Selections from the Johnie Griffin Collection

 of the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

Opening: June 19, 2009   6:00 – 8:00 PM

Exhibition dates: June 19 – December 12, 2009

Eanger Irving Couse (1866-1936), American, The Quiver Maker, 1918, oil on canvas

The Wichita Falls Museum of Art (WFMA) is honored to present an important selection of works of art from the permanent collection of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM) of Canyon, Texas.  The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2008 by presenting a major exhibition of the museum’s Johnie Griffin Collection.  Johnie Griffin donated one of the museum’s largest and most important art collections, which helped PPHM launch an ambitious Taos and Santa Fe art exhibition program in the 1950s and 1960s.  Because of the Griffin donation, PPHM is now a major destination for Southwest art lovers.

Johnie Griffin of Wichita Falls and Brownsville, Texas, and Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, began donating several pieces of Taos art to PPHM in the mid-1950s until her death in 1962.  Born in Kansas, Griffin married into a ranching family based near Wichita Falls, Texas, then purchased homes at Brownsville and Ranchos de Taos in 1944 or 1945.  She renovated the Ranchos house with architectural elements purchased from various decrepit or crumbling buildings in northern New Mexico.  Griffin’s Wichita Falls and Brownsville home were Spanish Revival in style.  She filled the homes with European furniture and paintings as well as fine and decorative art, textiles, and furniture from the American Southwest and Mexico, including Hispanic religious art.  Griffin commissioned well-known photographer Laura Gilpin to photograph all three homes, inside and out.

Griffin knew most Taos artists, visited their studios often and held noon dinners at her Ranchos home.  She traveled to Santa Fe every few weeks, staying at La Fonda Hotel and immersing herself in the Santa Fe social and art scenes.  Johnie Griffin collected historic Texas art, including works by Julian Onderdonk, Olive Vandruff, and H. D. Bugbee while also collecting eastern American paintings by George Inness, Thomas Moran, and Ralph A. Blakelock.

To see the Johnie Griffin Collection omline, go to http://www.pagegangster.com/p/CbzKm/2/

Take Me to the River – Istanbul

Video works

by Svetozara Alexandrova (Bulgaria), Neno Belchev (Bulgaria),

Mansoora Hassan (Pakistan), and a collaboration by

David Carlson (Washington, DC), Ashraf Fouad (Egypt) and Betsy Stewart (Washington, DC.

 Drawing installation by Judy Jashinsky Washington, DC).

Opening: June 19, 2009   6:00 – 8:00 PM

Exhibition dates: June 19 – December 31, 2009

Three years after the groundbreaking Take Me to the River project was exhibited at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, Museum Director Cohn Drennan served as guest curator for Take Me to the River - Istanbul, the official cultural event for the 5th World Water Forum, March 7-18, 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Forum convenes every three years and is organized by the World Water Council in collaboration with the host country. The 2009 installment, Take Me to the River – Istanbul, was hosted in Istanbul by DEPO Contemporary Art and included guest artists from Turkey, Afghanistan, Bulgaria and Oman.  This installment of TMTTR-I will include video works from the Istanbul installation along with a drawing installation by Judy Jashinsky.

As curator, Drennan was asked to bring in guest artists whose works of art would complement and enhance the pieces ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­created by the charter TMTTR artists, and also be relative to the mission of the World Water Forum. 



  at WFMA

Exhibition dates: March 13 – August 1, 2009

In recognition of 20 years of innovation, survival and respect as one of the country’s preeminent fine art presses, the Wichita Falls Museum of Art invited Flatbed Press to share a selection of prints by women artists who have produced work there.  Kelly Fielding, Assistant Director of Flatbed, provided the following background information on the press and the artists in the exhibition.

Founded in 1989 in Austin, Texas by Mark Smith and Katherine Brimberry, Flatbed Press is a publishing workshop which produces limited-edition original etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, and monotypes.  Flatbed's 20-year history of education and collaboration are two of many traits that attract a large and diverse group of female artists to its workshop.  Working with Brimberry as their collaborating master printer, they develop and proof their imagery in Flatbed's studios.  Some, like the North Carolina painter Ann Conner and Dallas sculptor Joan Winter, use color woodcuts  or color etchings--respectively-- to evolve their bold patterns or nuanced colors and textures.  El Paso artist Susan Davidoff works with Brimberry and her senior printer Tracy Mayrello to create color etchings and color monotypes that feature layers of botanical forms and rich Earth hues.  Even artists with work as disparate as the Austin sculptor Margo Sawyer's and the Lubbock artist Alice Briggs' find that collaboration with the team of professionals at Flatbed helps them a balance the solitude of their artistic process with the communal nature of the printmaking processes.

This exhibition features the works of these and many more women artists who have created original prints at Flatbed during the last two decades.  Their imagery, styles, mediums, and sizes vary widely but the focus is always on realizing the artist's compelling image.  Sometimes this requires more than one printmaking process, such as with Houston artist Celia Munoz; she created Sweet Nothings, an edition comprised of serigraphy and relief.  The printmaking studio is a laboratory that fosters inventiveness in technique.  One of Flatbed's shop mottos is "What would happen if ... ".  For example, Marfa painter Julie Speed wanted to incorporate in her photogravures images she appropriated from antique wood engravings, so Brimberry helped her invent a new process to accomplish that in prints like her Ad Referendum.   Similarly, Linda Ridgway was assisted in utilizing actual plant forms--daisy petals--in the creation of her color photogravures.

Many of these artists have found that their experience in the printmaking studios has a positive influence on their primary mediums.  For example, Ridgway was inspired by her work at Flatbed to create a major work of cast bronze for the Noguchi Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Art Houston.  It was the first sculpture by a female artist to be included there.

The list of artists who have worked at Flatbed is long and diverse in terms of sex and all other variables but this group features many who happen to be female.  One could argue that the printmaking studio--with its unique emphasis on teamwork, communication, technique, craft, and attention to detail--is especially suited to the special strengths of women.  In any case, these women have taken full advantage of the aesthetic and technical possibilities provided by a professional print shop like Flatbed's. 

Celebrating our 20th Anniversary in 2009!

Kelly Fielding

Assistant Director

F L A T B E D  P R E S S

2830 East MLK Blvd / Austin, Texas  78702

512.477.9328  x34 / www.flatbedpress.com

Midwestern State University BFA Senior Exhibition 2009
with Carlos Aleman, Jordan Jacob and Marie Neudorf
Exhibition dates: May 8 – July 31, 2009


Wichita Falls Art Association annual group exhibition at the museum
June 12 - August 29, 2009

Live@theLake

2009 Museum Summer Concert Series

Start your long summer weekends early this year with a splash of music on the banks of Sikes Lake!  Throughout the summer, the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU will present concert performances every Thursday evening from local musicians as part of the Live @ the Lake 2009 Museum Summer Concert Series.  Shows are from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and are free to the public.

Bring a lawn chair or just spread out a blanket on the cool grass and enjoy live music in a terrific outdoor setting. While you’re there, take a tour of the Museum’s outstanding exhibits and collections.  It’s a great way to wind up your week, while soaking up a sample of the wonderful art and culture that’s available year-round at the Museum. And it’s all free !

Here is the Live @ the Lake summer lineup. All shows begin at 5:30 p.m.

June 4      Ali Holder

June 11    Abbey Laine

June 18    Exit Strategy

June 25    Tom Hargrove

July 2       ABCJKD (A Band Called John Kory and David)

July 9       Mike O'Neill

July 16     Ali Holder

July 23      Tom Hargrove

July 30      ABCJKD

August 6   Exit Strategy