Austin

and its Art

Designed by: Emily Pryor

Table of Contents
Art on 5th 1-3 Austin Museum of Art 5-11 Harry Ransom Center 13-27 Blanton Museum of Art 29-37 Linda Dumont 41-49 Gabe Langholtz 51-61 Denise Fulton 63-73 Megan Jastor 75-87

Austin Museums

Art on 5th
1501 W. 5th Street, Austin, Texas 78703 Monday through Saturday: 10am - 6pm First Thursday of every month: 10am - 8pm

Austins largest contemporary gallery (over 5,000 square feet) showcases Austins most eclectic collection of local, national, and international artists. On permanent display is the incredible exhibition of The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss while the rest of the gallery rotates a stable of over 60 artists throughout the year. Voted Best Gallery by Austin360 three years in a row, The Austin Chronicle multiple times and garnering numerous accolades throughout the 13 years of the gallerys existence, ART on 5th showcases original contemporary works that dont easily fit into any single genre--from Rebecca Patricks decadently painted abstract florals to Cynthia Chartiers mixed media figures, to Paul Stankiewiczs iconic Austin interpretations. The gallery has carefully chosen a huge selection of

frames (over 3,000) from over ten different suppliers to ensure that they can create the perfect design for any project. As experts at the craft, they offer impeccable design as well as archival processes. In October 2009, the gallery expanded into artisan jewelry, opening The Art of Jewelry across the hall from the fine art gallery. The Art of Jewelry offers one-of-kind creations from award-winning local and national designers. With a showroom designed to elevate the designers work to a true art form, The Art of Jewelry is anything but ordinary. The artisans have been chosen for their individuality and inventive use of materials, and are displayed at eye-level in funky custom frames. Materials range from found object to steel, seeds to gems, semi-precious stones, gold and oxidized silver.

Austin Museum of Art

823 Congress Avenue # 100 Austin, TX 78704 MondaySaturday: 9am5pm Sunday: 10am5pm

The Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) was established in 1961 as Laguna Gloria Art Museum and has continually served as Austins primary community art museum. In keeping with Clara Driscolls wish for her 1916 estate to serve as a museum to bring pleasure in the appreciation of art to the people of Texas, the Museum presented exhibitions and educational programsadding art classes shortly thereafter. As Austin grew, AMOA offered more exhibitions, art experiences, and classes; a 5,300-square foot Art School facility was built in 1983 to serve expanding enrollments. In 1996, the institution changed its name to the Austin Museum of Art and moved its primary exhibition space to 823 Congress Avenue to better serve the entire city as well as to allow for the restoration and

preservation of its original home. Over four decades after its formation, the Austin Museum of Art continues to enhance its service to the community at both locations and remains committed to complimenting its historical home with a permanent downtown facility. In its four-decade history, the Austin Museum of Art has played a crucial role as the principal community art museum in Central Texas. The Museum traces its roots to 1943, when Texas legend Clara Driscoll donated her lakeside 1916 estate in west Austin to be used as a Museum to bring pleasure in the appreciation of art to the people of Texas. In 1961, Laguna Gloria Art Museum was created with the purpose of owning and operating the museum and grounds, and presenting exhibitions and educational programs in

the Driscoll Villa. Museum trustees also created The Art School in the early 1960s as an integral part of the Museums mission. In 1983, to serve expanding enrollments, a 5,300-square foot Art School facility was built with the support of donors. Experiencing overall accelerated audience and program growth in the 1980s, the Museum developed plans for the construction of larger facilities in downtown Austin. These plans were not realized due to a sudden, sharp decline in the local economy. The Museum, however, strengthened its base and continued to successfully serve as Austins primary community art museum. In 1992, the trustees of the Laguna Gloria Art Museum joined with representatives of two other Austin cultural organizations to form the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) to reinforce the museums

mission to serve the whole community. In 199495, AMOA raised the necessary funds to purchase a downtown site for the Museum at Third and San Antonio Streets. In 1996 seeking to underscore its plans for a downtown presence, AMOA moved primary exhibition space to 823 Congress Avenue. This space, called AMOA-Downtown, provides the Museum with greater capacity to present prominent exhibitions and increase educational programming. Progress in advancing an ambitious campaign for a permanent downtown art museum was once again curtailed by an economic downturn. During this period, the popularity of The Art School continued to soar and enormous stress was placed on its facilities by more than 25,000 student visits a year. When the Museum developed a Master Plan for the entire

AMOA-Laguna Gloria site in 2000, it called for refurbishing the Driscoll Villa and gardens first and then key features of The Art School complex. The successful $3.6 million Laguna Gloria Renewal Project restored the landmark 1916 Driscoll Villa and garden as a major destination for exhibitions, education programs, and community events. In March of 2004, AMOAs Board of Trustees and staff completed a comprehensive strategic planning process for the entire organization that re-affirmed the Museums commitment to its downtown presenceeventually building a sustainable, permanent downtown facility. In the meanwhile, AMOA continued to welcome the community and its visitors to 823 Congress Avenue as well as AMOALaguna Gloria and worked toward stabilization in

difficult economic times by expanding its audience through engaging and accessible exhibitions and public education programs. Over the past few years, the Museums visibility and community value have been underscored dramatically with to the renewal of AMOA Laguna Gloria and through popular, critically acclaimed exhibitions such as Andy Warhol (2003) and Andy Goldsworthy (2004). In addition to providing high caliber exhibitions and education programs, AMOA continues to work toward its ultimate goal of creating a permanent facility downtown to meet the goal of developing and educating a broader audience for the visual arts in Austin.

10

11

Harry Ransom Center

21st and Guadalupe Streets Austin, Texas 78712 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday: 10 am5 pm Thursday: 10 am7 pm Saturday through Sunday: Noon5 pm

13

The history of the Harry Ransom Center officially began in 1957, when Vice President and Provost Harry Huntt Ransom founded what was then called the Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The true origins of this institution, however, began 60 years earlier when the University began to acquire important private libraries that formed the foundation of what would later become the Ransom Center. In 1897, Swante Palm (1815 1899), a Swedish bibliophile who had immigrated to Austin, gave The University of Texas 10,000 volumes from his personal library. Palms collection of Swedish literature and history created special strengths in the librarys holdings, but it was not until 1917 that the University began collecting rare books. At that time, English professor Reginald

H. Griffith persuaded University regent George W. Littlefield to purchase the library of Chicago businessman John Henry Wrenn for the University. The Wrenn library contained nearly 6,000 first and rare editions of mostly seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English and American authors, in addition to notable manuscripts of the Bront sisters, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and the Brownings. In 1921, the University purchased the working library of George A. Aitken, author of critical works on Sir Richard Steele, Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, and Jonathan Swift. Four years later, Miriam Lutcher Stark of Orange, Texas, donated to the University her personal library, which was notable especially for containing all four of the first folio editions of Shakespeare as well as manuscripts and first

14

15

editions by Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and other writers of the Romantic period. During this early period, Fannie Ratchford presided over the collections at the old library building (now called Battle Hall), and later in the rare books library of the Main Building, encouraging scholarly discussion over afternoon tea. The Wrenn, Aitken, and Stark collections gave the Ransom Center a strong foundation for future growth. The University library continued to amass collections for nearly half a century, though there was little space to store the books and no adequate method of keeping up with the cataloging. By 1952, the University collection had risen to its first million volumes; it reached its second million in 1968. During this time, it was English professor Harry Huntt Ransom, first as

dean, then as vice president, provost, president, and chancellor of the University of Texas System, who was responsible for the rapid growth of the libraries holdings. When Ransom established the Humanities Research Center in 1957, he set out to enhance the Universitys rare book holdings with a new initiative for collection development in the area of rare books and manuscripts. With the acquisition in 1958 of the massive library of Edward Alexander Parsons, consisting of 40,000 volumes and 8,000 manuscripts, Ransom ushered the University into an era of intense collecting. The Parsons library, with its strengths in Americana, classics, fine printing and binding, travel literature, Bibles, and European history and literature, provided a strong base for the fashioning of a major humanities research center.

16

17

That same year, Ransom purchased the T. E. Hanley library, replete with large quantities of modern literary manuscripts. It was this acquisition, with its collections of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, G. B. Shaw, and Dylan Thomas, which gave focus to future collecting. Rather than attempt to match the holdings of older and more established rare book libraries, Ransom used the Hanley collection as the basis for an evolving collection of twentieth-century books, manuscripts, and archives. In addition to his literary pursuits, Ransom led the initiative to collect more broadly in the humanities. One such example of his pursuits is the Norman Bel Geddes collection, acquired in 1959, which comprises an important cache of materials related to theater set design, architecture, and industrial

design and provides a cornerstone of the Centers distinguished performing arts collection. The Humanities Research Center moved to its current location on the corner on 21st and Guadalupe streets on the southwest corner of campus in 1972. Though Ransom himself served as official director of the Center for only three years (19581961), he directed and presided over a great expansion of the collections throughout his tenure at the University. The Pforzheimer copy of the Gutenberg Bible was purchased in 1978 in memory of Ransom, the Great Acquisitor, who had died in 1976. F. Warren Roberts, Ransoms right hand man and protg, served as director of the Center from 1961 until 1976. In expanding the collections, Roberts embraced most areas of the humanities and the

18

19

arts. With the 1963 acquisition of the Helmut Gernsheim collection, a major photohistorical archive, the dimension of the cameras eye was added to the holdings of the Center. From this foundation, more than 1,000 collections were added to make the photography collection one of the largest and most complete resources of its kind in the world. Roberts also brought in many archives of writers, among them D. H. Lawrence, John Steinbeck, and Evelyn Waugh. In 1968, the Carlton Lake collection, the finest research collection outside of Paris devoted to modern French literature, art, and music, added yet another dimension to the twentieth-century emphasis. After Robertss tenure, John Payne and Carlton Lake served as interim and acting directors, until Decherd Turner was named

director of the Center in 1980. Though his focus was primarily on establishing and strengthening the conservation department, Turner also expanded the Centers collections with such diverse acquisitions as Matisses Jazz, the Anne Sexton archive, the Robert Lee Wolff collection of 19th-century fiction, and the important Pforzheimer library of early English literature, which includes works by John Locke, John Milton, Queen Elizabeth I, and William Shakespeare, as well as first editions of all major writers of the period from 1475 to 1700. Turner also acquired the Giorgio Uzielli library of Aldine editions, which, along with the Pforzheimer library, augmented the Centers classical and Renaissance holdings. At the same time, Turner built on the foundations of the Centers performing arts holdings, adding several important

20

21

collections. The David O. Selznick archive, the Gloria Swanson archive, and the Ernest Lehman collection all reflect the richness and diversity of the Centers film collections. The records of the London costuming firm B. J. Simmons & Company comprise 29,000 designs dating from the 1880s to the 1960s, including work by such designers as Cecil Beaton, Tanya Moiseiwitsch, Motley, and Lon Bakst. While the Center has enhanced its collections in other disciplines of the humanities, its commitment to comprehensive holdings in literature remains prominent. Over the last two decades, the Center has grown tremendously under the leadership of Thomas F. Staley, who became director of the Ransom Center in 1988. Under Staleys direction, the Center, which was renamed the Harry Ransom

Humanities Research Center in 1983 in honor of its founder, carries on the traditions established by Ransom. Like his predecessors, Staley believes that the study of pre-publication materials notes, manuscript drafts, galleys, page proofs, correspondence, and diariesprovides a tracery of an artists creative process. By studying this process, scholars gain a deeper appreciation for the published work and an increased understanding of the trajectory of the artists imagination. Major acquisitions by Staley include substantial holdings in British theater (playwrights Tom Stoppard, John Osborne, David Hare, and Arnold Wesker, among others), as well as the archives of Norman Mailer, Robert De Niro, and photojournalist David Douglas Duncan, and the Woodward and Bernstein Watergate

22

23

papers. Over 100 literary archives have been added during Staleys tenure, including those of Russell Banks, Jorge Luis Borges, Anthony Burgess, Don DeLillo, John Fowles, Adrienne Kennedy, Doris Lessing, Penelope Lively, David Mamet, Peter Matthiessen, Terrence McNally, James Salter, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Leon Uris. In addition to continued collection development, Staleys tenure has been marked by serious fiscal growth. Under his aegis, the Center has completed three successful campaigns, raising more than $50 million and increasing the Centers endowment from $1 million to nearly $30 million. Of major importance is the introduction of the endowed visiting scholars program for research fellows and interns, which now awards 50 fellowships a year to scholars who come

from around the globe to make use of the Ransom Centers collections. Additionally, the contemporary authors project, developed by Staley, follows closely the current movements in literature and keeps watch over emerging writers. The program also collects works retrospectively, filling gaps in the librarys late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century holdings. At present, the Center collects first editions of approximately 600 contemporary authors. Following the renovation of the Centers building and the opening of new galleries, a theater, and more accessible reading and viewing rooms in 2003, the Centers commitment to a wide range of public services has expanded. The Center is now able to showcase its remarkable collections in its galleries and provide an enriching schedule of public and

24

25

academic programs, events, and symposia each year. Through its programs and exhibitions, the Center attempts to attract more scholars, students, and general patrons to the Center to study and enjoy the works of the imagination, as Staley puts it, of the great artists of the world. Today, the Ransom Center has as its major emphasis the study of the literature and culture of the United States, Great Britain, and France. The Centers collections contain 36 million leaves of manuscripts, one million rare books, 5 million photographs, and 100,000 works of art, in addition to major holdings in theater arts and film. The Center offers scholars and students the opportunity to study such diverse holdings as thirteenth-century Italian verse, early map renderings of the moon, European broadsides,

seventeenth-century English dramatic poetry, early developments in micro-photography, avant-garde theater design, modern French musical composition, literary portraiture, the art of caricature, censorship in Hollywood, the work of contemporary African novelists, and on and on.

26

27

Blanton Museum of Art

MLK at Congress Austin, Texas 78701 Tuesday through Friday: 10am-5pm Saturday: 11am-5pm Sunday: 1pm-5pm

29

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin enriches and transforms the lives of learners of all ages by providing inspiring and relevant experiences with original works of art. Through the collecting of art, preserving it in optimal condition, and creatively displaying and interpreting these objects, The Blanton serves as an intellectual and social portal connecting the university and the rest of the world through visual art and culture. The art museum of The University of Texas at Austin was born of a generous gift from an unexpected source. In 1927 Archer M. Huntington, a New Yorker and the son of railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington, donated four thousand acres of land in Galveston, Texas, to the university with instructions that it be dedicated to the support

of an art museum. His interest seems to have stemmed from the fact that his wife, Anna Hyatt Huntington, was a noted sculptor; indeed two of her works had recently been given to the university. The proceeds from the eventual sale of that land created an endowment for museum operations and provided a portion of the cost for the construction in 1963 of a new building for the art department of the university, including some gallery space that was formally named the University Art Museum. A number of important collecting areas quickly took shape during the 1960s and 1970s. One well-known acquisition began with the gift in 1968, continuing into the early 1990s, of approximately four hundred twentieth-century American paintings from novelist James Michener and his wife, Mari, for whom the

30

31

Blantons new gallery building is named. The Micheners interest in collecting the art of their time and in supporting the work of emerging artists continues to be an important guiding principle for ongoing development of our contemporary collections. The museums distinctive collection of Latin American art was greatly enriched, beginning in 1971, with the donation of some two hundred paintings and 1,200 drawings from the collection of John and Barbara Duncan. The Blantons early leadership in this field, which is only now being accorded the importance it deserves by the museum world at large, is owing to the Duncans visionary gift. Other notable early gifts included the C. R. Smith Collection of Paintings of the American West, given over a period of years between 1965 and 1985,

and a donation in 1968 by Charles Clark of McAllen, Texas, of nearly one thousand contemporary prints. By 1972 the museum was bursting at the seams. Greatly expanded by the generous Michener gift, the permanent collection moved to gallery spaces in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, while the Print Study Room and galleries for temporary exhibitions remained in the Art Building. In 1980 the University Art Museum was renamed the Archer M. Huntington Gallery, and a decade of growth followed, including the acquisition of a number of fine antiquities and a small number of Old Master works and contemporary American paintings. This period also saw rapid growth in the prints and drawings collection at the Blanton. Now widely recognized for its breadth and depth, that collection is considered

32

33

one of the finest in the nation. With continuing growth came the vision of an expanded home for the Huntington. In late 1994 a bequest of $5 million by Mari Michener for the construction of a new museum building lent momentum to a building campaign. When Houston Endowment Inc. stepped forward in 1997 with a $12 million building gift in honor of its former chairman, the Huntington became the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art. The growth and character of the collections took a dramatic turn in 1998 with the important acquisition of the Suida-Manning Collection, which was made possible through the generosity of numerous individuals. Assembled by two generations of art historians, the collection is one of the nations preeminent collections of Renaissance and Baroque art. It features 230

paintings and four hundred drawings by many significant painters and draftsmen. Almost overnight, the Blantons Old Master holdings multiplied from around thirty works to one of the finest such collections in the nation. The American and Latin American collections have similarly been expanding at a rapid pace. Today the Blantons collection of modern and contemporary American art is a significant resource of more than four thousand paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and works in new media from the mid-19th century to the present. The Latin American collection of modern and contemporary art now contains more than 1,800 modern and contemporary paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures, reflecting the great diversity of Latin American art and culture. More

34

35

than 600 artists from Mexico, South and Central America, and the Caribbean are represented in the collection. All told, the Blanton collection today numbers more than 17,000 works. Noted art historian and critic Leo Steinberg donated his impressive, encyclopedic collection of 3,200 prints in 2002, at once acknowledging and enhancing the distinguished reputation of the Blantons prints and drawings. Our approach to acquiring works creates significant opportunities for teaching, indepth scholarship, and educational programs. The long-held vision of a new museum building became a reality with the groundbreaking for a new facility in October 2003. The new complex, designed by Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects, is comprised of the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building,

a 124,000-square-foot space that houses the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions; the 56,000-square-foot Edgar A. Smith Building features a caf, museum shop, classrooms, auditorium, and offices; and a 145,000-square-foot public plaza and garden designed by Peter Walker and Partners. As the only art museum in Austin with a permanent collection of substantial range and depth, the Blanton has embraced a mission of serving as a cultural gateway between the university and the community. In its new home, with its rich and versatile collections, magnificent galleries, fun and diverse programming, and an enthusiastic and committed group of staff and volunteers, the museum will at last be able to live this mission fully.

36

37

Local Austin Artists

39

Linda Dumont

41

Gabe Langholtz

51

Denise Fulton

63

Megan Jaster

75

Colophon
Incorporated Text:
Art on 5th website Austin Museum of Art website Harry Ransom Center website Blanton Museum of Art website

Designed by:
Emily Pryor

Printed in:
Trustee Hall 108

Incorporated Images:
Linda Dumonts website Gabe Langholtzs website Denise Fultons website Megan Jasters website

Paper Used:
Neenah Classic Natural White

88

89