Identity Revealed

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet the artist Xiaoze Xie at his exhibition opening at Tally Dunn Gallery in Dallas. Born in a small town in Guangdong Province, China, at the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in 1966, Xie now splits his time between studios in Beijing and Palo Alto, California, where he a Professor of Art at Stanford University. Xie is probably best-known for his monumental paintings of library books and newspapers, sometimes based on banned and forbidden books in China. The OJAC is fortunate to own two works by Xie, including Chinese Library #6, and Untitled (for Polit Bureau Politician).

Shortly after introductions by mutual friends, Xiaoze offered previously unknown background information on his untitled work. He shared that Untitled (for Polit Bureau Politician), 1995 is a portrait of Yuan Shikai, a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty. Through negotiations with revolutionaries, he became the first official president of the Republic of China in 1912 and, only a few years later, boldly declared himself emperor. Faced with widespread opposition backed by Japan, Yuan was forced to abolish his newly announced monarchy in March 1916 and died three months later.

In Xiaoze’s portrait, the bottom half of the painting depicts a partial newspaper image of Yuan in Western-style suit and tie standing behind a large microphone. By cropping off Yuan’s head and leaving only a stark white void for the top third of the painting, Xie‘s work speaks to the power of the loudest voice, while also illustrating its fleeting nature.

-Amy Kelly, Registrar

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XIAOZE XIE, Chinese Library #6, 1995, oil on canvas. Gift of Karol Howard and George Morton. 2012.012

XIAOZE XIE, Untitled (for Polit Bureau Politician), 1995, oil on canvas. Gift of Karol Howard and George Morton. 2012.013

37th Hour

Recently the OJAC acquired 37th Hour, a large and colorful painting by Brooklyn based (but Texas born) artist Matt Kleberg. I was curious about the title so I did some digging on my own, but came up short and even more perplexed. What I had considered as possibly inspired by Southern Gothic writings, or even a biblical code (as suggested by the internet), or simply an ironic or random phrase, actually turned out to be a very personal story. With Matt’s permission, here’s the inside scoop that inspired the title:

Matt Kleberg: "[37th Hour] was in a show in NYC last year. I was working on the paintings for that show while Liz (his wife)was pregnant and the show opened pretty soon after we had Waylon. The titles of the paintings all reflected the birth, and 37th Hour was in reference to the 37.5 hour long labor that Liz had, and the drawn out anticipation of it all. The meaning of the work for me, or at least the context that gives a painting a reason for being is always shifting. During Liz’s pregnancy, the empty niches in the work took on an expectant, anticipatory charge. They became about waiting and wondering about who this person coming into our lives was going to be. The paintings, in that regard, were 'pregnant spaces'." 

Amy Kelly, Registrar

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MATT KLEBERG, 37th Hour, 2017, oil stick on canvas, 72 x 58 in. Museum purchase. 2018.002

2018 - Year of Conservation

As you may recall, the Old Jail Art Center designated 2017 as the "Year of the Membership" and successfully increased our membership by about 120 percent. 2018 will be the "Year of Conservation" and will encompass a variety of initiatives. Conservation, preservation, sustainability, and stewardship are all related concepts that describe the multiple projects taking place throughout the year.  

Efforts to increase funding for much needed conservation and preservation on works in the art and archives collections will focus on the Fort Worth Circle paintings and the original Shackelford County courthouse drawings. The OJAC has already taken the first step in its conservation endeavors by submitting a grant to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to fund a survey of 83 paintings by Fort Worth Circle artists. During that process, it was realized that the OJAC has the largest holding of Fort Worth Circle art works by any museum in the world. The original courthouse drawings on linen in the OJAC's Robert E. Nail Jr. Archives are in need of stabilization and archival framing. These are just two examples on a prioritized list of collections care. 

The much-anticipated initial series of video interviews in the Ardon Judd Oral History project administered through the OJAC's Robert E. Nail Jr. Archives will debut in October. This project demonstrates the importance of preserving regional history, while also making that history accessible to visitors, students and researchers. This wealth of information will be valuable resource for research, education and enjoyment for current and future generations.

The OJAC takes another step in sustainability by being awarded a grant from the The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club ® to install solar panels, which will reduce our energy expenses. Sun Club funds will also be provided for education programs that will dovetail with our current curriculum utilizing collection objects to promote stewardship and sustainability of our natural resources. Not only will the OJAC take a leadership role in this important endeavor for our region of Texas, but also reduce operating cost - directing those savings to other programs. 

These activities emphasize the imporantance of the OJAC as not only the primary repository of cultural and historical items and information, but also our obligation to protect and preserve that which we hold in public trust. 

- Patrick Kelly

Executive Director and Curator of Exhibitions 

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Spoken: Ardon Judd Oral History Project from The Old Jail Art Center on Vimeo.

The Path Into the Blue

OJAC Collection favorite Der Weg ins Blaue (The Path Into the Blue) will be on exhibit at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany this March.  The Pinakothek der Moderne is one of the largest museums in the world for art, architecture and design of the 20th and 21st centuries.

"The exhibition, 'Construction of Mystery' is the first major exhibition of Paul Klee's work to be held at the Pinakothek de Moderne. The substantial holdings in Munich will be presented alongside more than 120 works from important Klee collections in Europe, the United States and Japan. The show follows Klee's path as a 'thinking artist' who systematically explores and transcends boundaries of the rational in his work. At the center of the exhibition is the 1920s, a time in which Klee responded to the challenges of the new technological world and its impact on the creativity of the modern artist. As a Bauhaus master, Klee questioned the dominance of rationalism and strove to balance understanding and feeling, construction and intuition. This exhibition shows the continued relevance of Klee's work, addressing fundamental conflicts of the modern subject. " -Pinakothek der Moderne 

Kenna Hogan, Development and Marketing Coordinator

PAUL KLEE

Der Weg ins Blaue (The Path into the Blue), 1934

Encaustic on canvas mounted on board

Gift of Bill Bomar, 1991.002.

OJAC Staff and Board Members attended the opening reception of Paul Klee: Construction of Mystery. This exhibition will be on view at the Pinakothek de Moderne from March 1, 2018 - June 6, 2018.