October 31 - March 23, 2014
Outside the Lines is a six-part exhibition series conceived as a dialogue on contemporary abstraction. Director Bill Arning, curators Valerie Cassel Oliver and Dean Daderko will each organize two exhibitions. These six shows will be mounted in two rounds.
Opening: October 31, 2013 | 6–11 pm
Reading of Mayoral Proclamation: 6:30PM
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston - CAMH
5216 Montrose Boulevard
Houston, 77006 TX
(713) 284-8250
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1 comment
The Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston seems to specialize in easy-to-digest trite. All the pieces in the “Outside the Lines” exhibition can be hung in the lobbies of oil companies and banks. There isn’t anything that is controversial, or thought provoking. Everything is decorative and colorful, happy and meaningless, unimaginative, uninspiring, and uninteresting. Every piece is cute and forgettable. There is nothing either original or innovative; the art looks like minor variants of abstract expressionism, color field, and op art. Everything looks like something else. Here an Antoni Tàpies-look alike, there an almost Ad Reinhardt. It’s as if a massive séance brought to like dozens of fake Barnett Newmans, Mark Rothkos, and Clyfford Stills. This museum does not show contemporary, visceral, or important art; it shows decorative pieces that will hang nicely above sofas of coordinated color. Its art neither offends a soul nor inspires the littlest of thoughts. I was sad and disgusted. The abstract art at CAMH is the art of the moneyed and brainless bourgeoisie, a backdrop for receptions, nice innocuous ornaments that do not interfere with the hors-d’oeuvres. The fact that five more such vapid exhibits are planned requires a serious supply of anti-emetics.