Lecture | A Deeper Look at the Beck Collection Thursday, February 27, 2025 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Henri Matisse, Woman in a Purple Coat, 1937, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection, gift of Audrey Jones Beck. © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
František Kupka, The Yellow Scale, c. 1907, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection, Museum purchase funded by Audrey Jones Beck. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Gustave Caillebotte, The Orange Trees, c. 1878, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection, Museum purchase funded by Audrey Jones Beck. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, A Girl Reading, c. 1890, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection, Museum purchase funded by Audrey Jones Beck. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris
February 27, 2025
Helga Aurisch, curator of European art, shares fresh insights from her work on the updated catalogue of the John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection. An in-depth study of archival material from the Hirsch Library and Rice University’s Woodson Research Center reveals fascinating details about the Becks, their collecting practices, and the artworks themselves. Writer Steven Fenberg, who knew Audrey Jones Beck personally, adds heartfelt stories and perspectives on her extraordinary legacy.
Plan Your Visit
- This program is free with Museum admission.
- The lecture takes place in Brown Auditorium Theater on the lower level of the Law Building. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Parking Information | Museum Hours | MFAH Campus Map
About the Speakers
Helga Kessler Aurisch serves as the curator of European art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Born in Germany and raised in New York, she earned her undergraduate degree in art history from Smith College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Vienna and the University of Freiburg. Since then, she has curated numerous acclaimed exhibitions, including Monet and the Seine: Impressions of a River, High Society: The Portraits of Franz X. Winterhalter, and Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art. A widely published scholar and frequent lecturer, she is an authority on 19th-century art.
Steven Fenberg is a writer, biographer, and formerly of the Houston Endowment. Fenberg is the author of Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism and the Common Good and executive producer and co-writer of Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? an Emmy Award–winning PBS documentary film narrated by Walter Cronkite.
All Learning and Interpretation programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive generous support from H-E-B; Institute of Museum and Library Services; Sempra Foundation; the Brown Foundation, Inc.; the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; the Joe Barnhart Foundation; the Cockrell Family Fund; the CFP Foundation; Macey and Harry Reasoner; the Texas Commission on the Arts; and the Junior League of Houston, Inc.
Endowment funds are provided by the Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest; Caroline Wiess Law; Windgate Foundation; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Fondren Foundation; BMC Software, Inc.; the Wallace Foundation; the Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund; the Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation; Medha and Shashank Karve; Virginia and Ira Jackson; Jesse H. Jones II; the CFP Foundation; the Favrot Fund; gifts in memory of John Wynne; Neiman Marcus Youth Arts Education; gifts in memory of Peter Lotz; and gifts in honor of Beth Schneider.
On Thursdays, admission to the MFAH Permanent Collections is free, courtesy of Shell USA, Inc.