Leila McConnell (b. 1927)

Leila McConnell was born in Los Angeles, California in 1927 but moved to Houston when she was six years old. After graduating from Lamar High School, she enrolled at Rice Institute (now Rice University). At the time, Rice did not have a formal art department, but McConnell sought inspiration from iconic professor, James Chillman. According to McConnell, Chillman had the greatest influence on her sense of design, proportion, and the ability to see her art. McConnell studied freehand drawing, design, watercolor, art, and architectural history under Chillman, and excelled in her classes. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice, she continued her art studies at the Museum School (now Glassell School) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

McConnell had impeccable academic training and her early paintings, both oil and pastel, were very realistic. The majority of her subject matter was either still life, figure studies, or portraits. In the summer of 1949, she attended the San Francisco School of Fine Arts, where she studied under Mark Rothko. His vision and innovative instruction marked McConnell’s shift away from the realism that had previously dominated her works. After her classes with Rothko, she began to paint more abstract and imaginative pieces such as a blue girl in watercolor.

From 1950 until 1968 Mcconnell held an instructional position at the MFAH’s Museum School. In the early 1950s, McConnell began curating exhibitions for the Contemporary Art Association (now the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston). From the late 1950s through the late 1980s, McConnell showed with Houston galleries -- Polly Marsters and Houston Artists’ Gallery on Main Street; Cushman Gallery; followed by Dubose Gallery in 1966; then with Leslie Muth.

Realizing that she had a vivid imagination, McConnell embarked on a trip to Europe in 1960. The stucco buildings of Italy greatly impacted her vision and caused a change in her paintings. Her colors became soft and blended, often misty and portraying a sun or moon, causing the artist to deem many of her works “sky paintings.” In her continued exploration of these types of scapes, McConnell simplifies, balances, and deconstructs atmospheric and landscape elements to create ethereal, imagined spaces that remain as visually compelling today as they did half a century ago.

In 1976, McConnell began creating paper collages, a diversion from her painted works. Though small, her collages impacted the way McConnell created her paintings—her edges became harder, mixed with the mistiness of her skies and her compositions became more symmetrical. McConnell continues to paint in her unique style and develop her oeuvre of “sky” pieces

In 1956 McConnell married fellow Houston artist Henri Gadbois. The two were married for over 60 years until Gadbois’ passing in 2018, and have two children and three grandchildren. McConnell notes that one of her grandsons seems to be partaking in the family’s artistic legacy as he is quite talented and artistically inclined.

In the 1980s and 1990s, McConnell and Gadbois were active docents at Bayou Bend. Though this period marks a break in McConnell’s painting, it was the beginning of Gadbois’ successful endeavor in the production of faux foods. McConnell re-emerged in 2006 after showing her work with William Reaves Fine Art in Houston. Her work was subsequently included in CASETA / HETAG exhibitions shows. Most recently, in 2022, McConnell was featured in two museum shows, Texas Artists: Women of Abstraction at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, TX, and Contemporary Texas Women Artists: Abstraction Here & Now at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, TX.

McConnell’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally, including the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Witte Museum, San Antonio; Art Museum of South East Texas, Beaumont; Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK; among others. McConnell’s work has been covered in prominent publications such as Art in America, Houston Chronicle and Houston Press and is featured in several recent books on Texas Modern Art, mid-century Houston art scene and Abstract Expressionism in the Southwest.

Leila McConnell’s work is in a number of collections including the Civic Art Program, City of Houston; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; the Old Jail Art Center, Albany; Public Art, University of Houston Systems, Victoria; and Texas A&M University Museum, College Station; The John Nau Collection of Texas Art, Houston; as well as numerous other public and private collections.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1927 Born in Los Angeles, California
1948 BA, Rice University, Houston, Texas
1949 BS, Architecture, Rice University, Houston, Texas
1949 San Francisco School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, California
1950–68 Instructor, Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1954–59 Worked for Houston architect, Hamilton Brown
1956 Married artist, Henri Gadbois
1960 Visited Italy
Resides in Houston, Texas

Selected Exhibitions

· 1949–51 24th–26th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1951 13th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1951–1952, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

· 1952–55 27th–30th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (prize 1954)

· 1955 31st Annual Exhibition of Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1957–60 32nd–35th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1958 Texas Oil ’58, A Salute to the Oil Industry of the State by Texas Painters, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, traveled to: Bank of the Southwest, Houston; Dallas Public Library, Dallas; Republic National Bank of Dallas, Texas (catalogue)

· 1958 D. D. Feldman Competitive Award Exhibit: The Contemporary Work of 88 Texas Artists, traveled; 1958 Jul–Aug at McNay Museum, San Antonio, Texas (Orange Sun)

· DuBose Gallery, Houston, Texas

· Leslie Muth Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1959 21st Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1959–1960, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont; Museum, Texas Tech, Lubbock; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1961 23rd Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1961–1962, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont; Museum, Texas Tech, Lubbock, Texas

· 1962–63 Museum School Faculty Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1964 26th Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1964–1965, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Texas Western College, El Paso; University of Texas at Austin, Texas

· 1986 Leila McConnell: Collage to Canvas—New Works of Paper & Paintings, Plain Folk Gallery, Houston, Texas

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

· 2004–05 Rice Institute and the Visual Arts in Houston: 1900–1960, Fondren Library, Rice University, 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

· 2007–08 Urban Texas: Changing Images of an Evolving State, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas

· 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 Leila McConnell and Henri Gadbois: Side by Side, O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston/Downtown, Houston, Texas

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

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

· 2010 The Presence of Light: Sky and Light in the Texas Landscape, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

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

· 2011 Southeast Texas Art: Cross-Currents and Influences, 1925–1965, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, 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 A Survey of Texas Modernists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2013 A Tribute to Texas Rivers, 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

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

· 2015 Midcentury Montage: Works by Three Houston Modernists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2016 Texas Originals: Six Bayou City Expressionists, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2016 This WAS Contemporary Art: Fine and Decorative Arts in Houston 1945-1965, Heritage Society Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 2016 Celebrating Houston's Founding Modernists: David Adickes, Leila McConnell & Henri Gadbois, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2018 Midcentury Mod in Motion, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 2020 Ron Hartgrove & Leila McConnell, The Jung Center, Houston, Texas

· 2020 Another World: Recent Collages by Leila McConnell, Foltz Fine Art, Houston,

Texas

Selected Prizes, Awards

· Houston Annual: Materials Prize 1954- Stella, oil

Selected Public Collections

Menil Collection, Houston, Texas
Old Jail House Art Center, Albany, Texas

Literature

· Robert Craig Bunch, The Art of Found Objects: Interviews with Texas Artists, Texas A&M University Press, 2016, pages 124-126.

· Katie Robinson Edwards, Midcentury Modern Art in Texas, University of Texas Press, 2014.

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

· This WAS Contemporary Art: Fine and Decorative Arts in Houston 1945-1965, Heritage Society Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue), 2016.

Leila McConnell Collage

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