“The Artist’s Eye” Series Returns to Kimbell Art Museum for 40th Season

by Glasstire October 18, 2022

Since 1982, the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth has invited creative practitioners to participate in a lecture series titled The Artist’s Eye. Invited speakers are turned loose in the Kimbell’s collection, leading audiences through what the museum calls “their special insights… relating the museum’s older art or architecture to contemporary artistic concerns.” This time around, Anthony Sonnenberg, Jammie Holmes, and Allison V. Smith will be brought in to speak. All the lectures, which are free and open to the public, will occur at 11 am on certain Saturdays.

Anthony Sonnenberg, Reliquary for Miss Kitty, 2018.

Anthony Sonnenberg, “Reliquary for Miss Kitty,” 2018, porcelain over stoneware, found ceramic tchotchkes, under glaze, glaze, gold luster, feline cremated remains, 19 x 19 x 12 inches

Texas native Anthony Sonnenberg, who currently lives and works in Fayetteville, Arkansas, will speak at the museum on October 22. Sonnenberg is a ceramicist who also works in wearables, performance, and sculpture. He is represented by Conduit Gallery in Dallas, and has exhibited at spaces like the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Contemporary Art Museum Houston, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles. On his website, his artist statement is represented by a four-chambered Venn diagram, with the outside circles labeled, “Desire,” “Beauty,” “Death,” and “Time.” In 2018 he guested in a Glasstire Top Five video, speaking on his exhibit at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.

Painting of a black police officer eating lunch

Jammie Holmes, “Assata Told You,” 2022, acrylic, oil pastels, glitter and sand on canvas, 71 7/8 x 72 inches, 182.6 x 182.9 cm, (JHO.19500), Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen. © Jammie Holmes Photo credit: Lance Brewer

Second up is Jammie Holmes, who will speak on November 12. Holmes is a painter from Thibodaux, Louisiana who lives and works in Dallas. His work, according to the bio on his website, “tells the story of contemporary life for many black families in the Deep South.” According to a press release from the Kimbell, “his expressive tableaux incorporate portraiture, symbols, text and objects to create personal narratives that convey a profound sense of place and feeling.” He is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York and Library Street Collective in Detroit. Earlier this month, Holmes was interviewed by Barbara Purcell for Glasstire on the occasion of his latest exhibition at Marianne Boesky. Asked about the people in his paintings, he replied:

“It’s not so much about the person in the painting, it’s more about different emotions. What does sadness look like? Or happiness? Not just the facial expression, but what does that look like in a physical form?”

Allison V. Smith, “Texas Time”

Finally, Allison V. Smith will participate in “The Artist’s Eye” on February 18, 2023. Smith is an editorial and fine art photographer based in Dallas. The press release from the Kimbell explains that “she often chooses subjects that typify the clichéd image of the Texas territory — a tumbleweed, an automobile, a lone and deserted building,” photographing them with a “distinctive vision.” She has been creating photographs since age 15, when she attended the Young Photographer’s Program at the Maine Media Workshop. Her numerous clients include Texas Monthly and the New York Times, and her work is in five museum collections across Texas. 

While The Artist’s Eye program is in its fortieth year, The Kimbell itself is currently celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. To learn more, about that, go here.

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