ROBERT ORMEROD PREUSSER (1919-1992)

Robert Preusser was born in Houston, Texas and began art lessons as a child, studying under artist, Ola McNeil Davidson. By his teenage years, his work was exhibited both nationally and internationally, leading him to move to Chicago to study at the Institute of Design. During World War II, Preusser painted camouflage with the Army’s 84th Engineer Camouflage Battalion. He moved to California after the war to complete his formal education at the Los Angeles Art Center School.

After relocating to Texas, Preusser joined the faculty of the Museum School (now Glassell School) of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Arts Association (now Contemporary Arts Museum) and served as co-director. He designed sets for Houston’s Texas Stage, taught at the University of Houston, and was Associate Curator of Education at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In He left Houston to teach at M.I.T, where he remained for thirty one years.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1919 Born in Houston, Texas
1930–39 Student of Ola McNeill Davidson
1939–42 Institute of Design, Chicago, Illinois
1942–45 Served in U.S. Army
1946–47 Los Angeles Art Center School, Los Angeles, California
1947–54 Faculty, Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1948–51 Co-director, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
1949–51 Faculty, University of Houston, Texas
1952–54 Associate Curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1954–85 Professor, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
1992 Died in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Selected Prizes, Awards

· Houston Annual: Purchase Prize 1940; Cash Prize 1949, 1951, 1952; Materials Prize 1953; Honorable Mention 1938, 1939, 1947

1938 Purchase Honorable Mention, Dwarf Swellings, oil
1939 Honorable Mention, Linear Rhythm, oil
1940 Purchase Prize (3 works), Composition I, Composition II, and Composition III, casein
1947 Honorable Mention, Fusiform Suspension, oil
1949 Cash Prize, Migration, watercolor
1951 Cash Prize, Elan Vital, oil
1952 Cash Prize, Regatta, oil
1953 Materials Prize, Jeweled City, oil

· Texas General/Annual: Purchase Prize 1948; Cash Prize 1941, 1946

1941 Cash Prize, Tonality, oil
1946 Cash Prize, Visual Ensemble, oil
1948 Purchase Prize, Hydroscopic Realm, oil

· Texas Watercolor Society: Prize 1950

1950 Prize

Selected Exhibitions

· 1935–37 11th–13th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1936 Annual Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri

· 1937 Greater Texas and Pan American Exposition, Art of the Americas: Pre-Columbian and Contemporary, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1937-39 Southeast Texas Artists 1st-3rd Annual Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1938 14th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (purchase honorable mention)

· 1938 National Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York

· 1938 Golden Jubilee Exhibition of the State Fair of Texas—Texas Painting, Drawing, Pastels and Sculpture, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1939 15th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (honorable mention)

· 1939 Texas Paintings (State Fair), Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1939 Texas Artists Exhibition, University of Texas at Austin, Texas

· 1940 16th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (purchase prize)

· 1940 1st Texas General Exhibit, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1940 Coronado Quarto-Centennial Exhibition, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico

· 1941 2nd Texas-Oklahoma General Exhibition, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Philbrook Art Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma (cash prize)

· 1941 Directions in American Painting, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

· 1941 21st Annual Southern States Art League

· 1942–44 17th–19th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1942 4th Texas General Exhibition, circulated: Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1942, 1947, 1951 Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois

· 1943 5th Texas General Exhibition 1943–1944, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1944 6th Texas General Exhibition 1944–1945, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; University of Texas at Austin, Texas

· 1946 Four Texas Painters, Fort Worth Art Association, Fort Worth, Texas

· 1946 Annual Paintings of the Year, National Academy of Design, New York, New York

· 1946 8th Texas General Exhibition 1946–1947, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas (cash prize)

· 1946–47 Contemporary American Annuals, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York

· 1946-47 Contemporary American Exhibition, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia

· 1947 22nd Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (honorable mention)

· 1947 9th Texas General Exhibition 1947–1948, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

· 1948 Robert O. Preusser, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1948 10th Texas General Exhibition 1948–1949, circulated: Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (purchase prize)

· 1948 Solo, Port Arthur Art Association, Port Arthur, Texas

· 1948 New Zealand-Texas Wesleyan College Exchange Exhibit, New Zealand

· 1948 23rd Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1948-49, 1951, 1954 Annual Exhibition of Artists West of the Mississippi, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado

· 1949 11th Annual Texas Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture 1949–1950, circulated: Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas

· 1949 24th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (cash prize)

· 1950 25th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1950 Texas Watercolor Society 1st Annual Exhibition, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas (prize)

· 1951 26th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (cash prize)

· 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

· 1951-52 Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico

· 1951-54 Downtown Gallery, New York, New York

· 1952 Texas Contemporary Artists, M. Knoedler & Company, New York, New York; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas (catalogue)

· 1952 Texas Watercolor Society 3rd Annual Exhibition, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas

· 1952 27th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (cash prize)

· 1952 14th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1952, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1953 28th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (cash prize)

· 1953 15th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1953, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

· 1953 Two Approaches in Painting: Buck Schiwetz & Robert Preusser, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1954 29th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1954 16th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1954, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, Texas

· 1954 Collectors Exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts

· 1955 Solo, Mirski Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts

· 1955 30th Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1955 17th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1955–1956, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas

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

· 1956 Gulf-Caribbean Art Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg; Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado (catalogue)

· 1957 Survey of Painting in Texas, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, circulated by American Federation of Arts (catalogue)

· 1959 Made in Texas by Texans, Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, Sheraton-Dallas Hotel, Dallas, 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)

· 1990 Solo, Parkerson Gallery, Houston, Texas

· 1990 Solo, Transco Tower, Houston, Texas

· 1991 Retrospective, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

· 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

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

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

· 2010 Third Anniversary Show: A Tribute to Houston Artists, 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 Breakthrough: Sixty Years of Texas Abstraction, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

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

· 2014 Left Bank on the Bayou: Houston Avant-garde Art and Theatre in the 1930s, O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston-Downtown, 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)

Selected Public Collections

Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Robert Preusser

More by this artist