CONTEMPORARY MASTERS: WORKS ON PAPER
FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE ART MUSEUM OF SOUTH TEXAS
The Art Museum of South Texas has benefited tremendously from the generosity of individuals,
families, foundations, businesses, corporations, clubs, galleries, and even other museums. In fact most
of the collection has come to the Museum through gifts. Additionally, many museums focus their
collection on the interests of their community. The Art Museum of South Texas is no different and is
building a collection that primarily reflects its South Texas roots. The focal point of the collection is
“Art of the Americas” with an emphasis on Texas and the surrounding region, including northern
Mexico. The Museum also plays a role, through its affiliation with Texas A&M University – Corpus
Christi, in providing a teaching collection.
As with many museum collections, works on paper have been a popular medium of
concentration for the Art Museum of South Texas. Of the artists included in this exhibition, a
significant number are more widely recognized for their work in other media such as painting,
sculpture or even glass. What casual museum viewers often fail to recognize is that most artists have
excellent skills in the graphic arts and begin their work with drawings before executing a painting or
sculpture. Often these drawings are important works of art, just as important as the other pieces that
they may represent.
Some artists who are well-versed in painting, sculpture or craft have also explored printmaking
during their careers. There are numerous printmaking studios across the United States such as
Tamarind, Brandywine, Gemini, Graphicstudio, Pace, Landfall, and Blackburn, to name a few. They
often invite artists to come and expand their oeuvre by experimenting and working with master
printers.
The artists included in this exhibition represent a wide range of artistic styles from minimalism
to realism, pop to op, narrative to symbolism. The “works on paper” focus has also provided a wide
range of techniques for the viewer to encounter including drawings in pastel, ink, pencil, crayon,
colored pencil, and charcoal; printmaking in the form of serigraphy, lithography, etching, and
monoprint; as well as the use of collage and renderings in liquid media such as oil, acrylic, gouache,
and watercolor. Similarly, the artists presented have wide-ranging reputations – state, regional,
national, and even international in scope. While no show can include every major artist, this exhibition
does, as the title implies, offer works by a number of icons in the art world including Albers, Avery,
Calder, Chicago, Chihuly, Dali, Jenkins, Judd, Lewitt, Motherwell, Rauschenberg, Ruscha, and Warhol, to
mention a few. Important Texas artists are also well represented. Twenty-two of the works have
never been exhibited previously. This exhibition gives visitors a chance to see some of the richness
found in the holdings of the Art Museum of South Texas.