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Through a grant from the Texas Education Agency, CASETA sponsored four workshops for teachers to introduce them to Early Texas Art and worked alongside NTIEVA.

In total, seventy-two educators participated in these workshops. Each participant was given an orientation to the units as well as received a copy of each unit along with support material that included exhibition catalogs and CDs about Early Texas Art. These programs and materials were meant to enrich the classroom experience and further the knowledge of Early Texas Art.

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The 12th Annual Symposium took place in the Ragsdale Center on the beautiful campus of St. Edward's University May 2 - 4, 2014 with 145 attending. The Texas Art Fair was a busy venue throughout the week-end with much offered by eight art dealers and one book seller. The event kicked off Friday evening, May 2, with a grand keynote speech by Curator of the Capitol, Ali James, who shared our state's history through the richness of the State Capitol's collections. Saturday, May 3, was a full day of engaging presentations by speakers on a wide range of topics along with a three person panel of conservators sharing ideas on how to take the very best care of your art.

Victoria Cummins was one of six speakers who shared  their knowledge on early Texas Art

Attendees learned tips on how to care for your art objects from the conservators (l to r) Catherine Williams, Mark E. van Gelder, and Cheryl A. Carrabba on a panel moderated by Bill Reaves

The Texas Art Fair was a popular place   to be throughout the week-end

The last Saturday session was the annual meeting with CASETA Awards being given out to several deserving persons and institutions which you can read about in more detail here.   

Dr. Ron Tyler, left, received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award and Stephen Alton, right, was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award

Saturday evening found attendees touring the State Capitol and getting behind-the-scene tours of delightful private collections in the homes of Robert and Hillary Summers and David Spradling and Lisa Harvell. The three day event ended Sunday with two final presentations, the much anticipated raffle drawings, and one last chance to make a purchase at the Texas Art Fair.

Cheri Hamilton, Derrek Aaron, and Anthony Kalbfus (l to r) at the evening home tours which were an opportunity to view   two of the best private art collections in Austin

Through the generous support of scholarships from the Sid Richardson Foundation of Fort Worth and a San Angelo donor CASETA was pleased to have students and educators from institutions of higher learning again participating in the Symposium this year. The four Sid Richardson Grant scholars were Mary Brantl and Hollis Hammonds, both art faculty members from St. Edward's University; Eric Franke, art teacher at Warren High School in San Antonio; and Amy Lambert of Austin, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. The three scholars, all from Angelo State University in San Angelo, were Dr. Kimberly Busby, art faculty member, Andre Handy and Rebecca Saavedra, both undergraduates.

It was exciting to hear about future plans for the 2014-15 Matching Grant and as always those attending took the opportunity to gain knowledge about early Texas art, re-acquaint with old friends, and meet new friends who share in the passion of early Texas art. We look forward to the 2015 Symposium and Texas Art Fair in Houston and will send out details at a later date.

Along with the photos showing just a few of the moments during the Symposium and Art Fair we also want to thank Jason Rose, editor of American Fine Art Magazine for including coverage on the event in a fine article published in the July/August issue. You can read the AFAM article by clicking on the link below.  

 Engaging Week-end with CASETA 

Article courtesy American Fine Art Magazine  

An exciting addition to this year's Symposium was a raffle of artwork with the funds raised used to meet the anonymous donation for the 2014-2015 Matching Grant. The Estate of Kelly Fearing through Mr. Charles Smith graciously donated a beautiful 13" x 10" work entitled, Saint Rose, which Kelly Fearing drew with conte crayon on cameo paper in 1956 in Austin.  

Mark and Geralyn Kever made the raffle even more exciting by donating an untitled work by artist Ethel Spears from the 1930s.

Those who participated in the raffle had the option of buying tickets at $20 a piece or six for $100. One hundred seven tickets were sold and raised $1,860. The drawing was done on Sunday, May 4, just before the close of the Symposium. The lucky prize winners of the two works were Bobbie Nau of Houston whose name was pulled for the Kelly Fearing work. New CASETA member Kathy Rosenthal of Fort Worth went home with the Ethel Spears' work. Thanks to CASETA Board member David Spradling and Chair Tam Kiehnhoff for coordinating the raffle and to all those who purchased tickets.

Bobbie Nau, left, and Kathy Rosenthal, right,  with their prizes from the 2014 Raffle

The CASETA Board offered all in attendance an opportunity to assist in reaching the $10,000 challenge by pledging funds and many stepped up to make it happen. Kudos and thanks to the following who have made a contribution to the 2014-2015 Matching Grant:

Texas Impressionism

Branding with Brushstroke and Color, 1885-1935

A Summing Up

The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas, organized the 113-painting exhibition, Texas Impressionism: Branding with Brushstroke and Color, 1885-1935, which toured the state from April 2012 to early January 2014.[1] A 166-page soft-cover catalogue, published by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, with essays by William H. Gerdts, Ph.D., and Michael R. Grauer, respectively the exhibition's special advisor and curator, accompanied the exhibition.   The show opened at PPHM and was then seen at The Grace Museum in Abilene; the Tyler Museum of Art; The Witte Museum, San Antonio; and the Art Museum of Southeast Texas at Beaumont. All venues reported excellent attendance for the exhibition and glowing reviews. A docent at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas remarked it was the best-attended exhibition she could remember. 

John Elliot Jenkins Palo Duro Canyon, West Texas, 1934 Collection of the Panhandle-Plains  Historical Museum

For purposes of this exhibition, PPHM chose to adhere fairly rigidly to a few Impressionist requirements for a painting to be included; namely: painted between 1885 and 1935; a high-keyed palette bordering on and including the pastel colors; active brushwork with short strokes applied quickly over the surface; usually painted en plein air.

Ironically, the life of the best-known Texas Impressionist, Julian Onderdonk (1882-1922), almost perfectly bracketed the rise, practice, and decline of Impressionist painting in the United States.

Louis Oscar Griffith Cows in the Milkweed, ca. 1906 Collection of the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

Noted American art scholar and authority on American Impressionism, Dr. William H. Gerdts observed that by about 1920: "Impressionism, once a vital, modern force in American painting, had become both conventionalized and conservative in the light of newer developments in American art." Three main figures in early Texas art, Emma Richardson Cherry, Robert Onderdonk, and Frank Reaugh, had become established artists in Texas and had been exposed to French Impressionism and its offshoots in other parts of the globe by 1900. They either painted Impressionist pictures themselves and/or encouraged its tenets in Texas.

Other important early Texas artists emerged as key to Texas Impressionism. Julian Onderdonk's studies in New York provided

Samuel Peters Ziegler Trinity River, ca. 1930 Collection of the Panhandle-Plains  Historical Museum

him Impressionist tools to paint the south Texas landscape. Julian Onderdonk's landscapes certainly inspired the San Antonio Competitive exhibitions (the so-called "Davis Competitions") of paintings of Texas wildflowers in San Antonio from 1927 to 1929, and ultimately gave rise to the ubiquitous "Bluebonnet School," prevalent in Texas even today. Prominent among the entrants in the San Antonio Competitives were Impressionists such as Dawson Dawson-Watson, Jose Arpa, Edward G. Eisenlohr, and Ella Koepke Mewhinney.  

Lucien Abrams Pool in Spring, ca. 1913 Collection of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

"Texpatriates" such as Seymour Thomas, Murray Bewley, and Lucian Abrams lived in France but sent their French paintings to Texas art exhibitions anyway. Perhaps the only Texas artist to be clearly identified with American Impressionism during its heyday in the United States was Abrams.  

One of the many results and deductions gleaned from Texas Impressionism is the need for additional exhibitions and scholarly studies related to the topic. For example, the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas, organized Lucien Abrams: An Impressionist from Texas (also shown at PPHM and in a slightly different form at the Florence Griswold Museum at Old Lyme, Connecticut).   Post-Impressionism also had a significant impact on Texas art; consequently an exhibition tentatively called "Lone Star Fauves: Post-Impressionism in Texas" is in the works. Finally, a Jose Arpa exhibition is being planned to tour Texas in 2016-2017.

Texas Impressionism attempted to break the stereotypes about what constitutes a "Texas painting" by showing that an important contribution to American Impressionism was practiced by Texas artists, whether those paintings they produced depicted Texas or not. Moreover, PPHM hoped the exhibition would impact the study of early Texas art as significantly as the Dallas Museum of Art's seminal 1985 exhibition, Lone Star Regionalism: The Dallas Nine and Their Circle.

Michael R. Grauer

Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Art and Western Heritage

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas

January 2014

Panhandle

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum 

Canyon, TX  79015 

March 1, 2014 through February 7, 2015 

Born at Martin's Ferry, Ohio, in 1908, Olive Vandruff (1908-2003) spent much of her childhood traveling in the Southwestern United States with her geologist father.  She began studying to be an artist with the painter Edmund Giesbert at the University of Chicago.  She also studied with Chicago sculptors Elisabeth H. Hibbard and Frederick C. Hibbard, eventually becoming an assistant to them.  Vandruff moved to San Antonio in the 1940s where she became an assistant to sculptor Pompeo Coppini, and operated a sheep ranch near Kerrville.   While in the Hill Country she became a renowned painter of wildlife and  game birds, and was often commissioned to paint horse and pet portraits.  She met artist H. D. Bugbee in 1960, marrying him the following year and relocating to Clarendon, Texas.  Upon Bugbee's death in 1963, Vandruff succeeded him as curator of art at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum until her retirement in 1982. 

September 13, 2014 through February 15, 2015  

Borrowing from both private and public collections, PPHM will present a retrospective of Keener's work from her time in Texas to the conclusion of her career in Santa Fe.  Approximately 70 works will be included in the exhibition to be presented in the Foran Family Galleries.

An artist and educator, Anna Keener (1895-1982) was born in Flagler, Colorado.  She studied with Birger Sandzen at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, achieving B.F.A. and B.A. degrees there in 1916 and 1918, respectively, and received her M.A. from the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) in 1951. She also studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, Art Institute of Chicago, and Detroit School of Design.   She used her maiden name "Keener" for her artistic endeavors but was known as Anna Wilton in her teaching and scholarly pursuits. She was an internationally recognized and honored artist.  The Southwest in general and Navajo culture in particular served as a focus for her work.  Written works include Spontaneity in Design (1923), describing the "scribble" approach to design. Anna was a Life Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters and a charter member of the Art of American Society. In addition to these organizations, she was a member of numerous educational and art organizations.

FMI: www.panhandleplains.org  

The Witte Museum

Julian Onderdonk, Spring Afternoon, 1906-1907

3801 Broadway 

San Antonio, TX 78209

  

Julian Onderdonk  in New York: 

The Lost Years, The Lost Paintings 

March 8 through September 9, 2014    

Julian Onderdonk in New York: The Lost Years, The Lost Paintings

is an exhibition based on a book of the same name by James Graham Baker published by the Texas State Historical Association. Dr. Ron Tyler is the curator of the exhibition. Both the exhibition and the book reveal that while Julian Onderdonk has heretofore been considered a Texas artist, he was also an American artist as more than one third of his body of work was created in New York City and depicts scenes from the surrounding area. Many of the New York works were signed with pseudonyms, each well researched and documented. This exhibition and the book bring these years to light. Most of these paintings have never been displayed publicly.

  

 FMI: www.wittemuseum.org  

  

Buehler Fine Art

6708 San Pedro Avenue

San Antonio, TX 78216

  

Early Texas Art and Prominent San Antonio Artists

  

FMI: http://www.beuhlerfineart.com/ 

  

Southeast Texas

The Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park

1100 Bagby Street
Houston, Texas 77002

 

Following General Sam Houston

June 6 - August 2, 2014

The etchings for this pictorial biography of Sam Houston were made while artist and historian Bernhardt Wall was in La Porte, Texas, close to the battlefield of San Jacinto. At the time, Wall had the assistance of Houston's one surviving son, Andrew Jackson Houston. There were two editions of the book - the "San Jacinto" and the "Texas Centennial." The "San Jacinto" is on view in this exhibition. One of the over seventy etchings features Sam entering the 1850 Nichols-Rice-Cherry House, now located at The Heritage Society in Sam Houston Park. The exhibit will also feature some personal objects from the Houston family from the Permanent Collection of The Heritage Society. The etchings in this exhibition are on loan from The Printing Museum.

FMI: www.heritagesociety.org/museumgallery.html  

William Reaves Fine Art Gallery

2313 Brun Street

Houston, TX 77019

  

Houston's Founders at City Hall

June 1-October 1, 2014

  

The Mayor's Office, in conjunction with William Reaves Fine Arts Gallery, brings a splendid selection of art works by many of Houston's earlier painters to the walls of City Hall in an effort to acknowledge the Bayou City's rich arts legacy and to recognize local artists who have made lifetime contributions to the growth of the Houston arts scene.

  

FMI: http://reavesart.com/?page_id=5236 

  

South Texas 

   

Art Museum of South Texas 

1902 N. Shoreline Blvd  

Corpus Christi, TX  78401 

  

Deep in the Art of Texas:

Selections from the Collection of Torch Energy Advisors

September 26, 2014 through January 4, 2015

 

This exhibition of early Texas art comes from the Torch Energy Collection and was developed by the Center for Texas Studies at Texas Christian University.  Presenting a panoramic view of the art of Texas, the exhibition begins with such early artists as Theodore Gentilz and Robert Jenkins Onderdonk and ends with examples of contemporary artists such as Nancy Bush and Mark Kohler.  The paintings cover 100 years from 1850 - 1950 and also include works by Julian Onderdonk, Frank Reaugh, Jose Arpa, Otis Dozier, Tom Lea, Everett Spruce and many other luminaries of early Texas art.   Deep in the Art of Texas chronicles the entire state from the mountains of Big Bend to the fertile fields of East Texas and offers insight into our state history and its people. 

  

West Texas

  

The Grace Museum

102 Cypress Street

Abilene, TX 79601

  

Home on the Range

May 8-August 9, 2014

  

Summer of 2014 at The Grace Museum is a celebration of the art and history of Central West Texas, an often mislabeled 200,000+ square mile area of the Lone Star State. The region's 22 sparsely populated counties share a 19th and early 20th century history as an important concourse for indigenous people, ranchers, farmers and merchants. Artwork by important artists who documented early impressions of the area, historic photographs, oral histories and rarely-seen artifacts from private and public collections reveal a cherished historical link to the past that still exists in the area. Abilene's annual Western Heritage Classic ranch rodeo will kick off this celebration of the history of Central West Texas on May 8th with the Western Heritage Parade in downtown Abilene. Experience authentic Central West Texas through special events, camps, classes and programs throughout the summer.

  

FMI: http://thegracemuseum.org/category/art-exhibitions-current/ 

 

Texas Tech University

3301 4th Street

Lubbock, TX 79409

  

AZ<>NM<>TX: 20th-21st Century Art in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas

on-going permanent exhibit 

 

An "Up from the Basement" exhibition from the Museum's Art Collection, the Talkington Gallery features selections from 20th and 21st century art of the southwestern United States. This region ranges from scorching deserts, broad horizontal vistas, near bottomless canyons, rugged mountain ranges to rich but rare river valleys, in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and portions of Colorado and Utah. No one type of landscape represents the Southwest and, similarly, no singular art style defines it. The art works on exhibit sample many divergent paths that artists from the Southwest have followed, from realism to romanticism, from impressionism to expressionism, from minimalism to conceptualism, and more. All of the works on exhibit are from the collections of the Museum.  

FMI: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/exhsch11.html#apr13 

 

New Mexico 

Matthews Gallery

669 Canyon Road

Sante Fe, NM 87501

 

HANNAH HOLIDAY STEWART: An Artistic Legacy Rediscovered

July 4-18, 2014

 

Santa Fe, NM-Matthews Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition by American modernist sculptor Hannah Holliday Stewart, running July 4-18 with an opening reception on Friday, July 4 from 5-7 pm. Stewart (1924-2010) was one of a small group of influential women sculptors in the latter part of the 20th century with a rising national reputation before she mysteriously turned her back on the art world and assumed a life of seclusion two decades before her death. At the time of her death over 120 sculptures were discovered in her studio and many of these will be featured in HANNAH HOLLIDAY STEWART: An Artistic Legacy Rediscovered.

  

FMI: http://thematthewsgallery.com/Exhibit_Detail.cfm?ShowsID=65 

  

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

Announces Arpa Exhibition

The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum has begun work on a major retrospective of the works of Jose Arpa!  Michael Grauer, Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs/Curator of Art and Western Heritage, will curate an exhibition of Jose Arpa's work, both in the United States and abroad.  The planned exhibition is expected to open at the PPHM in 2015 and then travel to two or three other Texas cities, for a total run of about one year.

Michael is looking for works to consider for inclusion in this exhibition.  If you have a work of art by Mr. Arpa that you would be willing to lend to the exhibition, please send an image to Mr. Grauer at mgrauer@pphm.wtamu.edu