Every month Malcolm Daniel, Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, shares a newsletter including recent events and gifts to the department, a spotlight on new acquisitions, and invitations to upcoming events in Houston and beyond.
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December 20, 2024
Dear friends of the MFAH Photography Department,
I seem to start every letter by saying it’s been a busy time since I last wrote, and once again, that’s the case. Paris Photo, great Photo Forum events, new acquisitions, installations and exhibitions taking shape, and exciting programs to look forward to. Let’s catch up.
Happy we are not curators of American Art…
Paris Photo 2024, back in the newly restored Grand Palais.
I’m not sure why, but I seem to get no sympathy from colleagues back home when I say how exhausting it is to attend the Paris Photo fair every year—endless photo-filled booths spreading across the entire length of the beautifully restored Grand Palais, gallery dinners with—you know—French food and wine, more exhibitions around Paris than one could possibly see, and mornings begun with baguettes, pain au raisin, and such. Yes, it’s a hard job, but Lisa and I make the sacrifice each year. There was a good spirit at the fair this year, perhaps everyone happy to have a distraction from the election and happy to be back at the Grand Palais, with access now to an entire circuit at an upper level largely devoted to publishers and booksellers. With nearly 250 exhibitors, the fair is overwhelmingly contemporary, secondarily historic 20th-century, and only the tiniest bit 19th-century. Perhaps most spectacular this year was the wall one faced upon entering: Galerie Julian Sander’s display of all 620 photographs of “People of the Twentieth Century,” the epic project of Julian’s great-grandfather, August Sander. Stretching across one’s entire field of vision, this was only the second time the project has been shown in its entirety, and it was a sight to behold. As usual, we made our way to those galleries who always have interesting material and wove our way up and down the aisles, seeing what else might catch our eyes in galleries we are less familiar with. Our purchases and “holds” this year were on a more modest scale than some years, but we’re still excited to have found a few treasures, both old and new, some of which may find their way to Photo Forum’s 2025 Vote Night in May.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Juan Carlos Alom (Cuban, born 1967), La Midad del mundo (The Middle of the World), 1996. Gelatin silver print, 15 7/8 × 19 13/16 in. The Madeleine P. Plonsker Collection, Gift of Madeleine and Harvey Plonsker (2024.238).
Our exhibition of contemporary Cuban photography, Navigating the Waves, continues to be well received by the public and the press. You might enjoy reading Mari Carmen Barrios’s article “Navigating Scarcity, Race and Religion in Cuban Photography.” The exhibition continues through August 3, 2025, on the third floor of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, and the exhibition catalogue is available in the Museum Shop.
If the Cuba show interests you, I encourage you to mark your calendar for Saturday, February 15, when we will present an all-day symposium in the Lynn Wyatt Theater, with nine of the exhibition’s artists participating in panel discussions moderated by myself, Raquel Carrera, and Wendy Watriss, devoted to “Cuban Photography in the 1970s and 1980s,” “The Special Period and the Houston-Havana Connection,” and “The Current Generation: Cuban Photography in the 21st Century.” I’m thrilled to report that we have received a grant from Humanities Texas in support of the symposium, and I’m also grateful for the help of Wendy Luers, president of the Foundation for a Civil Society, and our friends at FotoFest. Look for further details in my next letter, but mark your calendars now. It should be a fascinating and informative chance to hear from the photographers about their experience working as artists in Cuba over the years.*
*This program is supported by Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
While you have your calendars out…
Ernest Cole (South African, 1940– 1990), House of Bondage, 1960–66, printed 2020. Portfolio of 100 gelatin silver prints, 20 × 15 13/16 in. each. Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment (2020.396.1-.100)
You’ll also want to mark your calendars for a new film about the Black South African photographer Ernest Cole (1940–1990). Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck’s documentary chronicles the life and work of Ernest Cole, whose early pictures, published as House of Bondage, revealed Black life under apartheid to the world. Cole fled South Africa in 1966 and lived in exile in the U.S., where he was fascinated by the ways this country could be so vastly different from—yet sometimes eerily similar to—the segregated culture of his homeland. While banned in South Africa, House of Bondage cemented Cole’s place as one of the great photographers of the time at the young age of 27. After declining mentally and physically during the 1970s, Cole and much of his work essentially disappeared until the 2017 discovery of over 60,000 35mm negatives found in a Swedish bank vault. Telling Cole’s personal story through his writings, the recollections of those closest to him, and the lens of his uncompromising work, this film introduces this pivotal artist to a new generation. Ernest Cole: Lost & Found (2024, 105 min.) will screen in Brown Auditorium Theater on Friday and Saturday, January 17 and 18, at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, January 19, at 2:00 p.m. Watch the trailer and buy tickets on the MFAH's website.
The hidden world of bookmakers…
Book maquettes leading up to the final design of Vincent Cianni’s We Skate Hardcore, in the collection of Hirsch Library.
No, sorry, not a tell-all about gambling, but equally fascinating. Jon Evans, MFAH Chief of Libraries and Archives, will lead a workshop focused on pre-publication materials—book maquettes, models, or dummies—that show how photographers and designers make shifts in concept, narrative, sequence, and rhythm, as well as typography, paper selection, and binding type in the course of developing a photobook. Masterful Maquettes: Photobooks in the Making will take place at the Museum but is offered as a Houston Center for Photography workshop, Sunday, February 23, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. More information, including fees and registration can be found on the MFAH's website.
Recent acquisitions…
Hiroshi Sugimoto (Japanese, born 1948), Mt. Fuji, 2022. Pigment inkjet print and woodblock print in colors on kozo paper, mounted to two folding screens, 71 5/8 × 300 in. Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment (2024.613.A,.B)
Happily, my January letters are always full of year-end gifts of art, so let me get ahead by noting a few recent acquisitions ahead of the year-end rush.
One of the most exciting photographic acquisitions of the past year was spotted by director Gary Tinterow at the Basel art fair and has been brought into the MFAH by the Asian Art Department: Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Mt. Fuji, a pair of six-panel folding screens. Photographed in the early morning, printed on Japanese washi paper, and presented on folding screens of traditional construction, Mt. Fuji is luminous and modern while consciously evoking historical depictions of the mountain. The work is exquisitely presented in a very minimal installation (including three Sugimoto seascapes) in the Museum’s Japanese galleries on the first floor of the Caroline Wiess Law building. Don’t miss it!
James Luna (Payómkawichum/ Luiseño, 1950–2018), Half Indian/Half Mexican, 1991. Gelatin silver prints, 60 × 144 in. total. Museum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment (2024.1545.A-.C)
In our department, we’re delighted to have recently purchased Half Indian/Half Mexican by the celebrated Indigenous artist James Luna. Luna was a ground-breaking artist who utilized performance, photography, and video to challenge myths about Native American cultures, frequently using his own body and story to explore the tragic and contradictory realities facing Native communities. He created the Half Indian/Half Mexican as a means of questioning the rigid definitions of identity. He described the questions that drove the work: “Who’s an Indian? If you’re part Indian, what’s the other part? How does that influence you? Does it make you less? Does it make you more?” Luna accepted that he had no answer to these questions, but that he was perfectly justified in asking them. This monumental triptych—five feet high and twelve feet wide—is the last set of vintage prints of this iconic work.
.png "Graciela Iturbide Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas Our Lady of the Iguanas Juchitán (1979)")
Graciela Iturbide (Mexican, born 1942), Nuestra señora de las iguanas, Juchitán, 1979. Gelatin silver print, 11 × 14 in. (27.9 × 35.6 cm). Museum purchase funded by the Rita Mallett Blasser Foundation (2024.1546)
We’re also excited to have acquired 26 photographs spanning the career of the preeminent Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide. Since the late 1970s, Iturbide’s photographs have told a visual story of Mexico, showing the rituals of daily life, but also the paradoxes and social injustice in Mexican society, presenting the nation as a rich amalgamation of cultures where the historical and the modern coexist. Together with the 14 works by Iturbide already in the collection, we’re now able to more fully represent the richness of her career across more than four decades, in multiple countries (but mostly in Mexico) and with various subjects. Our thanks go to the Rita Mallett Blasser Foundation for support of three key works and to our Trustees for support from the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment for the balance.
A new star in the Kinder Building…
Felipe Botero, executive chef, Le Jardinier, and Alain Verzeroli, Culinary Director, The Bastion Collection
We are happy to report that the Museum’s fine restaurant, Le Jardinier, was recently awarded a well-deserved Michelin star, only the second museum restaurant in the US to have earned that accolade. Kudos to the whole Jardinier team! I should mention that Lisa and I are always available for lunch with anyone who wants to take us to Le Jardinier. Just sayin’.
Before the year ends…
I want to remind you that we have a great line-up of Photo Forum events in the new year, beginning with our annual presentation of major acquisitions from the year just ended, followed by a guest talk by photohistorian Kim Biel, a visit to Keith Carter's studio in Beaumont, and, of course, the always fun Vote Night in May. Photo Forum memberships start at just $750 and run for a full year, regardless of when you sign up. To join, renew, or check the status of your membership, contact Ashley Powell, Senior Development Officer, Curatorial Affairs, at (713) 639-7594 or apowell@mfah.org.
Bruce Wrighton (American, 1950– 1988), Christmas Ornaments, Yonda’s Bar, Binghamton, NY, 1987. Chromogenic print, 9 11/16 × 7 11/16 in. (24.6 × 19.5 cm). Gift of John Hagefstration (2024.815).
My colleagues in the Photography Department—Adrian, August, Ben, Jason, Lisa, and Selina—join me in wishing you a joyous holiday season and a happy, healthy, peaceful, and prosperous new year.
Malcolm