Courtesy of the MFAH

The MFAH has always done an excellent job at getting top artists and critics to come speak during their many lecture series. One such series that they are now hosting is entitled, "Conversations with the Director," in which MFAH's Director Gary Tinterow chats about art-related topics such as the state of current collections and the museum, many of such conversations can be viewed online.

But every once in a while the MFAH brings someone on board that "makes you go hmmm..." For example, it was just announced that on June 4, Mr. Tinterow will have a lovely old chat with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who, yes, is still alive.

Dr. Ruth, as she is more commonly known, is a therapist who focuses on sexuality and human sociology, and she has a very distinct German accent and a tiny frame. She is known for her candid and often amusing take on sex, and has been prominent in the media for years. She is probably the most well-known sex therapist, some of that having to do with the "her?" aspect to her physical appearance. She's a little old lady and has been her whole life, and it's gross to think about her having sex at all.

What in the world is she going to talk about with Tinterow, who's current webvlogs are about things such as the "Google Art Project," which I can't imagine can be tied to sex. Dr. Ruth did pen a book back in 1993 entitled The Art of Arousal: A Celebration of Erotic Art throughout History; which we assume will be the cornerstone of their conversation. Adding bizarreness to the bizarre is that the project is funded presented by Louis Vuitton, so it's fashion and sex and art all rolled up into one potentially awkward evening. Luckily a reception follows the lecture so people can stand around eating canapés not talking about sex, but rather how oppressive the heat was the other night at the Rothko.

If you were to go to this event, what questions might you want Tinterow to discuss with Dr. Ruth? I've got ten.

More »

The Wife with One F is in nursing school with finals approaching, so it's my job to take my sweet but concentration-shattering three-year-old daughter out of the house so that when my wife is actually in a hospital setting later on saving your life, she doesn't forget where the hell your pancreas is. Usually this involves the park or the indoor playground at Memorial City Mall, but on Sunday she said she wanted to go to the dinosaur museum.

I was all up for that because I am still as dinosaur-obsessed as I ever was as a child. In fact, I'm mostly using this piece as an excuse to open random dinosaur Wikipedia articles. Do you know what a Titanoboa is? It's freakin' awesome, that's what.

At some point in the last couple of months, the museum added a ten-foot-tall animatronic tyrannosaurus with a saddle that you could let your kids ride for 60 seconds for the price of five dollars. Kids only, because of course I asked. Initially my daughter wanted nothing to do with it. She loves dinosaurs but also finds them scary. In the end, I reminded her about the time The Doctor rode a triceratops, and that was enough to get her in the saddle.

Now, that video up there is worth more than five dollars. Hell, having her tell the attendant she was sorry she hadn't worn her pink cowgirl outfit and matching rhinestone hat to ride her dinosaur friend alone was worth more than five dollars. It's just objectively awesome. If there were a show about a beautiful little blond cowgirl in pink boots riding a dinosaur around having adventures, you know you'd run every red light on the way home to watch that.

Still, there's a part of me that was unable to fully appreciate the sheer wonder of the image. It has to do with Young Earth Creationism and the way they ruin both science and religion.

More »

We keep hearing that Houston has several world class museums (mostly from the directors of those museums). We don't disagree, but we do think we could use a few more museums; there are a couple of subjects not completely covered by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Houston Museum of Natural Science and such.

First on our list of new museums we'd like to see is The Fashion Museum of Houston. No, we don't have quite the fashion shows that New York has, and no, we don't have a glut of designers. (We do have Chloe Dao!) We do, however, have generations of rich socialites who make it a habit to wear a haute couture gown once and only once before they move on to the next dress.

We envision a star-shaped building with one wing dedicated to gowns and fancy dresses, another to shoes, one to jewelry, one to lingerie and one to western wear (this is Texas, after all, and a lot of those socialites wore their designer duds to the Livestock Show and Rodeo fundraisers). The center of the building would be a large gallery-slash-ballroom for traveling exhibits and parties (okay, mostly parties).

More »

Add a special exhibition or two and admission to the MFAH costs more than The Louvre and MoMA.

Paris, France-based artist and writer Payam Sharifi was recently back in his hometown Houston when he decided to pay a visit to his hometown museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Often cited as one of the largest and most prestigious art institutions in the country, the MFAH is a big deal to Sharifi, a co-founder of the art collective Slavs and Tatars. In 1995, the Iranian-American artist, whose work is part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art, scored his first job in art as an intern for Anne Tucker in the MFAH's photography department.

More »

MFAH Houston

Torah Crown, mid-19th century, parcel gilt-silver, Collection of the Comunita Ebraica de Venezia (The Jewish Community of Venice)

As Germany's Nazi soldiers invaded countries throughout Europe during their height of their powers, they would - like armies throughout the centuries - also plunder. So it was not uncommon for families or institutions to frantically try to hide items of financial or sentimental value, in the hopes that they could be reclaimed one day.

Now, thanks to the foresight and clever deception of two elderly Jewish worshippers as the Nazis invaded Italy in 1943, a trove of ornate silver and bronze objects from the 17th through 20th centuries will be on view in the exhibit Lost Treasure of the Jewish Ghetto of Venice/ Restored by Venetian Heritage Inc. Hidden away for more than 60 years, the items were discovered by accident.

Among the primarily liturgical works are silver Torah crowns, lamps, plates used during ceremonial functions, Torah cases, finials, and other pieces of incredible craftsmanship and beauty, restored by a company called Venetian Heritage.

More »

Photo courtesy Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. © 2013 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso, Head of a Horse, Sketch for Guernica, Paris, May 2, 1937, oil on canvas

Throughout his lengthy career, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) experimented with wildly divergent styles, techniques, subject matter, and mediums. But over the decades, he would continually return to creating works in the most simple - and often striking - hues of black and white.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will showcase nearly 100 of Picasso's paintings, sculptures, and drawings on paper in the upcoming exhibit Picasso in Black and White. The works - which cover the years 1904 through 1970 - come to Houston after the exhibit's premiere at the Guggenheim in New York, largely through the efforts and friendship of MFAH Director Gary Tinterow and the exhibit's curator, Carmen Giménez.

"I've known Carmen since 1984, and we've discussed this project many times over the last decade," Tinterow - who was appointed MFAH director last year - says. "I immediately asked if we could be the second and only other venue for the exhibit, and now we have it. It is a pathbreaking and breathtaking show."

More »

Goya, "The Crockery Vendor"

The Prado museum of Spain is comparable to France's Louvre, Florence's Accademia di Belle Arti or New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The name Prado may not be as familiar to the everyman, but its collection is more than on par. Where the Prado differs is in its focus on Spanish and Spanish-influenced art.

Due to much effort and money, Houstonians now have the opportunity to take in the Prado's brilliance right in their own backyard. "Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado" is on exhibition December 16 through March 31, 2013, at the MFAH. The collection showcases works of Spanish masters, among others, dating from the 1600s through the 20th century.

Goya, "The Infante Don Francisco de Paula Antonio"

The exhibit was curated by Javier Portús, Senior Curator of Spanish Painting (to 1700) at the Prado, with the assistance of Edgar Peters Bowron, the Audrey Jones Beck curator of European art at the MFAH. The collection is on exclusive loan here in Houston as a part of an undertaking of the Prado to expand its reach outside of Europe.

More »

Photos by Carla Soriano

At the Menil Collection's 25th anniversary party, DJ Kalkutta's high energy set the tone for the night

And check out our slideshow of the entire weekend's activities.

With all its accolades, it's hard to believe that the Menil Collection is only 25 years old. In its short lifetime, the Renzo Piano designed building has deservedly received high praise, international recognition, and "iconic" status for the building itself and the impressive collection of art it houses: thousands of pieces that span centuries and styles, and include some of the most famous artists' work -- from Picasso to Dali to Warhol to Pollock to Rauschenberg to Magritte.

This past weekend, the Menil Collection celebrated its 25th anniversary with three events: a seated dinner entitled "A Celebration in Blue" on Friday, a French-inspired party called Bleu Électrique on Saturday, and a performance by Phillip Glass on Sunday. I only had the good fortune of attending the Bleu Électrique fête.

More »

Photo by Marco Torres

In January, Captain Paul Matthews, founder of The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, told our Steve Jansen that the museum's collection of military items, ranging in dates from 1866 to 1951, was outgrowing its space in a 3,500-square-foot building on Southmore Boulevard, where it had been housed for 12 years. The Buffalo Soldiers Museum was in the midst of a capital campaign to fund its move to a new home when they were announced as winners of a 2012 Houston Press MasterMinds award.

That recognition, along with a $2,000 no-strings-attached cash prize, helped finalize the move. The money was used to renovate the 1925 Houston Light Guard Armory Building, which the collection moved into, aptly, on Veterans Day.

More »

Friday is the last day of the Chicken Run Free Family Fun. The animated film is a hilarious parody of prison break films, but this time the action is set on a British farm. One independent chicken, Ginger, decides she's going to flee the coop, but her attempts are all waylaid by one evil Mrs. Tweedy, the farm's owner. That's where Rocky the American Rooster comes in. Somehow Ginger believes that Rocky can fly (uh, he can't) and she enlists his help in teaching all of the Tweedy Farm chickens to fly so they can all escape. Mel Gibson and Miranda Richardson are among the famous actors voicing the characters.

See Chicken Run at 10 a.m. on Friday at Alamo Drafthouse, Mason Park, 531 South Mason Road. For information, visit the cinema's website or call 281-492-6900.

More »