters in the rapidity of his evolution,” says Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of contemporary art and special projects. Greene …