DOROTHY HOOD (1918–2000)

Born in Bryan, Texas, Dorothy Hood established herself as a pioneer of modernism from 1937, first as a scholarship student at the Rhode Island School of Design and briefly at the Art Students League in New York City, before settling in Mexico City in the 1940s. There, she would spend two decades embedded in the rich cultural fabric of a city in the midst of post-war and post-revolutionary bohemia. She befriended leading artists and intellectuals including Pablo Neruda, Jos Clemente Orozco, Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Mathias Goeritz, Diego Rivera, and Rufino Tamayo. In 1962 Hood returned to Houston and was a prominent instructor at the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Rice University, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; and her work is in the permanent collections of numerous American museums. During her lifetime, Hood’s work, from her formally rigorous yet metaphysical and intimate abstract paintings, to ink drawings on paper and collages, garnered an impressive exhibition history and support from influential critics, curators, and collectors including Philippe de Montebello, Dorothy Miller, Clement Greenberg, and Barbara Rose, among others. In 2016, the Art Museum of South Texas (AMST), Corpus Christi, organized a major retrospective of Dorothy Hood's works and published a monograph about her life and career which culminated in the exhibition and book entitled The Color of Being/El Color del Ser: DOROTHY HOOD (1918-2000).

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1918 Born in Bryan, Texas
1937–40 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
1940 Art Students League, New York, New York
1941–61 Lived in Mexico City and Puebla, Mexico
1962–76 Instructor, Museum School (now Glassell School), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1983 Mayor’s Award, Outstanding Contribution to the Visual Arts, Houston, Texas
1984 Texas Artist of the Year, Art League of Houston, Texas
1988 Outstanding Achievement in Visual Arts, Women’s National Caucus for Art
1990 Honorary Doctorate, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
2000 Died in Houston, Texas

Selected Prizes, Awards

1940 Honorable Mention, Catherine George, oil, Houston Annual
1973 Childe Hassam Purchase Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters

Selected Exhibitions

· 1940 16th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (honorable mention)

· 1943 Gama Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

· 1946 Magic Realism, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York

· 1950 Solo, Willard Gallery, New York, New York

· 1955 First Confrontation of International Experimental Art, Mexico City, Mexico

· 1955 Solo, Proteo Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

· 1956 Golden Years of American Drawing: 1905–1956, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York (catalogue)

· 1958 Four Younger Americans, Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island

· 1958 Young American Printmakers, Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island

· 1958 Solo, Duveen-Graham Gallery, New York, New York

· 1959 Figures and Faces, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, traveling

· 1960 Genova Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

· 1961 Fifty Prints and Drawings from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1961 Solo, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

· 1961 Young Collections 1961, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1962 U.S. Artists in Latin America, Pan American Union, Washington, DC

· 1962 (and continuing) Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas

· 1962 Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

· 1963 Exhibition by Faculty of the Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1963 Solo, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1963 13th Southwestern Exhibition of Prints and Drawings, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1965 Drawings from Seventeen States, Drawing Society Regional Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1965 Solo, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

· 1965 An Exhibition of 24 Watercolors, Drawings, and Prints from the Museum of Fine Arts, Capitol National Bank, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1966 Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1966, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1968 The Sphere of Art in Texas, Texas Fine Arts Commission, Texas Pavilion, Hemisfair ‘68, San Antonio, Texas

· 1970 The Drawing Society National Exhibition: Drawings from Nine States, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, traveled by the National Drawing Society

· 1970 Dorothy Hood: Recent Paintings, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1971–72 Texas Painting and Sculpture: The 20th Century, Pollack Galleries, Owen Arts Center, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, traveled to: Witte Confluence Museum, HemisFair Plaza, San Antonio; University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth; The Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas (catalogue)

· 1971 Solo, Rice University, Houston, Texas

· 1971 Other Coasts Exhibition ‘71, California State College, Long Beach, California (catalogue)

· 1972 Solo, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York

· 1973 American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, New, York (Childe Hassam purchase prize)

· 1974 Solo, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, New York

· 1974 Abstract Painting and Sculpture in Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1974 Solo, New York University, Potsdam, New York

· 1974 12/Texas, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1974 IBM Invitational, Lincoln Center, New York, New York

· 1974–75 Drawings of Dorothy Hood, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; State University of New York, College at Potsdam, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Corpus Christi Museum, Corpus Christi, Texas (catalogue)

· 1975 Women in Art, New York University, Potsdam, New York

· 1975 Modern Painting: 1900 to the Present, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1975 Solo, Michener Galleries, University of Texas at Austin, Texas

· 1976 American Artists ’76: A Celebration, McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas

· 1976 Solo, Marianne Friedland Gallery, Toronto, Canada

· 1976 New Works in Clay by Painters and Sculptors, Everson Museum of Art and Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York; traveled to Edmonton Museum, Alberta, Canada (catalogue)

· 1977 Der Sammler Theodor Ahrenberg und Atelier in Chexbres Marz, Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, West Germany (catalogue)

· 1978 Paintings, Drawings by Dorothy Hood, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas (catalogue)

· 1978, 1979 Solos, Meredith Long Contemporary, New York, New York

· 1979 Women from Nostalgia to Now, Rosenberg Gallery, New York, New York

· 1979 FIRE! Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1981-82 A Sense of Spirit, Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti, New Mexico and Lawndale Annex, Houston, Texas

· 1982 Modern Masters: Women of the First Generation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

· 1982 Art from Houston in Norway 1982, Stavanger Kunstforening, Norway; Tromso Kunstforening, Norway; Christiansand Kunstforening, Norway; Oslo Kunstforening, Norway (catalogue)

· 1982 The Americans: The Collage, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1982 In Our Time: Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum, 1948-1982, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1983 New Art From a New City: Houston, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria, traveled to: Galerie an der Stadtmauer, Villach, Austria; Museum of Modern Art, Vienna; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, West Germany (catalogue)

· 1983 Images of Texas, Huntington Art Gallery, College of Fine Arts, University of Texas at Austin, Texas, traveled to: Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Amarillo Art Center, Amarillo, Texas (catalogue)

· 1985 Message 1985, The Light Gallery, New York, New York

· 1985 The Comet Show, Light Gallery, New York and Bard College, Annandale, New York

· 1985 American Women in Art: Works on Paper, U.N. Focus International Conference on Women, Nairobi, Kenya

· 1985 Fresh Paint: The Houston School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, traveled to: Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc. (MoMA PS1), Queens, New York; Oklahoma Contemporary Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (catalogue)

· 1985 Works on Paper: Eleven Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (catalogue: same as 1983 New Art from a New City: Houston, traveled in Austria and Germany)

· 1985 Invitational, Centre International D’Art Contemporain, Paris, France

· 1985 Private Collections, Public Treasures, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas

· 1986 Dorothy Hood, Wallace Wentworth Gallery, Washington, DC (catalogue)

· 1987 The Anatomy of Drawing, Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Texas

· 1987 20 Centuries of Work on Stone: Lithographs, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Texas

· 1988 Dorothy Hood’s Collages: Connecting Change, Wallace Wentworth Gallery, Washington, DC (catalogue)

· 1989 Texas Women, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC and Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas

· 1990 Tradition and Innovation: A Museum Celebration of Texas Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1990 Simultaneous Solos in Houston, Texas: Lawndale Art Center, MD Modern, Transco Tower

· 1993 Artists’ Progress: Seven Houston Artists 1943-1993, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1995 Images from Space, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1995 Texas Myths and Realities, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1998–99 Oil Patch Dreams: Images of the Petroleum Industry in American Art, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas, traveled to: Museum of the Southwest, Midland; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso; Austin Museum of Art, Austin; Wichita Falls Museum and Art Center, Wichita Falls (catalogue)

· 2004 A Selection of Art Made in Houston 1950-1965, Brazos Projects, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, Texas

· 2006 Houston Art in Houston Collections: Works from 1900 to 1965, Heritage Society Museum, Houston, Texas

· 2006–07 Of This Vast State: Women Artists of Texas, 1900–1960, Women’s Museum, Dallas, Texas

· 2007 Timeless: A Retrospective of Selected Women Artists of Texas, 1940 to Present, David Dike Fine Art, Dallas, Texas; William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas; Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas

· 2007 Texas Modern: The Rediscovery of Early Texas Abstraction (1935-1965), Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, Texas (catalogue)

· 2008 Founders of Houston Art: Thirty Artists Who Led the Way, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2009 Back to the Future: Elements of “Modern” in Mid-Century Texas Art, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2009 A Texas Sampler: Vintage Paintings by Thirty Texas Artists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2009 Texas Paper: Watercolors, Pastels and Drawings from the Lone Star State, 1938-2008, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2009-10 Texas Art Seen, Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas

· 2010 Pioneering Women: Three Modernists in Houston—Dorothy Hood, Leila McConnell, Stella Sullivan, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2010 Third Anniversary Show: A Tribute to Houston Artists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2010 Texas Collages: A Tribute to Kurt Schwitters, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2011 Lone Star Modernism: A Celebration of Mid-Century Texas Art, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2011 Portrait of Houston: 1900–2011, Alliance Gallery, Houston Arts Alliance, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 2011 Breakthrough: Sixty Years of Texas Abstraction, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2012 Texas Expressionism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2013 Rhythms of Modernism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2013 Summer Encore Exhibition, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2014 Houston Founders at City Hall Art Exhibition, City Hall, Houston, Texas

· 2014 A New Visual Vocabulary: Developments in Texas Modernism 1935-1965, One Allen Center, Lobby Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 2014 Lone Star Masters of Modernism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2015 Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams of Modern Art in Houston, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (catalogue)

· 2022, Texas Artists: Women of Abstraction, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

Selected Public Collections

Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas
Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas
Baylor University, Waco, Texas
Brooklyn Museum, New York, New York
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rice University, Houston, Texas
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts

Dorothy Hood

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