Necessity was the mother of Dorothy Hood's invention. You have to realize: this painting is 10 feet tall. It’s a monster in person. But her studio couldn’t accommodate canvases this size, so she painted it sideways—hence the left-to-right drips and streaks that create so much action in Haiti, the first of Hood's monumental “surrealist abstractions.” She didn’t even see it upright until her 1970 career-launching exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. An unusually political statement for Hood, Haiti was inspired by that country’s duality of beauty and tragedy. This is no zombie abstraction, but a virtuosic, heartrending masterpiece.
This post is part of MFAH 100, a series featuring works from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in honor of its 100th birthday. 100 words on 100 works in 100 days. For details and to adjust subscription settings, click here.
Have a piece you’d like me to consider? Leave a comment—I can’t promise I’ll include it but I will give it a serious look.
Masterpiece indeed! And one of the few MFAH collection works by Houston artists of her period (and earlier) that is consistently on view (in the Kinder Building, second floor - though around the corner, facing the service elevator and restrooms - but still on view!). A few years ago HETAG (that would be Houston Earlier Texas Art Group) got to visit the space that had once been her studio in Houston Heights. No paintings there, but her aura (I swear I felt it!), and lots of memories shared by folks who had been there to visit her (and her paintings) back in the day.
LOVE all your choices Rainey, one of Frank X's & my favs is the tree sculpture outside the original front of the museum, sorry can't remember the sculptor's name.