From Then to Now She Says: Selections from the Permanent Collection

The artists whose work is showing here are a part of the history of the development of the art museum. Through the permanent collection, we are given perspectives on the creative act where subject, surface, and composition all are at play.  These are works created by artists, who all have, at one time worked in Texas,  beginning from 1970 up to 2004.

Concerns of these artists involve many intentions through investigation of material, time, light, color, or form. Each artist has layered or juxtaposed texture and tone, color and pattern, at times, to create a sense of something still, an arrested moment, and concentrated awareness of thought or sight.

In the case of Lillian Garcia Roig, b. 1966, Cuban-American, Layered View, was painted entirely out of doors with a plein air approach. With changing light and air conditions, this work was completed over the hours in one session. The artist has chosen up-close landscape for its potential to push and pull visually with what is seen close, deeper away, illuminated by sunlight and shaded, all in changing light conditions. Unlike the human form, she finds many possibilities of this kind of pictorial layering. Artists who have been an influence on her include Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, and Joan Mitchell.