The history of Texas art is being reconsidered. Modernist art theories that emerged in late-eighteenth-century Paris and early-twentieth-century New York have been exhaustively examined from national and international perspectives. But modernist art's influence on and incorporation into the indigenous art of Texas has yet to be critically examined. Texas Modernism is being rediscovered.
Interest in high quality, indigenous Texas art is rapidly increasing. The state's major institutions are conducting exhibitions intended to teach various periods of Texas art. Academics and collectors are also increasingly concerned with defining meaningful Texas art movements. As a consequence, some of the common definitions of terms such as "Early Texas Art" and "Regionalism" are being re-examined.
Texas artists were quietly but unmistakably yielding to and experimenting with European modernist techniques as early as the mid 1930's. Information about "new" modernist art was being communicated to Texas in various ways: Some native Texan artists spent time outside of the state--investigating modernism at national or international levels. They returned and began incorporating increasingly conceptual and abstract techniques into their art. Other artists came to Texas from throughout the country and abroad, bringing new information and perspectives with them.
The 1940's was a transitional time in Texas art. Artists were sorting out the influences of Picasso and Surrealism. They were moving beyond the dictates of American Scene painting and searching for a balance between form and subject. During this same period, pioneering Texas art institutions began to expose Texans to modernist art. Local organizations also began to provide opportunities for artists creating "new art." And perhaps most importantly, the establishment of fine art departments at the state's universities proved fertile ground for the vanguard of Texas artists who progressively began to engraft modernist techniques into their art.
These Texas modernists began to create meaning within the artwork itself. Different artists interpreted the techniques of modernism in varying ways, but the majority moved--to some extent--toward the use of abstraction and non-objectivity.
Some Texas modernists preserved a degree of representation as a visual structure within which to use the new techniques. Frequently these painters relied the varied Texas landscape--especially West Texas and the Big Bend--for the basic form and composition, while they experimented with color, brushstroke and texture. Other artists moved even further and eliminated all visual evidence of everyday objects. Their art became fully abstracted and non-objective.
Whether these artists produced "abstracted" landscapes or non-objective paintings, their work was still in some obvious or subtle ways informed by the state's history, geography and myth.
The modernist trends in Texas art became more openly embraced in the years preceding the World War II, and then fully blossomed in the post-war, mid-century work of groups of painters in Fort Worth, Dallas, Denton, Austin, Houston and San Antonio.
"The mission of TexasModernArt is to advance the awareness, examination, and appreciation of modernist Texas art."
