MFAH Holiday Highlights & Exhibitions
Christmas Village at Bayou Bend, through – Dec 30
Discover an immersive Christmas experience at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, 6003 Memorial Drive. A dazzling bridge brings you into a winter wonderland featuring thousands of lights throughout the 14-acre estate. Highlights include a faux-snow slide, carolers, photos with Santa, and more! Christmas Village will be open from 5:30 – 9 p.m. until December 30 and will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Drop-in Tour | “Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power”, Saturday, December 10, 1:30 p.m.
Photographer Gordon Parks (1912–2006) once said of his artistic awakening, “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs.” The five emotive photographs he took for Life magazine in 1967 of civil-rights activist Stokely Carmichael are the centerpiece of Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power. The exhibition also features nearly 50 other contextual photographs of the era. Another session is scheduled for Saturday, December 17 at 1:30 p.m. Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
Art Beyond Sight, Saturday, December 10, 11 a.m.
In this gallery program for visitors who are blind or partially sighted, trained educators use verbal description and hands-on materials to engage participants with the Museum’s collections and exhibitions. Art Beyond Sight takes place on the second Saturday of the month. Admission is free, but space is limited, so be sure to register in advance. Contact accessibility@mfah.org for reservations and more information. Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
MFAH on the Move | Bilingual Zumba, Sunday, December 11, 11 a.m.
Meet up at the Museum for “MFAH on the Move” with FiTMiX Communities. Yuri Amor Perez and fellow FiTMiX instructors get you up and moving with free Zumba in the beautiful outdoor setting of Cullen Sculpture Garden. Mixed into your Sunday morning Zumba practice are opportunities to explore works of art from around the world. Cullen Sculpture Garden, Montrose Boulevard at Bissonnet Street.
Lecture | “Giacometti and Sculptural Practice, Then and Now: Joseph Havel in Conversation with Curator Ann Dumas”, Sunday, December 11, 2 p.m.
Sculptor Joseph Havel offers a presentation connecting his artistic practice with that of Alberto Giacometti. A conversation with curator Ann Dumas follows. Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure gathers an ensemble of masterpieces focusing on Giacometti’s major creations of the postwar years (1945–66). Combining all media—sculptures, paintings, drawings, and photographs—the exhibition examines a central aspect of Giacometti’s oeuvre: his extraordinary, singular concern for the human figure. Brown Auditorium Theater, Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street.
Looking Together, Monday, December 12, 11 a.m.
Looking Together is designed for those with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and their care partners. During this program, participants discover and discuss works of art together in the Museum galleries. Looking Together takes place on the second Monday of the month. Admission is free, but space is limited, so be sure to register in advance. Contact accessibility@mfah.org for reservations and more information. Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
St. John’s School Choir | Christmas Caroling, Thursday, December 15, 4:30 p.m.
Enjoy a free performance of holiday music in the Beck Building. Kantorei is the top high school chamber choir at St. John’s School. The choir sings a cappella, and this afternoon Kantorei spreads holiday cheer at the Museum with a Christmas caroling performance. Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
Happy Hour Thursday, Thursday, December 15, 5 p.m.
Happy Hour Thursday is the place to be! Meet your friends at the MFAH for the best night of the week. Explore the campus, visit the galleries, and get a drink at the bar. General admission is free on Thursday, and the Museum is open late, so take advantage of the opportunity to discover your Museum at no cost. Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
Musiqa Mixer | “Golden Worlds”, Thursday, December 15, 6:30 p.m.
The MFAH and Musiqa present a free concert in conjunction with the exhibition Golden Worlds: The Portable Universe of Indigenous Colombia. The flute, viola, and harp music program features works by modern Colombian and other South American composers, including Diana Arismendi, Ricardo Gallo, Damián Ponce de León, and Pedro Sarmiento. Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, 5500 Main Street.
Gallery Concert “At the Christmas Market”, Saturday, December 17, 6:30 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.
Ring in your holiday season at a beautiful concert by the Mercury Chamber Orchestra. Experience the music and magic of a Baroque German Christmas market in this rousing, family-friendly performance. Mercury Neighborhood Concerts at the MFAH provide the perfect environment for contemplating the dramatic Baroque paintings on view in the largest European art gallery at the Museum. Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street.
MFAH on the Move | Bilingual Yoga, Sunday, December 18, 11 a.m.
Yuri Amor Perez and fellow FiTMiX instructors get you up and moving with free yoga in the beautiful outdoor setting of Cullen Sculpture Garden. Mixed into your Sunday-morning yoga practice are opportunities to explore works of art from around the world. Cullen Sculpture Garden, Montrose Boulevard at Bissonnet Street.
Current MFAH Exhibitions on View:
Connecting Currents: Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston on view through Summer 2023, in The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, 5500 Main Street, is dedicated to the Museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art. The third-floor galleries are devoted to thematic exhibitions, and the Kinder Building opens with Connecting Currents—five inaugural installations of art from the 1960s onward. mfah.org/exhibitions
Spanish Colonial Paintings from the Thoma Collection on view through August 13, 2023
The Museum presents a selection of Spanish colonial paintings from the celebrated collection of Carl and Marilynn Thoma. In the 16th century, European artists traveled to Latin America to meet the huge demand for artistic creations in newly established religious institutions. Sometimes, family workshops were founded that lasted generations. By the 17th century, artists born in Latin America began to dominate, and new styles and idioms emerged that had less and less to do with European origins. Find more information at www.mfah.org/exhibitions
Looking South: Collecting the Arts of Mexico on view at Rienzi through February 26, 2023
Looking South: Collecting the Arts of Mexico reflects the Mastersons’ captivation with Mexico, seen in their collection of objects and ephemera from the 18th to the mid-20th century and in Rienzi’s Mexican Room, which they added in the 1970s. This wealth of Mexican material provides a fascinating lens through which to view 20th-century collectors and collecting. Find more information at www.mfah.org/visit/rienzi/exhibitions-rienzi/
Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power, on view through January 16, 2023
In 1967, Life magazine published a groundbreaking profile of Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael, with images and reporting by photographer Gordon Parks. The exhibition Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power features the five images by Parks from the article, along with nearly 50 additional photographs and contact sheets never before published or exhibited. Also included in the presentation is footage of Carmichael’s speeches and interviews.
Philip Guston Now, on view through January 16, 2023
Over his 50-year career, Guston (1913–1980) shifted from figuration to abstraction and back again. Philip Guston Now, the first retrospective of the influential artist’s work in nearly two decades, features paintings, prints, and drawings—both well-known and rarely seen—from public and private collections. Exhibition highlights include foundational paintings from the 1930s that have never been on public view; a cycle of major abstract paintings of the 1950s; a multi-part array of small panel paintings from the late 1960s as Guston developed a new vocabulary grounded in ordinary objects; a reunion of the controversial paintings from Guston’s groundbreaking 1970 show at Marlborough Gallery in New York; and a powerful selection of large, often apocalyptic paintings of the late 1970s that form Guston’s final artistic statement.
Golden Worlds: The Portable Universe of Indigenous Colombia, on view through April 16, 2023
Golden Worlds: The Portable Universe of Indigenous Colombia showcases the diversity and brilliance of ancient Colombian cultures. The exhibition reframes the approach to ancient Colombian art and invites visitors into a cultural dialogue that spans both space and time. From intricately cast gold pendants and hammered gold masks to ceramic effigies of fantastical creatures and rare ancient textiles, some 400 works span all the major ancient cultures of Colombia. Landscapes, archaeological sites, and collaborations add important context to the objects and their timeless messages. Thematic sections center the voices and concepts of descendant Indigenous communities in the display and interpretation of the works.
Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure, on view through February 12, 2023
Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure presents an ensemble of 60 masterpieces highlighting Alberto Giacometti’s major achievements of the postwar years (1945–66). This touring exhibition explores the artist’s creative process and how he came to produce his iconic figures. The exhibition unfolds in 12 thematic sections that illuminate Giacometti’s focus on the human form and the development of his signature style. Beginning with “Paris: Life in a Studio in Montparnasse,” the sections continue through subjects including “Obsessed with Heads,” “Into Thin Air,” “Giacometti Seen by Photographers, “A Portrait in Film,” “The Literary Scene,” “The Human Condition,” and “Grappling with the Real.”
Films
Shaft, Thursday, December 15, 7 p.m.
Directed by Gordon Parks
(USA, 1971, 100 minutes)
Brown Auditorium Theater
Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Gordon Parks: Stokely Carmichael and Black Power
The second feature film from director/photographer Gordon Parks, Shaft helped to launch the blaxploitation genre. Private eye John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) finds himself in the midst of a turf war between rival gangs when he is hired to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Harlem mob boss (Moses Gunn).
Animation Show of Shows, Saturday, December 17, 2 p.m.
Directed by Various Directors
(International, 2022, 88 minutes)
Lynn Wyatt Theater
Timely, beautiful, and poignant, the annual Animation Show of Shows is back! This curated selection comprises the “best of the best” animated short films by students and professionals around the world. Featuring films from 10 countries, the 22nd edition offers an array of highly imaginative, thought-provoking, and moving works that reflect the filmmakers’ unique perspectives and their relationships to the world. Another screening is scheduled for Sunday, December 18 at 2 p.m.
*Reminder: Timed tickets to the main campus, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi are recommended to be obtained in advance online at mfah.org/tickets
More information available at https://www.mfah.org