June 1, 2013
VAA members and guests attended a lecture by David Brauer , MFAH Sr. Lecturer, Art History at Glassell School of Art, Freed Auditorium on Saturday, June 1st. 2013.
David Brauer introduced his lecture with a brief history of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as the oldest art museum in Texas which started as Houston Art League in the 1900s and advocated classes. In 1913 they began to acquire art objects for the permanent collection and in 1924 the first building opened with 50 objects.
Brauer’s talk, “MFAH Exhibitions in the 1950’s and 1960’s†is based on the research he did on this subject. After examining the archives he found that in the mid 1950’s local artists were being recognized at the museum level in Houston at the Museum of Fine Arts. Examples of award winners in this time were John Biggers, Lowell Collins and David Addicks. Still, in the 60’s, local artists were getting as good exhibitions as other international and collectible artists in Houston. During this same time MFAH was hosting exhibitions of Marc Chagall, Giorgio d’Chirico, Nicholas de Stael, Gaugain, Gottlieb, Magritte, Matisse, Deraine, Duchamp and Calder to name a few.
David Brauer is head of the History of Art Department of the Glassell School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and is a native of Scotland. He was educated in England at the Sir Christopher Wren School and St. Martin’s School of Art from which he received his degree. After extensive travel in Europe, Russia, Turkey, and North Africa, Mr. Brauer returned to England where he worked at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, and taught at the North Oxfordshire College of Art and Technology.
