Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and
Mrs. John F. Kennedy
May 26–September 15, 2013
Hoffman Galleries
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, the Dallas Museum of Art will bring
together the works of art installed in the president’s suite at the Hotel
Texas during his fateful trip in 1963. The original installation,
orchestrated by a small group of Fort Worth art collectors, was created
especially for the president and first lady in celebration of their overnight
visit to the city and included paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Thomas
Eakins, Lyonel Feininger, Franz Kline, and Marsden Hartley, and
sculptures by Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore, among others.
On view from May 26 through September 15, 2013, Hotel Texas: An Art
Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy will reunite the
paintings, sculptures, and works on paper for the first time in their
original gathering, highlighting the diverse and thoughtful installation of
artworks brought together for the presidential couple. The exhibition is
presented in association with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art
in Fort Worth, where it will be on view October 12, 2013, through
January 12, 2014. Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and
Mrs. John F. Kennedy will also reveal for the first time the complete
story of the presidential Suite 850 installation, which had been
overshadowed by the president’s tragic death, and examine the
significance of art both to the Kennedys and to the Dallas–Fort Worth
communities. Additionally, it will bring to light related materials, most of
which have remained in private collections since 1963, including
photographs, videos, and other archival materials, ranging from images
of the suite prior to the couple’s arrival to documentation relating to the
president’s assassination.
Five days prior to the presidential couple’s arrival in Fort Worth,
descriptions of the presidential suite at the Hotel Texas were released
to the public. Unhappy with the couple’s accommodations, Owen Day,
the art critic for the Fort Worth Press, proposed the idea of the
installation to prominent art collector and leader of the Fort Worth Art
Association Samuel Benton Cantey III. With the support of Ruth Carter
Johnson (now Ruth Carter Stevenson), board president for the Amon
Carter Museum of American Art; collector Ted Weiner; and Mitchell
Wilder, the Amon Carter Director, Cantey conceived a three-part
exhibition that would unfold in the parlor, master bedroom, and second
bedroom of Suite 850. Drawing on local private and public art
collections, each room of the suite was outfitted with works of art that
befitted the tastes and interests of President Kennedy and the first lady:


The Parlor featured the work of impressionist painter Claude
Monet, alongside works of modern sculpture and painting,
including a bronze sculpture, Angry Owl, by Picasso, 1951–53;
an oil painting of Manhattan by American expressionist Lyonel
Feininger, 1940; an oil on paper study by Franz Kline, 1954;
and a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, 1939–40.
The Master Bedroom, which was designated as Jacqueline

Kennedy’s bedroom, was adorned with impressionist
masterworks, per her well-known affinity for the genre. The
room included Summer Day in the Park, 1918–23, by Maurice
Brazil Prendergast; Vincent van Gogh’s Road with Peasant
Shouldering a Spade, 1887; John Marin’s watercolor Sea and
Rocks, 1919; and Bassin de Deauville, an oil on canvas by
Raoul Dufy.
The Second Bedroom, the president’s room, featured late
19th-century and early 20th-century American art, including
Thomas Eakins’ Swimming, 1884–85; Marsden Hartley’s
Sombrero with Gloves, 1936; and Charles Marion Russell’s
Lost in a Snowstorm, 1888; among others.
Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F.
Kennedy is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, in association with
the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In addition, the Sixth Floor
Museum will provide films and documentation of the president’s trip to
Texas in 1963. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated
catalogue, published in association with Yale University Press. It begins
with an introductory essay by Olivier Meslay titled “Art Is Not a Form of
Propaganda, It Is a Form of Truth,” and includes contributions from
Scott Grant Barker, Texas art historian; David Lubin, Charlotte C.
Weber Professor of Art at Wake Forest University and author of the
much-lauded Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images; and
Alexander Nemerov, Professor of Art and Art History at Stanford
University.
The exhibition in Dallas is presented by Citi Private Bank. Air
transportation is provided by American Airlines.
Listening Hard – Remembering JFK on Record
An audio and video installation produced by Alan Govenar on view in
the C3 Theater in collaboration with Hotel Texas
Listen to recordings of calypso, blues, country, and corridos produced
in the days and months after the assassination memorializing JFK.
Press:
KERA-FM & Art & Seek
“Hotel Texas Reconnects Artist, 50-Year-Old Work”
May 30, 2013
Ft. Worth Star Telegram
"Bud Kennedy" column: “Gathered 50 years ago for President
Kennedy’s Fort Worth visit, artworks now retell the story”
May 26, 2013
Associated Press National Wire
“Dallas Exhibit Reunites Art JFK Saw Before Death”
May 22, 2013
The New York Times
“Girding for Anniversary of Tragedy in Dallas”
November 25, 2012
20 Minutos
“Las obras de arte que disfrutó JFK el día de su muerte”
September 28, 2012
The Washington Post
“Exhibit reunites masterworks Kennedys saw in their hotel suite before
JFK’s assassination”
September 19, 2012
Images:
Gene Gordon, John F. Kennedy reaching out to crowd in Fort Worth, November 22, 1963,
1963, gelatin silver print, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Second (smaller) Bedroom, Suite 850, Hotel Texas, Fort Worth, Friday, November 22,
1963, Thomas Eakins, Swimming (formerly The Swimming Hole), Charles M. Russell,
Lost in a Snowstorm – We Are Friends (formerly Meeting in a Blizzard), Owen Day/Dana
Day Henderson Papers, Photo by Byron Scott
Thomas Eakins, Swimming, 1885, oil on canvas, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth,
Texas, Purchased by the Friends of Art, Fort Worth Art Association, 1925; acquired by the
Amon Carter Museum, 1990, from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth through grants
and donations from the Amon G. Carter Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation,
the Anne Burnett and Charles Tandy Foundation, Capital Cities/ABC Foundation, Fort
Worth Star-Telegram, The R. D. and Joan Dale Hubbard Foundation and the people of
Fort Worth. 1990.19.1