The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010 October 25, 2020–January 10, 2021
Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1633, oil on wood, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by various lenders in memory of Caroline Wiess Law.
Georgia O’Keeffe, Red Hill and White Shell, 1938, oil on canvas, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of Isabel B. Wilson in memory of her mother, Alice Pratt Brown. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Koei (Unkei IX), Amida, 1472, wood with traces of polychrome, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund.
Installation view of The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010. Center: Joseph Havel, Torn and Twisted Curtain, 2004–2005, bronze, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum commission funded by Mr. and Mrs. Meredith J. Long, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Nona and Richard Barrett, the Carruth Foundation, Inc., Bryant M. and Nancy C. Hanley, Jr., Leslie and Brad Bucher, Eliza Lovett Randall, Isla and Tommy Reckling, Nina and Michael Zilkha, the Stanford and Joan Alexander Foundation, Claire and Doug Ankenman, Jr., Carol C. and A. Leslie Ballard, Jr., Jeffery and Toni Beauchamp, Blake Byrne, Sara Paschall Dodd Spickelmier and Keith Spickelmier, Kay and Al Ebert, Samuel F. Gorman, Diana and Russell Hawkins, Janet and Paul Hobby, the Eric and Karen Pulaski Philanthropic Fund of the Houston Jewish Community Foundation, Alice C. Simkins, Alton and Emily Steiner, Herbert Wells, Isabel B. and Wallace S. Wilson, the Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation on behalf of Jean Karotkin, Jill and Dunham Jewett, Frank Ribelin, Karol Howard and George Morton, Jan Diesel, and Randee and Howard Berman. © Joseph Havel
Luis Jiménez, Man on Fire, 1969–70, fiberglass with urethane finish on painted fiberboard base, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund. © Estate of Luis A. Jiménez, Jr. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Edvard Munch, Liebendes Weib (Madonna), 1895–1902, lithograph on grey-green wove paper, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Fayez Sarofim and Meredith J. Long in honor of Barry Walker at “One Great Night in November, 2003.”
Persian, Mountain Goat, c. 3000 BC, silver, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by the Honorable and Mrs. Hushang Ansary, the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund, and the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund.
As director of the MFAH from 1982 to 2010, Peter C. Marzio ushered the Museum into a remarkable era of growth, with the expansion of the permanent collection from 14,000 to 62,000 works of art; the development of the Isamu Noguchi–designed Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden in 1986 and the Rafael Moneo–designed Audrey Jones Beck Building in 2000; and the land purchase for the site of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, opening in November 2020.
The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010 celebrates Marzio’s extraordinary achievements by spotlighting important acquisitions, landmark collection initiatives, and departments established during his tenure.
Before he arrived at the MFAH, Marzio served as director of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, and prior to that as curator of prints at the Smithsonian Institution. Marzio (1943–2010) was a specialist in American civilization and material culture, and as a result, he took a broader view of modern art than his predecessors. He saw opportunity and delight in unexplored domains, such as art by African Americans, self-taught artists, Texas artists, and Latino and Latin American artists. He helped found the MFAH International Center for the Arts of the Americas, an influential initiative in the study and collecting of Latin American Modernism, and he made important acquisitions of art by contemporary Asian artists, a first for Houston.
Among the many artists represented in this exhibition are John Biggers, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Imogen Cunningham, Nan Goldin, Franz Kline, Edvard Munch, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Rembrandt van Rijn, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol. Also featured are antiquities; selections from the Glassell gold collections; and works reflecting the MFAH partnership with the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. Selections from major collections that entered the Museum during these years are highlighted as well, such as the Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection of contemporary ceramics; the Manfred Heiting Collection of photographs; and the Adolpho Leirner Collection of Brazilian Constructive art.
• Included with general admission. Advance timed tickets recommended.
The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010 | October 25, 2020–January 10, 2021
The Marzio Years: Transforming the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1982–2010 is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Generous funding for this exhibition is provided by Luther King Capital Management.