Meadows Museum

Page 1


MEADOWS MUSEUM ADVISORY COUNCIL

CHAIR Linda P. Custard

CONTENTS

Karen Levy Stacey McCord Linda B. McFarland

Susan Heldt Albritton

Barbara W. McKenzie

Marilyn H. Augur

Peter M. Miller

Richard M. Barrett

Jenny Ferguson Mullen

Dolores Barzune

Cyrena Nolan

Stuart M. Bumpas

Caren H. Prothro

Mary Anne Cree

Peggy H. Sewell

Linda Perryman Evans

Eliza Solender

Pilar Tabarnero Henry

Catherine B. Taylor

Gwen S. Irwin

Michael L. Thomas

Gene C. Jones

George E. Tobolowsky

Janet P. Kafka

Gail O. Turner

George C. Lancaster

Kevin E. Vogel

George T. Lee, Jr.

P. Gregory Warden

9

Director’s Foreword Mark A. Roglán

15

A Brief Introduction to the History of the Meadows Museum and its Collection Mark A. Roglán

30

Paintings

178

Works on Paper 180 Drawings 208 Watercolors 214 Prints 240 Photographs

244

Sculpture and Decorative Arts

298

Appendix

308

Index

314

Credits

EX OFFICIO R. Gerald Turner, President, SMU Brad E. Cheves, V. P., Development and External Affairs, SMU Samuel S. Holland, Algur H. Meadows Dean and Professor of Music, Meadows School of the Arts, SMU Mark A. Roglán, The Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum and Centennial Chair in the Meadows School of the Arts, SMU


MEADOWS MUSEUM ADVISORY COUNCIL

CHAIR Linda P. Custard

CONTENTS

Karen Levy Stacey McCord Linda B. McFarland

Susan Heldt Albritton

Barbara W. McKenzie

Marilyn H. Augur

Peter M. Miller

Richard M. Barrett

Jenny Ferguson Mullen

Dolores Barzune

Cyrena Nolan

Stuart M. Bumpas

Caren H. Prothro

Mary Anne Cree

Peggy H. Sewell

Linda Perryman Evans

Eliza Solender

Pilar Tabarnero Henry

Catherine B. Taylor

Gwen S. Irwin

Michael L. Thomas

Gene C. Jones

George E. Tobolowsky

Janet P. Kafka

Gail O. Turner

George C. Lancaster

Kevin E. Vogel

George T. Lee, Jr.

P. Gregory Warden

9

Director’s Foreword Mark A. Roglán

15

A Brief Introduction to the History of the Meadows Museum and its Collection Mark A. Roglán

30

Paintings

178

Works on Paper 180 Drawings 208 Watercolors 214 Prints 240 Photographs

244

Sculpture and Decorative Arts

298

Appendix

308

Index

314

Credits

EX OFFICIO R. Gerald Turner, President, SMU Brad E. Cheves, V. P., Development and External Affairs, SMU Samuel S. Holland, Algur H. Meadows Dean and Professor of Music, Meadows School of the Arts, SMU Mark A. Roglán, The Linda P. and William A. Custard Director of the Meadows Museum and Centennial Chair in the Meadows School of the Arts, SMU


DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD

In March 2021, the Meadows Museum celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of its new building at the Boulevard entrance to the campus of Southern Methodist University (smu). This construction, six times larger than the museum’s original location in smu’s Owen Arts Center, not only provides natural light-filled galleries to present the growing collection of paintings and sculpture, but also ample space to mount temporary exhibitions that help further our mission of advancing the scholarship and appreciation of Spanish art and culture. With the addition of a modern auditorium, office and event spaces, a shop, studio, and classrooms, the structure provides the Meadows Museum with the ideal venue to continue to welcome visitors well into the twenty-first century. To enable construction of this edifice, most of the museum’s holdings were put into storage, with the exception of twenty-seven paintings that toured for the first time as a collection. Those works were exhibited in Madrid at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and in Barcelona at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya to enthusiastic reviews by the Spanish press. While this major capital improvement was underway,

staff produced a collection handbook, published in 2000. Two decades after the opening of the new building, we observe this anniversary with the spring 2021 exhibition Building on the Boulevard: Celebrating 20 Years of the Meadows Museum’s New Home. The exhibition examines the many goals that these new spaces have allowed the museum to accomplish in this period of time. The present volume is part of this commemorative initiative, and through these pages the reader will be able to learn more about treasures that entered the collection in the early years, as well as discover a number of notable later additions, as the holdings have almost doubled since the publication of the 2000 handbook. Today, the Meadows collections comprise 226 paintings, 51 sculptures, and 787 works on paper. Those numbers do not include the individual works in The Stewart Album, which contains more than 180 letters, roughly half of which feature drawings, and over 240 cartes de visite reproducing early photographs of various nineteenth-century artists. The acquisitions during the last two decades have strengthened holdings in paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture,

9


DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD

In March 2021, the Meadows Museum celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the inauguration of its new building at the Boulevard entrance to the campus of Southern Methodist University (smu). This construction, six times larger than the museum’s original location in smu’s Owen Arts Center, not only provides natural light-filled galleries to present the growing collection of paintings and sculpture, but also ample space to mount temporary exhibitions that help further our mission of advancing the scholarship and appreciation of Spanish art and culture. With the addition of a modern auditorium, office and event spaces, a shop, studio, and classrooms, the structure provides the Meadows Museum with the ideal venue to continue to welcome visitors well into the twenty-first century. To enable construction of this edifice, most of the museum’s holdings were put into storage, with the exception of twenty-seven paintings that toured for the first time as a collection. Those works were exhibited in Madrid at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and in Barcelona at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya to enthusiastic reviews by the Spanish press. While this major capital improvement was underway,

staff produced a collection handbook, published in 2000. Two decades after the opening of the new building, we observe this anniversary with the spring 2021 exhibition Building on the Boulevard: Celebrating 20 Years of the Meadows Museum’s New Home. The exhibition examines the many goals that these new spaces have allowed the museum to accomplish in this period of time. The present volume is part of this commemorative initiative, and through these pages the reader will be able to learn more about treasures that entered the collection in the early years, as well as discover a number of notable later additions, as the holdings have almost doubled since the publication of the 2000 handbook. Today, the Meadows collections comprise 226 paintings, 51 sculptures, and 787 works on paper. Those numbers do not include the individual works in The Stewart Album, which contains more than 180 letters, roughly half of which feature drawings, and over 240 cartes de visite reproducing early photographs of various nineteenth-century artists. The acquisitions during the last two decades have strengthened holdings in paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture,

9


A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE MEADOWS MUSEUM AND ITS COLLECTION

The Meadows Museum has played a vital role in the life of Southern Methodist University (smu) since the museum’s founding in 1965. The university was established in 1911 and today enrolls approximately twelve thousand graduate and undergraduate students, with a faculty of close to seven hundred. The museum is a division of the Meadows School of the Arts, which works closely with other units throughout campus serving both the university community as well as the general public. The museum is renowned for its outstanding collection of Spanish art, one of the finest and most comprehensive in the world, as well as its mission, which aims to advance the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the arts and culture of Spain. We offer a wide range of educational activities on an ongoing basis, including organizing major international exhibitions as well as focused exhibitions featuring special loans or objects from the permanent collection; conducting innovative studies on the life and works of artists from the present and the past; developing cutting-edge, in-depth research; publishing scholarly books, a biannual

membership magazine, and exhibition and collection catalogues; maintaining a fellowship and internship program that prepares future generations of museum professionals; managing the University Art Collection, comprising nearly two thousand objects; and offering an enriching cultural program through tours, lectures, events, and symposia. The Meadows’s vision has been to serve as the leading center in the United States for exhibition, research, and education in the arts and culture of Spain over its more than fifty-year existence. The heart of the museum is the art collection, which is prominently Spanish in its origin and concentrates on fine art. While the holdings are not vast in quantity, the collection comprises more than a thousand objects, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and decorative arts. It is the high quality and cohesiveness that makes the collection truly singular. With significant holdings in Old Masters, nineteenth-century, modern, and contemporary art, the Meadows provides its visitors with an enlightening experience about the development of Spanish art from the medieval times to

15


A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE MEADOWS MUSEUM AND ITS COLLECTION

The Meadows Museum has played a vital role in the life of Southern Methodist University (smu) since the museum’s founding in 1965. The university was established in 1911 and today enrolls approximately twelve thousand graduate and undergraduate students, with a faculty of close to seven hundred. The museum is a division of the Meadows School of the Arts, which works closely with other units throughout campus serving both the university community as well as the general public. The museum is renowned for its outstanding collection of Spanish art, one of the finest and most comprehensive in the world, as well as its mission, which aims to advance the knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the arts and culture of Spain. We offer a wide range of educational activities on an ongoing basis, including organizing major international exhibitions as well as focused exhibitions featuring special loans or objects from the permanent collection; conducting innovative studies on the life and works of artists from the present and the past; developing cutting-edge, in-depth research; publishing scholarly books, a biannual

membership magazine, and exhibition and collection catalogues; maintaining a fellowship and internship program that prepares future generations of museum professionals; managing the University Art Collection, comprising nearly two thousand objects; and offering an enriching cultural program through tours, lectures, events, and symposia. The Meadows’s vision has been to serve as the leading center in the United States for exhibition, research, and education in the arts and culture of Spain over its more than fifty-year existence. The heart of the museum is the art collection, which is prominently Spanish in its origin and concentrates on fine art. While the holdings are not vast in quantity, the collection comprises more than a thousand objects, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and decorative arts. It is the high quality and cohesiveness that makes the collection truly singular. With significant holdings in Old Masters, nineteenth-century, modern, and contemporary art, the Meadows provides its visitors with an enlightening experience about the development of Spanish art from the medieval times to

15








PERE VALL (Spanish, doc. 1405–1411) Saints Benedict and Onuphrius, c. 1410 Tempera and gold on softwood panel 35 × 26 ⅜ in. (89 × 67 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Richard and Luba Barrett, mm.2017.01

Pere Vall is documented as having worked in the remote Catalan town of Cardona, northeast of Barcelona. In addition to the archival evidence, his work is marked by its singular style, including the strong contour lines that define the facial features of the figures.

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MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

It was not unusual for an artist to pair distinct, often unrelated, saints who would be recognized by their commonly understood attributes. On the left of the composition, the tonsured saint wearing a black habit and holding a book is Benedict, the founder of the influential monastic order bearing his name. This well-known saint is paired with a third-century Egyptian hermit, Saint Onuphrius, who is identified by his unkempt, hairy body, the result of living an isolated and contemplative life in the desert. Little is known about the size or content of the original retablo or altarpiece to which this work belonged, except that the Meadows panel is one of six that made up the bottom row, called the predella or banco. awd

JOAN REIXACH (Spanish, doc. 1431–1486) Saint Vincent Ferrer, c. 1468 Oil, tempera, and gold on panel 75 ⅝ × 40 ¾ in. (192.1 × 103.5 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with matching funds donated from The Meadows Foundation and various other sources, mm.04.01

Once part of a larger altarpiece, this painting captures the imposing presence of one of Iberia’s most influential missionaries and preachers at the turn of the fifteenth century. The Dominican monk, depicted wearing the black and white habit of his order, is Saint Vincent Ferrer, who, like the artist who created this work, is from Valencia, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea in the east of Spain. The saint was known for his fiery sermons in which he preached the importance of penance in preparation for the Last Judgment. His celebrated oratory famously attracted large crowds and was credited with inspiring the conversion of large numbers of Jews and Muslims to Christianity. This commanding portrayal of the saint speaks directly to his preaching. With his right hand he points to the prominent banderole, which quotes from Revelation 14:7, a passage he used in his sermons: Timete Deum et date illi honorem quia venit hora iudicii eius et adorate eum qui fecit [caelum et] terram (Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of judgment is come: and worship him that made [heaven and] earth).

Joan Reixach was among fifteenthcentury Valencia’s most popular painters, and he enjoyed royal and ecclesiastical support. The delicate gold punching, elegantly curving banderole, and naturalistic facial features of the saint help date this painting to the late 1460s, about a decade after Vincent Ferrer’s canonization in 1455. aWD

PAINTINGS

33


PERE VALL (Spanish, doc. 1405–1411) Saints Benedict and Onuphrius, c. 1410 Tempera and gold on softwood panel 35 × 26 ⅜ in. (89 × 67 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with funds generously provided by Richard and Luba Barrett, mm.2017.01

Pere Vall is documented as having worked in the remote Catalan town of Cardona, northeast of Barcelona. In addition to the archival evidence, his work is marked by its singular style, including the strong contour lines that define the facial features of the figures.

32

MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

It was not unusual for an artist to pair distinct, often unrelated, saints who would be recognized by their commonly understood attributes. On the left of the composition, the tonsured saint wearing a black habit and holding a book is Benedict, the founder of the influential monastic order bearing his name. This well-known saint is paired with a third-century Egyptian hermit, Saint Onuphrius, who is identified by his unkempt, hairy body, the result of living an isolated and contemplative life in the desert. Little is known about the size or content of the original retablo or altarpiece to which this work belonged, except that the Meadows panel is one of six that made up the bottom row, called the predella or banco. awd

JOAN REIXACH (Spanish, doc. 1431–1486) Saint Vincent Ferrer, c. 1468 Oil, tempera, and gold on panel 75 ⅝ × 40 ¾ in. (192.1 × 103.5 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with matching funds donated from The Meadows Foundation and various other sources, mm.04.01

Once part of a larger altarpiece, this painting captures the imposing presence of one of Iberia’s most influential missionaries and preachers at the turn of the fifteenth century. The Dominican monk, depicted wearing the black and white habit of his order, is Saint Vincent Ferrer, who, like the artist who created this work, is from Valencia, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea in the east of Spain. The saint was known for his fiery sermons in which he preached the importance of penance in preparation for the Last Judgment. His celebrated oratory famously attracted large crowds and was credited with inspiring the conversion of large numbers of Jews and Muslims to Christianity. This commanding portrayal of the saint speaks directly to his preaching. With his right hand he points to the prominent banderole, which quotes from Revelation 14:7, a passage he used in his sermons: Timete Deum et date illi honorem quia venit hora iudicii eius et adorate eum qui fecit [caelum et] terram (Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of judgment is come: and worship him that made [heaven and] earth).

Joan Reixach was among fifteenthcentury Valencia’s most popular painters, and he enjoyed royal and ecclesiastical support. The delicate gold punching, elegantly curving banderole, and naturalistic facial features of the saint help date this painting to the late 1460s, about a decade after Vincent Ferrer’s canonization in 1455. aWD

PAINTINGS

33


FRANCISCO GALLEGO (Spanish, doc. 1440–1507) Acacius and the 10,000 Martyrs on Mount Ararat, c. 1490 Tempera and oil on panel 60 ¾ × 44 in. (154.3 × 111.8 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Algur H. Meadows Collection, mm.68.02

The origin of this panel remains unknown. It was once part of a larger altarpiece and represents the Roman centurion Acacius and the ten thousand soldiers under his command. Acacius’s story is one of conversion and martyrdom; after becoming Christians,

34

MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

the men refused to renounce their newfound faith and, as a consequence, were crucified. A parallel between this event and that of the Crucifixion of Christ is suggested here by the positions of the three main figures, which recall the iconography of Christ on the Cross between the two thieves. Gallego depicts Acacius with ten other crucified soldiers, visually summarizing the high number of martyrs. Francisco Gallego was active in and around the Castilian university city of Salamanca and sometimes collaborated on large commissions. No signed works by Gallego survive, but he can be associated with specific commissions based on contracts and stylistic evidence. The painter’s characteristic rendering of figures with large, bulging, crescent-shaped eyes and heavily drooping lids has made it possible to attribute a number of panel paintings to him, including this one and the triptych of Saint Catherine in Salamanca’s cathedral museum. awd

MARTÍN BERNAT (Spanish, doc. 1450–1505) Saint Blaise, c. 1480 Oil and gold on panel 53 ¼ × 38 ⅛ in. (135.3 × 96.8 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase, The Meadows Foundation Fund, mm.97.01

Saint Blaise, a fourth-century bishop, is shown wearing a jeweled miter and a golden embroidered cope, attire more akin to late medieval ecclesiastical garments than those of ancient Rome. Clothing historical figures in contemporary dress created a powerful parallel

between the holy men of the past and those of the present. Apart from the crosier and miter, which mark him as a bishop, Blaise holds his most distinctive attribute: a woolcarder’s comb, the implement of his martyrdom. Once the central panel of an altarpiece dedicated to the saint, this frontal image would have originally been surrounded by narrative scenes of Blaise’s life, martyrdom, and miracles. The devotional images of saints and biblical narratives played a crucial role in the celebration of mass and in the cult of miracle-performing relics. These monumental and expensive commissions often required the effort of a group of artists, who collaborated in workshops. This image of Saint Blaise is by Martín Bernat, who was documented as active in the kingdom of Aragon in the second half of the fifteenth century. Characteristics of the artist’s work include the combination of a naturalistic, if static, face with elaborate gilding, as seen here. Of particular note is the embutido, a technique in which punched or incised areas are picked out in high relief by building up the gesso on the panel’s surface prior to gilding. awd

PAINTINGS

35


FRANCISCO GALLEGO (Spanish, doc. 1440–1507) Acacius and the 10,000 Martyrs on Mount Ararat, c. 1490 Tempera and oil on panel 60 ¾ × 44 in. (154.3 × 111.8 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Algur H. Meadows Collection, mm.68.02

The origin of this panel remains unknown. It was once part of a larger altarpiece and represents the Roman centurion Acacius and the ten thousand soldiers under his command. Acacius’s story is one of conversion and martyrdom; after becoming Christians,

34

MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

the men refused to renounce their newfound faith and, as a consequence, were crucified. A parallel between this event and that of the Crucifixion of Christ is suggested here by the positions of the three main figures, which recall the iconography of Christ on the Cross between the two thieves. Gallego depicts Acacius with ten other crucified soldiers, visually summarizing the high number of martyrs. Francisco Gallego was active in and around the Castilian university city of Salamanca and sometimes collaborated on large commissions. No signed works by Gallego survive, but he can be associated with specific commissions based on contracts and stylistic evidence. The painter’s characteristic rendering of figures with large, bulging, crescent-shaped eyes and heavily drooping lids has made it possible to attribute a number of panel paintings to him, including this one and the triptych of Saint Catherine in Salamanca’s cathedral museum. awd

MARTÍN BERNAT (Spanish, doc. 1450–1505) Saint Blaise, c. 1480 Oil and gold on panel 53 ¼ × 38 ⅛ in. (135.3 × 96.8 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase, The Meadows Foundation Fund, mm.97.01

Saint Blaise, a fourth-century bishop, is shown wearing a jeweled miter and a golden embroidered cope, attire more akin to late medieval ecclesiastical garments than those of ancient Rome. Clothing historical figures in contemporary dress created a powerful parallel

between the holy men of the past and those of the present. Apart from the crosier and miter, which mark him as a bishop, Blaise holds his most distinctive attribute: a woolcarder’s comb, the implement of his martyrdom. Once the central panel of an altarpiece dedicated to the saint, this frontal image would have originally been surrounded by narrative scenes of Blaise’s life, martyrdom, and miracles. The devotional images of saints and biblical narratives played a crucial role in the celebration of mass and in the cult of miracle-performing relics. These monumental and expensive commissions often required the effort of a group of artists, who collaborated in workshops. This image of Saint Blaise is by Martín Bernat, who was documented as active in the kingdom of Aragon in the second half of the fifteenth century. Characteristics of the artist’s work include the combination of a naturalistic, if static, face with elaborate gilding, as seen here. Of particular note is the embutido, a technique in which punched or incised areas are picked out in high relief by building up the gesso on the panel’s surface prior to gilding. awd

PAINTINGS

35


hugely ambitious kinetic sculpture that occupies more than 1,700 square feet outside the museum’s front entrance. Wave is a panoramic and hypnotic undulation that calls to mind the experience of watching the open sea or driving past sand dunes. That effect is created by the coordinated movement of 129 bronze-coated steel beams that rise and fall with the assistance of a hidden electric motor. The beams pivot on a fulcrum, and the whole structure sits above a black granite reflecting pool. The slow and steady motion is echoed in the water, which gives the sculpture a sense of ease, calm, and weightlessness—no small feat, as each beam weighs 441 pounds and extends 26 feet. nh JUAN MUÑOZ (Spanish, 1953–2001) Seated Figure Looking Backwards, 1996 Bronze, unique 40 × 21 ¼ × 30 in. (101.6 × 54 × 76.2 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Gift of the Barrett Collection, Dallas, TX, in honor of Dr. Mark A. Roglán, mm.2014.06

Most sculptures made of bronze are cast in editions, resulting in a series of identical artworks pulled from a common mold. However, when Juan Muñoz set about creating Seated Figure Looking Backwards he produced only a single bronze, drawing the figure from a group of earlier sculptures, collectively titled A Place Called Abroad. Those sculptures were cast in resin, installed together, and are now in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

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MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

Like its casting process, Seated Figure is rife with small irregularities that are just strange enough to make a viewer pause and try to identify what feels odd. The titular seated figure is bulbous, as though slightly inflated, and it measures less than life-size, which complicates a straightforward reading. The figure is in the process of turning to glance behind him, suggesting a surprise in mid-conversation or a look around in boredom — the meaning is not clear. That ambiguity is one of the defining features of Muñoz’s work as well as the larger cultural shift toward postmodernism in the late twentieth century. Postmodern sculpture is a broad category but often includes artworks that are expressive but without a clear meaning or message. These works are often constructed with a combination of materials and are very good at posing questions, but they seldom offer conclusive answers. All of this comes across in Seated Figure, which remains evocative despite, or perhaps on account of, its open-ended meaning. nh

S C U L P T U R E A N D D E C O R AT I V E A R T S

295


hugely ambitious kinetic sculpture that occupies more than 1,700 square feet outside the museum’s front entrance. Wave is a panoramic and hypnotic undulation that calls to mind the experience of watching the open sea or driving past sand dunes. That effect is created by the coordinated movement of 129 bronze-coated steel beams that rise and fall with the assistance of a hidden electric motor. The beams pivot on a fulcrum, and the whole structure sits above a black granite reflecting pool. The slow and steady motion is echoed in the water, which gives the sculpture a sense of ease, calm, and weightlessness—no small feat, as each beam weighs 441 pounds and extends 26 feet. nh JUAN MUÑOZ (Spanish, 1953–2001) Seated Figure Looking Backwards, 1996 Bronze, unique 40 × 21 ¼ × 30 in. (101.6 × 54 × 76.2 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Gift of the Barrett Collection, Dallas, TX, in honor of Dr. Mark A. Roglán, mm.2014.06

Most sculptures made of bronze are cast in editions, resulting in a series of identical artworks pulled from a common mold. However, when Juan Muñoz set about creating Seated Figure Looking Backwards he produced only a single bronze, drawing the figure from a group of earlier sculptures, collectively titled A Place Called Abroad. Those sculptures were cast in resin, installed together, and are now in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

294

MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

Like its casting process, Seated Figure is rife with small irregularities that are just strange enough to make a viewer pause and try to identify what feels odd. The titular seated figure is bulbous, as though slightly inflated, and it measures less than life-size, which complicates a straightforward reading. The figure is in the process of turning to glance behind him, suggesting a surprise in mid-conversation or a look around in boredom — the meaning is not clear. That ambiguity is one of the defining features of Muñoz’s work as well as the larger cultural shift toward postmodernism in the late twentieth century. Postmodern sculpture is a broad category but often includes artworks that are expressive but without a clear meaning or message. These works are often constructed with a combination of materials and are very good at posing questions, but they seldom offer conclusive answers. All of this comes across in Seated Figure, which remains evocative despite, or perhaps on account of, its open-ended meaning. nh

S C U L P T U R E A N D D E C O R AT I V E A R T S

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JAUME PLENSA (Spanish, 1955–) Sho, 2007 Painted stainless steel 157½ × 157½ × 118⅛ in. (400.1 × 400.1 × 300 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with funds from The Pollock Foundation, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Pollock, and the family of Lawrence S. Pollock, iii, in honor of Mrs. Shirley Pollock, mm.09.01

Jaume Plensa’s career as an artist has become defined by his monumental public sculptures, which are installed throughout the world. One of the subjects that has defined his current sculptural practice is the huge rendering of faces, as in the Meadows Museum’s Sho. Sho is named after and modeled on a young girl whose father owns the Chinese restaurant next to Plensa’s studio in Barcelona. In order to translate a child’s features into a 13-foot steel mesh sculpture, Plensa and his team photographed her and used the images to digitally create a three-dimensional model, which was then constructed to scale in foam. With a giant foam head in place, individual steel rods could be bent and shaped — one over the other — in order to create the metal “net” that gives the sculpture its shape. The result is an artwork that weighs more than 660 pounds but is also nearly transparent. The viewer’s perspective of the sculpture will change dramatically based on angle of approach, time of day, and other conditions at the site. The sculpture’s transparency combines with its placid expression to encourage viewers to contemplate the inner workings of the mind and the mysteries therein. nh 296

MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

S C U L P T U R E & D E C O R AT I V E A R T S C U L P T U R E A N D D E C O R AT I V E A R T S

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JAUME PLENSA (Spanish, 1955–) Sho, 2007 Painted stainless steel 157½ × 157½ × 118⅛ in. (400.1 × 400.1 × 300 cm) Meadows Museum, SMU, Dallas. Museum purchase with funds from The Pollock Foundation, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Pollock, and the family of Lawrence S. Pollock, iii, in honor of Mrs. Shirley Pollock, mm.09.01

Jaume Plensa’s career as an artist has become defined by his monumental public sculptures, which are installed throughout the world. One of the subjects that has defined his current sculptural practice is the huge rendering of faces, as in the Meadows Museum’s Sho. Sho is named after and modeled on a young girl whose father owns the Chinese restaurant next to Plensa’s studio in Barcelona. In order to translate a child’s features into a 13-foot steel mesh sculpture, Plensa and his team photographed her and used the images to digitally create a three-dimensional model, which was then constructed to scale in foam. With a giant foam head in place, individual steel rods could be bent and shaped — one over the other — in order to create the metal “net” that gives the sculpture its shape. The result is an artwork that weighs more than 660 pounds but is also nearly transparent. The viewer’s perspective of the sculpture will change dramatically based on angle of approach, time of day, and other conditions at the site. The sculpture’s transparency combines with its placid expression to encourage viewers to contemplate the inner workings of the mind and the mysteries therein. nh 296

MEADOWS MUSEUM HANDBOOK

S C U L P T U R E & D E C O R AT I V E A R T S C U L P T U R E A N D D E C O R AT I V E A R T S

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