All in a Day’s Work: George Grosz in Dallas

On May 13, 1952 George Grosz arrived in Dallas to begin work on his Impressions of Dallas series. 60 years ago today, according to entries from Grosz’s diary, he met the DMFA’s director Jerry Bywaters and later in the day enjoyed a cocktail party at the Cipango Club. You can view twenty works from his series this Sunday when Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz in Dallas opens at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Leon Harris, left, welcomes Reeves Lewenthal, center, and George Grosz at Love Field Airport, May 13, 1952. Clint Grant Collection, Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division. PA2001-1/17.

George Grosz sketching in front of the skyline of Dallas, May 16, 1952. Archiv Bildende Kunst, Akademie der Kϋnste

Mother’s Day flashback

We were poking around in the Museum’s archives and found this Dallas Morning News article from May 15, 1949, featuring mothers at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. It could be fun to re-create the photos and treat your mom to a beautiful Mother’s Day at the DMA this Sunday.

Dallas Morning News Staff Photos by Ed Miley, May 15, 1949.

 

 

Dallas Morning News Staff Photos by Ed Miley, May 15, 1949.

 

Dallas Morning News Staff Photos by Ed Miley, May 15, 1949.

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

L’histoire des Beaux Arts Ball

With Art Ball held this past Saturday, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the Art Ball’s origins in the Beaux Arts Ball. The Beaux Arts Ball was first held in 1962 as a fundraising event organized by the Museum League. The Beaux Arts Ball was a lavish, themed costume ball. Here are some of my favorite Beaux Arts Ball themes and costumes from the first 30 years.

Doris Jacoby Photography

(left to right) Actress Greer Garson and Mrs. Royal Miller (Jody) at the 1967 Beaux Arts Ball, “Arabian Nights.”

From the collection of the Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library

DMFA director Merrill Rueppel as the mad hatter for the 1971 Beaux Arts Ball, “The Mad Hatter’s Hoedown.”

Photo by Bob Jackson, Society Publications Inc.

(left to right) Doug and Patty Campbell, Eric Graham, George Lee, Schatzie Lee, and Eleanor Graham at the 1974 Beaux Arts Ball, “An Elizabethan Evening.”

Photo by Andy Hanson

Idelle and Leon Rabin at the 1975 Beaux Arts Ball, “A Deco Dance.”

Photo by Andy Hanson

(left to right) Unidentified, Jo Cleaver, Anne Bromberg, and Alan Bromberg at the 1981 Beaux Arts Ball, “An Evening of Fantasy.”

Photo by Tom Jenkins

Director Richard R. Brettell and Carol Brettell at the 1991 Beaux Arts Ball, “Le Grande Bal Masque des Beaux Arts.”

Photo by Tom Jenkins

An impressive peacock-esque dress at the 1991 Beaux Arts Ball, “Le Grande Bal Masque des Beaux Arts.”

Another bird-themed ensemble at the 1991 Beaux Arts Ball, “Le Grande Bal Masque des Beaux Arts”

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Why did the cougar come to the Museum?

To star in a commercial!

In 1990 a car commercial was filmed in front of the Museum’s Ceremonial Entrance at Harwood and Flora streets. As you can see, he drew quite a crowd.

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The Dallas Museum of Art’s Founding Women

In honor of Women’s History Month, we would like to introduce you to the founder and first four women presidents of the Dallas Art Association from the first decade of the 20th century. The Dallas Art Association (DAA) was founded in 1903 to offer art interest and education through exhibitions and lectures; to purchase works of art on a regular basis and form a permanent collection; to sponsor the work of local artists; to solicit support of the arts from individuals and businesses; and to honor citizens who support the arts. The DAA, after a number of name changes, became the Dallas Museum of Art.

Mrs. May Dickson Exall is considered to be the founder of the Dallas Art Association. In January 1903, Mrs. Exall, then president of the Dallas Carnegie Library Board of Trustees, invited all those interested to meet in the Art Room of the library to form a permanent art organization. About 80 people attended and the new organization was named the Dallas Art Association, and a 21-member board of trustee was established.

Mrs. Grace Leake Dexter was the first president of the Dallas Art Assocation for 1903, and was a board member from 1903 to 1906. Mrs. Dexter was an amateur painter and a civic leader.

From the Collection of the Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library; Image #PA92-1/22

Mrs. Lulie Huey Lane was President in 1907. Mrs. Lane was a gifted musician with an unusually fine voice and also held leadership roles in a variety of other civic organizations.

Mrs. Robbie Buckner Westerfield was DAA president in 1908. She was also a leader in religious and women’s club work in Dallas.

1923.2 "Portrait of Mrs. George K. Meyer" by Francis Luis Mora. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase

Mrs. Sallie Griffis Meyer was president of the DAA from 1909 to 1926. Mrs. Meyer was one of Dallas’s earliest and most prominent arts patrons. In addition to her long tenure as DAA president, she was also superintendent in charge of art for the State Fair of Texas.

Discover more about the DMA’s history on the Museum’s web site.

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The day we shot J.R., and the rest of the Ewing clan

There has been a lot of attention in Dallas on the filming of the television remake of Dallas, and the DMA is joining in on the fun. Sue Ellen Ewing, or as some of you may know her, Linda Gray, has visited The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier three times already (be sure to see the exhibition before it closes on February 12). It sparked our memory of a previous visit the Dallas cast made to the Museum when they visited our Wendy and Emery Reves Collection in 1986. Below are a few images we pulled from the archives.

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Kimberly Daniell is the Public Relations Specialist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

At the Texas State Fair

From 1936 to 1983 the Dallas Museum of Art was located in Fair Park and usually saw its highest attendance during the State Fair.

Here, with museum guard Teddy Farrell, are two of the more than 90,000 people who visited the Museum during  the 1953 Texas State Fair.

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Posting the Past: Our ECO Project

So you had a Behind the Scenes peek in the Archives last month. Curious about what’s actually in some of those boxes?  The Archives’ Exhibition Catalogs Online (ECO) project will allow you to see some of the most interesting things from the DMA’s exhibition archive online.

The ECO project is generously funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Access to Artistic Excellence program. Through the project, we are digitizing DMA-published exhibition catalogues and related unpublished material for exhibitions held between 1903 and 1983. The archives have partnered with the University of North Texas’s Digital Projects Unit to scan the published items and make them available on the Portal to Texas History. They will begin appearing in the Portal later this fall. The unpublished material is being scanned in-house and will also be added to the Portal.

All of the exhibition material digitized through the ECO project will be available on the DMA website beginning Fall 2012 via an interface that is being developed through another NEA grant-funded project, Access to Archival Exhibition Resources Online (AAERO). There will be more on AAERO to come, but you can read the press release now.

Below is just a sample of the kinds of things that will soon be available digitally.

Checklist – Texas Panorama, October 10–November 28, 1943

Advertisement – Famous American Paintings, October 9–November 7, 1948

Catalog Cover – Signposts of Twentieth Century Art, October 28–December 7, 1959 (DMCA)

Entry Requirements – 11th Southwestern Exhibition of Prints and Drawings, January 22–February 19, 1961

Poster – The Arts of Man, October 6–January 1, 1963

Invitation – Art of the Congo, October 5–November 3, 1968

Press release – Dallas Collects: Impressionist and Early Modern Masters, January 25–February 26, 1978

Installation diagram – Visions: James Surls, 1974–1984, December 2, 1984–January 13, 1985

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.

A Gem of a Diamond Anniversary

With the 75th anniversary of the Texas Centennial Exposition around the corner, we decided to dive into our archives and share some of our finds with you. 

Texas Centennial Exposition ticket

Seventy-five years ago, in the summer of 1936, people throughout Texas and the United States traveled to Dallas for the Texas Centennial Exposition. The Exposition, held at Fair Park, was both a world’s fair and a gateway to attractions and events throughout the state celebrating the 100th anniversary of Texas’s independence from Mexico.

The following four photographs are from a set of twenty images  published by John Sirigo, official photographer for the Texas Centennial Exposition, as “Genuine Official Photographs, No. 1.”

Texas Centennial Exposition, Esplanade and Exhibit Buildings

Texas Centennial Exposition, Midway

Texas Centennial Exposition, State Building

Texas Centennial Exposition, Ford Building

Advertised as An Empire on Parade, attractions included the Esplanade of State; exhibit halls and sponsored pavilions focusing on major industries in Texas; The Cavalcade of Texas, a living saga of over four hundred years of Texas history; Sinclair’s Dinosaurs, a prehistoric “zoo” of dinosaur reproductions; The Old West, with replicas of historic buildings; the Midway; and the Civic Center, made up of six units of cultural and educational attractions.

Souvenir Guide

Postcard view of museum building (E.C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee, Wis.)

The Hall of Fine Arts, the largest building in the Civic Center, was the permanent home of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, now the Dallas Museum of Art, for nearly fifty years. For the Exposition, the Museum held an enormous exhibition of paintings, sculpture, and graphic arts, including European art from before 1500 to contemporary Texas painting and everything in between. The exhibition, which filled the whole building, included almost six hundred works of art loaned by ninety-six major museums, galleries, private collectors, and artists.

Texas Centennial Exposition, Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture & Graphic Arts, catalog cover

The French Room at the Texas Centennial Exhibition included works by Manet, Renoir, Picasso, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Grant Wood's "Amercian Gothic" was in the Contemporary American Paintings section of the Texas Centennial Exhibition.

The Texas Centennial Exposition ran from June 6 to November 29, 1936, and over six million people attended. Exhibit halls constructed for the Exposition still form the core buildings at Fair Park.

Hillary Bober is the Digital Archivist at the Dallas Museum of Art.