Abraham Angel
The top exhibits at DFW museums in 2023
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
The most exciting museum exhibit for the North Texas LGBTQ community in 2023 was, undoubtedly, Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement that opened in January at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum and ran through June.
A speakers series held in conjunction with the exhibit included a range of presenters, from locals from The Dallas Way talking about LGBTQ history in North Texas to speakers like Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, who was actually at Stonewall the day the riots began.
The exhibit explored events that led up to the Stonewall rebellion in New York City and traced developments since then through the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges marriage equality decision. One section traced popular culture and how film, television and music changed attitudes and popular opinion of the LGBTQ community.
Rise Up
“Rise Up tells an inspirational story that is sure to resonate with museum visitors and students as the fight for freedom and justice continues to inform our American values and consciousness,” said Andy Smith, director of giving and volunteering at Texas Instruments Foundation, presenting sponsor of the exhibit.
One of the most interesting art exhibits of the year has been an exhibit at Dallas Museum of Art of Abraham Ángel: Between Wonder and Seduction, featuring the works of gay Mexican painter Abraham Angel.
In his very short life, this queer artist made a lifelong impact on Mexican art. With a distinct method and a fresh take on Mexican modernism, Ángel’s works span just three years of his life, yielding a catalog of fewer than 30 pieces before his death iin 1924 at the age of 19.
“Despite the shortness of his career, Ángel had an immense impact on Mexico City’s artistic scene in the early 1920s. Tapping into the capital’s emerging queer subculture, Ángel’s work asserted his own identity and in doing so carved out space for future queer artists in Mexico,” explained Dr. Mark A. Castro, the DMA’s former curator of Latin American Art.
The show continues through Jan. 28.
The Arlington Museum of Art, known for its quirky but interesting exhibits, staged Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Collection presented by the HELP Center for LGBT Health.
Featuring original costumes, photos and concert videos from the superstar, the exhibit traced Swift’s different creative periods — or eras. Eight of her costumes were highlighted that are associated with her albums Midnights, folklore, Red and Fearless.
The museum touted the exhibition as “an exploration of Swift as an evolving, boundary-pushing artist.”
Among the special exhibits at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth was Robert Motherwell: Pure Painting. The first retrospective of the artist’s work in more than a quarter century, the exhibit was staged by the Modern, one of the largest collectors of Motherwell’s work.
The Kimbell Art Museum ended the year with a bang, presenting its first exhibition of Impressionist Pierre Bonnard. With about 70 of the artist’s works on display, Bonnard’s Worlds features a number of the artist’s rarely seen works that are on loan from private collections. The exhibit continues through Jan. 28.
The Amon Carter’s current exhibit, Louise Nevelson at Midcentury, is among the most interesting of the offerings there this year. While Nevelson is most well known for her sculptures using repurposed materials, this exhibit also includes her lesser-known works on paper. Runs through Jan. 7.
Earlier in the year, to celebrate the 100th birthday of fashion and portrait photographer Richard Avedon, the Carter showcased works from In the American West, which the museum commissioned in 1979. The Amon Carter Museum, which owns the second-largest collection of photography in the world, calls this series “one of the most important photographic projects of the 20th century.”
