Mark Rothko, was an American abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of color, which he produced from 1949 to 1970. Although Rothko did not personally subscribe to any one school, he is associated with the American abstract expressionism movement of modern art.
Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the immediate aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depression and Mexican muralists. The term was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates. Key figures in the New York School, which was the center of this movement, included such artists as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Norman Lewis, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Theodoros Stamos and Lee Krasner among others.
Barnett Newman was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of place that viewers experience with art and incorporate the simplest forms to emphasize this feeling.
The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas, founded by John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art: on its walls are fourteen paintings by Mark Rothko in varying hues of black. The shape of the building—an octagon inscribed in a Greek cross—and the design of the chapel were largely influenced by the artist. The chapel sits two miles southwest of downtown in the Montrose neighborhood, situated between the building housing the Menil Collection and the Chapel of Saint Basil on the campus of the University of Saint Thomas. About 110,000 people visit the chapel each year.
Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumberger oil exploration fortune; art dealer Heiner Friedrich, Philippa's husband; and Helen Winkler, a Houston art historian. Dia provides support to projects "whose nature or scale would preclude other funding sources."
Anne Truitt, born Anne Dean, was an American sculptor of the mid-20th century.
Paul Jenkins was an American abstract expressionist painter.
The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, refers either to a museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs and rare books.
Dominique de Menil was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1986.
Sam Gilliam was an American abstract painter, sculptor, and arts educator. Born in Mississippi, and raised in Kentucky, Gilliam spent his entire adult life in Washington, D.C., eventually being described as the "dean" of the city's arts community. Originally associated with the Washington Color School, a group of Washington-area artists that developed a form of abstract art from color field painting in the 1950s and 1960s, Gilliam moved beyond the group's core aesthetics of flat fields of color in the mid-60s by introducing both process and sculptural elements to his paintings.
Anthony Peter Smith was an American sculptor, painter, architectural designer, and a noted art theorist. As a leading sculptor in the 1960s and 1970s, Smith is often associated with the Minimalist art movement.
Walter "Chico" Hopps was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine practices of curatorial installation internationally. He is known for contributing decisively to “the emergence of the museum as a place to show new art.”
John de Ménil was a Franco-American businessman, philanthropist, and art patron. He was the founding president of the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) in New York. With his wife, Dominique de Menil, he established the Menil Collection, a free museum designed by Renzo Piano and built in 1986 to preserve and exhibit their world-class contemporary art collection.
Yvonne Thomas was an American abstract artist.
Ronald Bladen was a Canadian-born American painter and sculptor. He is particularly known for his large-scale sculptures. His artistic stance, was influenced by European Constructivism, American Hard-Edge Painting, and sculptors such as Isamu Noguchi and David Smith. Bladen in turn had stimulating effect on a circle of younger artists including Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and others, who repeatedly referred to him as one of the 'father figures' of Minimal Art.
Smog is a public artwork by American artist Tony Smith located to the south east of McCardell Bicentennial Hall on the Middlebury College campus, in Middlebury, Vermont. An example of minimalist sculpture, the piece is a lattice of 45 octahedra, standing on 22 tetrahedra, and topped with 15 prisms. It is fabricated from aluminum, painted black. This work is first in an edition of three, with one artist's proof.
Carlson Baker Arts was an American company that provided custom fabrication and engineering services to artists, architectural firms and commercial companies. Based in Sun Valley, California, the company is most known for its work for artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Jeff Koons, Christian Moeller, Isamu Noguchi, and Claes Oldenburg / Coosje van Bruggen, among others. The firm was founded by Peter Carlson in 1971, and has been headed by Carlson and John Baker as partners since mid-2010. Fabricators like Carlson Baker assist in producing technically challenging, large-scale industrial, labor-intensive, or otherwise complex artworks beyond the capacities of artists and companies. Their technical services may range from 3D scanning and modeling to advanced machining, milling, and finishing to assembly, shipping, and installation.
Virginia "Jinny" Wright, also known as Virginia Bloedel Wright, was an American art collector and philanthropist. She was considered one of the top art collectors in America for having created the largest collection of modern and contemporary art of the Pacific Northwest with her husband Bagley Wright and was credited for having played a pivotal role in the cultural development of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
James Harithas was an American museum curator, director, and founder.
