Things to Do in Houston While it's Modern

Both showing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Caroline Weiss Law Building, the exhibits Recent Accessions in Modern and Contemporary Design, and Acquisitions of the Last Five Years: Selections of Modern and Contemporary Art, through March 5 and October 9 respectively, show the MFAH's modern edge.

Acquisitions of the Last Five Years: Selections of Modern and Contemporary Art features nearly 200 paintings, works on paper, photographs, and sculptures. Diane Arbus, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Pablo Picasso, and Robert Rauschenberg are just a few of the renowned artists whose works have recently joined the MFAH collections. Also on display are selections from the 2004 bequest of Caroline Wiess Law.

Recent Accessions in Modern and Contemporary Design presents some of the most innovative objects created throughout the 20th century and into the new millennium, from Josef Hoffmann´s c. 1905 Sitzmaschine to Philippe Starck´s 2003 polycarbonate Louis Ghost Chair. Each of the objects, all recent additions to the MFAH collection, demonstrate significant aesthetic and technical virtuosity.

Among the works on view are furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, lighting, and textiles. In addition to Hoffmann and Starck, designers represented in the show include Andrea Branzi, Tord Boontje, Cesare Casati and Emanuele Ponzio, Kay Fiskar, Gaetano Pesce, Maarten van Severen, and Ettore Sottsass. Materials used by the artists range from aluminum (Branzi´s Amnesie Vases) to resin and metal (Pesce´s Door) to PVC and acrylic (Casati and Ponzio´s lamps, Pillola Series Complet). The exhibition also includes a selection of exquisite French perfume bottles from the 1930s.