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In This Issue
Editors' Comments
2011 Symposium
Board Activities
Features - Board Members
Museum Exhibitions
Gallery Exhibitions
A Tribute to A.C. Cook
Special Feature: Working with A.C. Cook
Early Texas Art Trivia
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Contact Information
Board Chair
Stephen Alton
[email protected]

Newsletter Editors
D. Jack and Gail Davis
[email protected]

CASETA Headquarters
Becky Tiemann
Madeleine Crouch & Co.
14070 Proton Road
Suite 100
Dallas, Texas 75244
Phone: 972.233.9107 x215
Fax: 972.490.4219
[email protected]

NEWSLETTERNovember 2010
Chair's Comments 
Stephen Alton
Stephen Alton, Chair

Greetings!  As the new Chair of the Board of CASETA, I'd like to welcome you.  As you no doubt know (as evidenced by the fact that you're receiving this newsletter), our organization promotes awareness and study of early Texas art.  Whether you are a long-time member of CASETA or a new friend, we appreciate your interest in early Texas art and your support of CASETA. 

 

As our organization begins another exciting year, I would like to share with you some of the recent happenings and changes.

 

         New Board Officers.  As of September 1, 2010, CASETA has a slate of new board officers, chaired by yours truly, of Fort Worth.  Our other board officers are Dr. Francine Carraro of Abilene, Vice-Chair; Mr. Mark Kever of McKinney, Treasurer; and Mr. David Spradling of Austin, Secretary. 

 

         New Location. At the end of August 2010, CASETA moved its offices from the campus of Texas State University (TSU), where we had been located. TSU was a good host; but, as it is growing, the space they had provided for us was needed for other use. We are most appreciative of their generosity in giving us a home for several years.

 

         New management team.  Effective August 31, 2010, our director, Ms. Courtney DiSabato of Austin, resigned her position with CASETA in order to pursue other interests. We wish Courtney all good things in her new undertakings. 

 

         CASETA is now being managed by the firm of Madeleine Crouch & Company of Dallas.  Crouch & Co. (and its predecessor) has been in the business of managing non-profit organizations for over 20 years. Given this wealth of experience, we believe that the management of CASETA is in good hands.  Elsewhere in this newsletter you will find CASETA's new contact information, as well as some additional information about this transition in the management.

 

The CASETA Board believes that this is an exciting time for our organization and for early Texas art. We hope that you agree. If you are not already a member, we hope that you will join CASETA. We look forward to your contributions and to seeing you at our annual symposium in Dallas in April 2011. 

 

Stephen Alton

Chair


EDITORS' COMMENTS
The CASETA Newsletter, we believe, provides a vital link between the organization and its members.  The plan is to issue a Newsletter every other month, with an added special Symposium issue in April. With this issue we are introducing a format that we hope will meet the needs of the membership. Each month, we will include information about activities of the CASETA Board of Directors, as well as information about CASETA members. We want to keep you up to date on Symposium planning as well other early Texas art activities, including exhibitions at both museums and galleries and lectures and symposia related to early Texas art. At the end of each issue, we will include early Texas art trivia question(s); the first person to send us the correct answer - [email protected] - will receive a prize!  We urge each member to send us information that you may have about early Texas art activities, as well as newsworthy information about members (yourself as well as others).  Our goal is to provide the most comprehensvie and up-to-date information that we can assemble about early Texas art in each issue.  Thanks in advance to each of you for your assistance and your support.  We welcome suggestions at any time.

 

Gail & Jack Davis

2011 SYMPOSIUM

SAVE THE DATE - April 15-17, 2011

9th Annual Texas Art Fair and
Symposium on Early Texas Art

Sheraton Dallas Hotel
400 North Olive Street
Dallas, Texas

Program:
The Artist Colony at Christoval - Howard Taylor
Early Texas Folk Artists - Kevin Vogel
Hispanic Artists of Texas - Kelly Donahue Wallace
Texas Impressionism - Michael Grauer
Texas Modernism - Katie Robinson Edwards
Legends of Early Texas Art Panel - Bill Cheek & Morris Matson
Buck Winn Documentary

Details and Registration Information available at www.caseta.org

BOARD ACTIVITIES
Introduction of Board Members
New Board Members are
Sanford Cox, Attorney, El Paso
Mark Kever, Sr. VP UBS Wealth Management, McKinney
Marise McDermott, President & CEO, Witte Museum, San
     Antonio
Katie Edwards Robinson, Assistant Prof. of Art, Baylor U.
David Spradling, Central Library Services Manager, Austin
     Public Library
Randy Tibbits, Document Delivery ILL Team Leader, Fondren
     Library, Rice U.
Judy Youngblood, Artist, Emeritus Prof., U. of North Texas &
     Fine Arts Appraiser, Dallas

Continuing Board Members are
Stephen Alton, Prof. of Law and Associate Dean of Evening
     Division Programs, Texas Wesleyan University School of
     Law, Fort Worth
Francine Carraro, Executive Director, Grace Museum, Abilene
D. Jack Davis, Prof. of Art and Dir. of the North Texas
     Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, U. of North
     Texas, Denton
Tam Kiehnhoff, Medical Case Management Coordinator,
     Triangle AIDS Network, Beaumont
Frank Newton, President & CEO, Beaumont Foundation of
     America, Beaumont
 
Advisory Board Members are
Holly Cox, Artist, El Paso
Ali James, Curator of the Texas State Capitol, State
     Preservation Board, Austin
Robert Summers, Attorney, Austin
 
Members, Executive Committee of the Board:
Stephen Alton (Chair)
Francine Carraro (Vice Chair)
Mark Kever (Treasurer)
David Spradling (Secretary)

Board Committee Chairs
Nominations Committee: Francine Carraro
Audit Committee: Frank Newton
Budget & Finance Committee: Mark Kever
Awards: Judy Youngblood
Strategic Planning Committe: D. Jack Davis
Communications Committee: David Spradling
Symposium Committe: George Palmer & Mark Kever (Co-Chairs)

Outgoing Board Members Acknowledged
The Outgoing Board Members - Holly Cox, Ali James, and Robert Summers - and their many contributions to CASETA are acknowledged.  Each has served the organization in a variety of capacities.  Both Ali and Robert have served as Chair, and Holly has served as Secretary.  Additionally, each has made major contributions serving as members of various Board committees.  CASETA is deelpy grateful to each of them for their service and support and looks forward to their continued support and involvement as members of the organization.

Board Decision Regarding New Management for CASETA
At the August 15, 2010 meeting of the CASETA Board of Directors, a decision was made to move the management functions of the organization to Madeleine Crouch and Company in Dallas, Texas.  On September 1, 2010, the CASETA Board entered into an agreement with Madeleine Crouch & Co., Inc. in Dallas, Texas, to manage CASETA's operations.  Crouch & Company is a professional association management company, established in 1983, that partners with 20 professional societies, trade associations and educational non-profits, from 501C (3) to 501C (6) organizations.  Their client associations represent the fields of music and the visual arts, retailing and manufacturing, and family and consumer sciences with annual operating budgets of $50,000 to over $500,000.

The Board is excited about this new relationship and looks forward to benefiting from the experience that Crouch and Company will provide CASETA.  New contact information is:

CASETA
c/o Madeleine Crouch & Co., Inc.
14070 Proton Road, Suite 100, LB9
Dallas, Texas 75244
Phone: 972.233.9107 ext. 215
Fax: 972.490.4219
BOARD FEATURES
Stephen AltonBoard Officer/Chair of Board - Stephen Alton

Professor Stephen Alton joined the faculty of the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law (formerly, the Dallas-Fort Worth School of Law) in 1990, after the law school had been in existence for just one semester. Promoted to full professor in 1996, Professor Alton was the law school's associate dean for special projects in 1997-1998 and served as the chair of the Texas Wesleyan University faculty in 2007-2008. In 2009, he was appointed the law school's associate dean for evening division programs. Prior to teaching, Professor Alton practiced law in Dallas and Houston before returning to Fort Worth to manage a real estate investment company, which he managed until he began his full-time teaching career in 1990. In 2001, Professor Alton was chosen as a Fulbright scholar and lecturer, teaching U.S. Constitutional Law and U.S. State & Local Government Law at Wuhan University Law School in Wuhan, China. 

Professor Alton has taught various subjects, including Property I and II, Wills & Estates, Real Estate Transactions, Environmental Law, Constitutional Law, State & Local Government, and American Legal History. His research interests lie primarily in the area of American Legal History, particularly the legal history of the New Deal and the history of legal education in America. Professor Alton is actively involved in service both to the law school and to the community at large, serving, for example, on the board of trustees of the Fort Worth Public Library Foundation (2002-2007) and the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art (since 2007). He is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Tarrant County Bar Association.

Professor Alton graduated from Fort Worth Country Day School in 1974 and received his A.B. in history, magna cum laude, from Harvard University in 1978. In 1981, he earned his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. Professor Alton earned an ED.M. from Harvard University in 1986, and in 1992, he received an LL.M. from Columbia University, where he was a Lawrence Wein Fellow.

 

New Board Member - Judy Youngblood

Judy YoungbloodJudy Youngblood is an active artist, an Emeritus Professor of Art at the University of North Texas, and an accredited fine art appraiser.  She was born in El Paso and returned to Texas in 1976.  For more than 20 years she taught relief printmaking, etching, screen print, and book arts at UNT.

 

Youngblood continues her 30-year career as an artist, showing her work in regional, national, and international exhibitions.  Her main gallery is William Campbell Contemporary Art, Fort Worth.  Her work is in many private and public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, The Portland Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Martin Museum of Art, and the Wichita Falls Museum.  Her newest work is included in New Prints at IPCNY (International Print Center New York) which opens in November and will travel to UT-Austin in spring 2011.

 

Her appraisal practice specializes in the appraisal of fine prints, Texas Art, and contemporary art for insurance or charitable donation purposes.  She is enjoying her work on the CASETA Board, and she also serves on the Board of Artreach-Dallas, a not-for-profit whose mission is to insure access to the arts for all.

 

She and her husband, Dan Butler, consider themselves are accumulators and art learners who enjoy the company of art collectors.  They have a much-loved, ever-changing collection of early Texas art and American, European, and contemporary fine prints.  (Some would say they lack focus.  They would say "it's about eye and heart!")

 


MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

East Texas
L.O. Griffith: Painting the Texas Landscape
September 19, 2010 - January 2, 2011

The Tyler Musuem of Art
Tyler

The first major exhibition on L.O. (Louis Oscar) Griffith (1875-1956), the exhibition features over 70 paintings of beautiful and majestic landscapes of Texas.  Griffith was a student and life-long friend of Frank Reaugh (1860-1945).

Click Here for More Information

North Texas

Texas Sculpture
August 29, 2010 - January 2, 2011
Dallas Museum of Art (Focus Gallery II)
Dallas

 
Drawn from the Museum's holdings of Texas art, Texas Sculpture reveals a wealth of ideas, techniques, and materials used by a diverse group of artists who were born in or worked in Texas.  Included are such artists as Dorothy Austin, Bess Bigham Hubbard, and Allie V. Tennant.

Click Here for More Information

South Texas

Alexander Hogue: An American Visionary
January 14 - April 3, 2011
Art Museum of South Texas
Corpus Christi

The exhibition is comprised of approximately 80 oil paintings and sketches by Hogue who painted until the age of 96, but never had a major exhibition in his lifetime.


Southeast Texas
Southeast Texas Art: Cross Currents and Influences
January 22 - April 3, 2011
Opening Reception: 6-8pm Friday, January 21, 2011
Art Museum of Southeast Texas
500 Main Street
Beaumont

The exhibition will examine and address the strong artistic, stylistic, and geographic connections and influences that prevailed between artists' work produced in Southeast Texas (particularly Beaumont and Port Arthur) and the important early Texas artists working aroudn the State during a span of 40 years from 1925 to 1965.
  
Edward G. Eisenlohr: Painting Across the Texas Landscape
January 22 - April 3, 2011
Opening Reception: 6-8pm Friday, January 21, 2011
Art Museum of Southeast Texas
Beaumont

This exhibition will feature 15 paintings by renowned early Texas artist Edward G. Eisenlohr on loan from a private collection.  Eisenlohr produced numerous drawings and paintings of his local Dallas community and region and is considered one of the pioneer landscape painters of Texas.  The paintings identify Eisenlohr's stylistic evolution, as well as his diverse visual exploration of the pastoral Texas landscape.  These locations include areas surrounding his Dallas home, Austin, the Hill Country, and Galveston.

 
West Texas
Ten in '10
September 18, 2010 - January 30, 2011
Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, Foran Gallery
2503 4th Avenue
Canyon

The exhibition honors ten distinguished artists and art teachers associated with West Texas A&M University including Adele Brunet, H.D. Bugbee, Emilio Caballero, Clarence Kincaid Jr., Marilyn Miller Kincheloe, Amy Jackson, A.W. Mack, Alice Welty Nichols, Don Ray, Grant Reynard, Isabel Robinson, and Olive Vandruff.


Hari Kidd: The Entrepreneurs of War
July 25, 2010 - November 29, 2010
El Paso Museum of Art
One Arts Festival Plaza
El Paso

Hari Kidd introduced the aesthetics of modernism to El Paso in the early 20th century.  The gouache on paper paintings in this exhibition exemplify the artist's modernist aesthetics, as well as his opinions on war and social inequity.


GALLERY EXHIBITIONS

Central Texas

Texas Art Collectors "Show and Sell"
November 13 & 14
11am to 6pm
Flatbed Press
2830 East MLK Blvd.
Austin, Texas 78702


An informal opportunity to view and purchase early Texas art from dealers and collectors in the Austin and San Antonio area.
For More Information email: Texas Art Collectors


North Texas
Texas Art, Past and Present
Opening November 7th
Open Friday & Saturday from 10am to 5pm
Sunday from 1pm to 5pm
Farmer's & Merchant's Gallery
100 N. Washington St.
Pilot Point, Texas 76258


Southeast Texas
Pioneering Women: Three Modernists in Houston
Dorothy Hood - Leila McConnell - Stella Sullivan
 
Three Artists Remembered
Bill Condon - Paul Maxwell - Herb Mears
 
October 15 - November 6
William Reaves Fine Art
2313 Brun Street
Houston, Texas 77019

A TRIBUTE TO A.C. (ACE) COOK

1935-2010

by Morris Mattson 

Ace Cook Tribute

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A.C. Cook was one of those few people who came into our world and touched our lives in a dramatic fashion.

 

Ace Cook identified, salvaged, conserved, acquired and exhibited a large number of the most outstanding art works ever produced by Texas artists.  We can only imagine what position early Texas art would hold in the art world today if he had not developed his keen interest in it, collected it, and shared it with many others. Without formal education in the arts, he made a valuable contribution in his own inimitable way. His circuitous route to the development of an outstanding collection of Texas art is a fascinating story.

 

Born in the small west Texas community of Morton Valley in Eastland County during the height of the Great Depression, he was raised by his grandparents who were small town merchants, traders, and gamblers.  Those activities were far more attractive to Ace than school, but his real desire was to become an airline pilot.  As a teenager he saved his meager earnings and paid an instructor at the Ranger airport to teach him to fly. A quick learner, he soon achieved his dream of becoming a pilot and flying jet aircraft, assuming a position as Captain with Texas International Airways (later Continental). In the mid-1980s, though, his life changed.  Continental pilots went on strike; and, as a strong union member, Ace refused to cross picket lines and was forced to seek another career. His choice was our gain!

 

Ace soon found a job with a friend who owned a pawn shop, and the pawn business became his new career; he enjoyed success as the owner of shops in three locations. While attending a pawn convention in San Antonio, by chance Ace picked up a copy of Frances Battaile Fisk's book, A History of Texas Artists and Sculptors (1928). His interest was peaked; he wanted to own some of the art and to learn all he could about early Texas art and the artists. This became his passion, and for over 30 years he devoted a major part of his energies to studying the history of art in Texas and reading every catalog he could find and every book written on the subject.  In addition to intensive study, Ace went to meet all of the living artists as well as Texas art collectors. He learned what others were doing, and he was able to see, and many times acquire, the best work still owned by the artists or their families.

 

Ace recognized quality when he saw it. He didn't look at the signature on a work, but judged the image's impact and the quality of the artist's skill. The quality of his collection - the Hock Shop Collection - was the result of intensive study and hard work.  He wanted works that represented the best and most important works of early Texas art.

 

After selling his pawn businesses, the Cook family acquired a historic building in the Fort Worth Stockyards and opened the Bull Ring. On its storied walls hang the major portion of Ace's collection. Visitors to the Bull Ring come from all over the world to gaze in awe at the art while enjoying food and drink. An added treat for visitors (academics, major collectors, museum directors and curators, contemporary artists, cowboys, and truck drivers - to name a few) was Ace's story-telling; he loved to talk about the art.

 

Parts of the collection and individual paintings have been loaned to a number of museums and art centers in Texas, as well as to the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. The most complete exhibitions of the work were done only after Ace learned of his terminal illness. Within the past two years he personally assisted the Tyler Museum of Art, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and the University of North Texas in mounting major exhibitions of the Hock Shop Collection.

SPECIAL FEATURE: WORKING WITH A.C. COOK

by Heather White

Tour Programs Coordinator

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Ms. White was the recipient of a CASETA Graduate Scholarship in 2009

I met A.C. "Ace" Cook in January of 2009 on a trip to the Bull Ring in the Fort Worth Stockyards with students and faculty from the University of North Texas.  I was immediately impressed with Ace's collection and inspired by the stories he told.  As a graduate student pursuing degrees in both Art Education and Art History, I immediately wanted to learn more from this self-taught scholar and storyteller.  From January to July of that year, I returned to the Bull Ring twice a month to learn about Ace's adventures in building his "Hock Shop" Collection of Early Texas Art.  Not only was I privileged to meet Cook's friends and family who are also supporters and collectors of early Texas art, I was able to record Ace's oral history as he talked about his beloved collection.

 

These meetings with Ace inspired three major projects that became cornerstones of my graduate education.  As Ace would say, "You can't build a good pyramid wihtout strong cornerstones."  The first project, a curricular unit designed for high school students titled "Collections and Collecting: Exploring Early Texas Art," uses Cook's Hock Shop Collection as a model for exploring collecting and narrative within collections (published by the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts http://www.art.unt.edu/ntieva/download/teaching/Curr_unit
/Collections%20and%20Collecting.pdf
).  The second major way in which I worked with Ace and his collection was my involvement with the University of North Texas Art Gallery's exhibition of selected works from the Hock Shop Collection, titled, "The Hock Shop Collection: Reflections from the Heart and Soul" (http://web3.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=11466).  I was privileged to assist with the selection of works to include in the exhibition, the cataloguing of these selected works before they traveled to the gallery, installation in the gallery, publications related to the exhibition, and the opening reception.

 

The third major project was the study of Cook the collector and his collection of early Texas art.  This study allowed me to complete my research project for a master's degree in Art History at UNT.  Titled "Narratives of Collection: A.C. Cook and the Hock Shop Collection of Early Texas Art," my research project explores the constructed narrative within the Hock Shop Collection, created through Cook's collecting practices.  Cook collected the pieces in his collection not only for their historical and monetary value, but also for the way the imagery and context of the works fit within his personal ideologies, specifically his understanding of Texas identity and Texas art.  As examined in my research project, through the imagery of diverse peoples depicted in the collection, and and through the artists highlighted, the themes of the Hock Shop Collection as communicated by the constructed narrative are the dignity and diversity of the Texas worker, and hope and optimism in the face of overwhelming social obstacles.  This in-depth study of Cook as a collector and creator of the Hock Shop Collection allowed me to draw from a year of learning to create a scholarly exploration of early Texas art and narrative within collections.

 

I would like to thank CASETA for their generous support of my research and work with Ace and the Hock Shop Collection.  I would also like to remember A.C. "Ace" Cook.  Ace was an incredible teacher, collector, and freind who will be dearly missed.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS
CASETA gives a number of awards annually.  All members are encouraged to make nominations for the following awards: Lifetime Achievement Award, Distinguished Service within the Organization, Distinguished Service outside the Organization, and the Research Award.  Members are also encouraged to make nomiatnions for the Outstanding Exhibition and Outstanding Publication Awards.  More information about each Award and criteria for selection may be obtained here

Nominations should be made to Judy Youngblood, Chair of the Awards Committee at [email protected]
CALL FOR ART

The Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University, Alpine is in the process of assembling works by artists (see list) who taught in the Art Department and the summer Art Colony at Sul Ross State University from 1921-1950. The planned retrospective will focus on their works created while teaching and living in the Big Bend region of Texas. The show will premiere in the spring of 2011 in Dallas at David Dike Fine Art before coming to the museum. Due to the small gallery space at David Dike's and transportation costs, works from loaning institutions and collections will be on display at the Museum of the Big Bend only.  In addition, a catalog of representative works will be produced in partnership with David Dike.

 

The Museum has some of these artists' works in its collection, but is actively seeking additional works held in both private and public collections.  If you have works that you would consider lending for this exhibit, please contact Mary Bones, Senior Curator and Registrar at [email protected] or by phone at 432-837-8734 for more information. She would love to hear from you.

EARLY TEXAS ART TRIVIA 

Be the first to answer these two questions:

 

1. Who painted this image?

 

November 2010 Art Trivia

 

2. Who was the teacher of this artist?

 

Respond to the editors at [email protected]  The first person to provide the correct answers will receive a free publication from CASETA.