UNDERBELLY: Vacant bar as gallery

Mary's was the iconic Montrose bar, and used to be the centerpiece of the old pride parade, with countless drag shows on it's roof. It has sat vacant, up for sale, at it's corner of Waugh and Westheimer, and currently is serving as what UNDERBELLY terms a street gallery, with work constantly added, painted over, or altered on the outside walls.
Mainstream Houston sees this as vandalism, as the ugly markings and scrawls of hoodlums. -FUPPETS- does not. What is ignored is that these are creative works done by creative people who happen to use walls instead of canvas. Like all Art, some is crude, some is magnificent, and some is painfully ugly.
Here are the current crop of pieces up at Mary's as of December 20, 2010. UNDERBELLY exists to expose these transient works to the outside world, and will continue to update any new work added to Mary's bar.

RXTT

MFAH Fine Arts Fridays - 12/17/2010

Fucking harpsichord. Man, I hate the plink-plonk sound of harpsichords. Thank goodness for Bartolomeo Cristofori and his development of the pianoforte. Without that we may never have escaped the mechanical sterile horror of that fucking instrument.

The contemporary instrument movement in some music circles asks that pieces of music be performed on instruments from the piece's time. Some see this as the "true" sound of Baroque music, and some see it as a neat experiment in sonic time travel. Others just find it a curiosity, like wash boards or rotary dial phones, neat as decoration but otherwise completely ignorable. This is how 90% of the attendees at last Friday's event at the MFAH seemed to find it. Christmas music is mostly kept in the background (thank Mario), but this was pure coma-inducing tempos and vaguely lyrical baroque melodies.

The MFAH always has members parties and this was one of a series called Fine Arts Fridays.
As a member I always go and get a kick out of it. I love being in any museum when it is normally closed, and as Homer Simpson said, "artists LOVE free food Marge! Look at Jasper Johns!..."

You go enough times and you start recognizing people. Some are high society, and some are artists hungry for some free fruit/cheese/drinks/art. I know I dig into it with pleasure. A man can make a meal out of crackers, brie, cheddar, Monterrey jack, Swiss, grapes (green and red), strawberries, wine, well drinks, sodas, etc. I have never seen bigger green grapes than the ones I ate Friday. That's classy produce. I did wonder if caterers have a pact of some sort that mandates they only ever serve brie, cheddar, Swiss, and Monterrey jack.

The newly finished Asian Art wing of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston was the centerpiece of this F.A.Friday. The permanent installation of the gunpowder painting commissioned by the MFAH from artist Cai Guo-Qiang of China. The room smelled slightly of gunpowder and sulfur and felt like walking directly into a classic brush and ink painting! Amazing! I have loved Japanese and Chinese scroll paintings for a long time.

Frankly though, the inclusion of just a few free standing works severely detracted from the artwork on the walls. I would have appreciated experiencing the gunpowder painting alone, just myself and the walls. Luckily the works are not permanently installed, unlike the gunpowder paintings. Perhaps the MFAH people may yet decide it is best to have it be an installation type space and not use it as a gallery display space. I hope they do, seeing as how the Cai Guo-Qiang artwork is supposed to be the showpiece of the Asian collection. It does the art a disservice to clutter it up with unrelated artworks. The work is beautiful.

The wings holding the arts if India and Korea were a bit at odds. The Korean side, while heavy on pottery, was sparse and disjointed as a collection of objects. The MFAH's holdings are not too large in the Korean arts. The Indian side though has so much beautiful gold work, intricate and sensual sculpture, and even carved ivory pieces. Quite a rich variety, and the Indians definitely know how to sculpt a curvy sexy lady!

The museum was not as packed as usual for these events but it being the holidays and the party season this is understandable. The people watching as always was superb. Hell, if you are a jewelry whore the jewelry watching is usually top notch as well. There was even jewelry laying on the sidewalk outside the doors. Oh, the riches! These events are always interesting for the way they bring and mix together people from very different walks of life.

The only requirement is to be a member of the MFAH. An individual membership costs around $50/year. That is a serious deal. Those fifty bucks get you unlimited entry to the museum, invitations to most MFAH parties and events, discounts at the MFAH gift shop, and free drinks, cheese, and fruit! Ha! Not bad at all.

RXTT

UNDERBELLY: What does an artist do after years at one place, when moving to a new locale?

Throw a party, and put everything on the walls in an art studio fire sale!

Tod Bailey, a painter originally from Dallas, has been a resident of the David Addickes Sculptureworx studios on Summer St. for years, creating and showing his work. He is headed to Paris, to dip his toes in for a while, eventually hoping to land near northern Italy somewhere. It is a risky but necesary thing for artists to do, as one must refresh the mind and input new experience. Spending years staring at the lonely sillouette of downtown Houston's skyline behind an industrial facade of run-down warehouses will make one's brain cry out for relief. Paris is as good a relief as any.

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Luckily for Tod he has many friends to share the night with. From around 4:00 PM, people wandered through the artwork displayed. The keg got floated sometime between The Ted Leo Trio's set of blues covers and originals and Bright Men of Learning's set of adult-alterna-rock. These nights are chaotic at best and Tod Bailey was kept busy greeting newcomers, appeasing friends, and working to sell as many of the works on display as possible. The wine/cup/food table was nearly as warped as some of the paintings, and no one gave a fuck. Life is for living.

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One cannot take one's friends with them when they move. It is one of the suck-ass
realities we all face, but think about an artist. That artist has to leave behind his friends as well as the works he has created. Painters such as Tod, who work on large canvases, have to sell off, store, or lend artworks. When your typical work is at least 7 feet wide, storage and transport are tough. The ones that hurt are the "favorites," the pieces of art so fucking awesome that you never want to sell them. It is best in that case to lend them to friends and family.

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Having used all the space in his personal studio the party spilled out into the hallways of the large building, extending far into the cavernous structure. Paintings everywhere! Looking at them all it seemed very fitting that Tod was heading to Paris, as his work contains what seems a large Fauvist and Cubist influence. It will be very interesting to see what influence Paris and all of Europe will have on his sensibilities. Like many of us Houstonians, he shares a twisted-on-end world view because, frankly, Houston's flatness and homogeneity can twist the mind. Will the European countryside soften this? It may drive him insane. Whether this is for the good or the bad of his art will be judged much later. Now, all that matters is the intent to change, and the action to impliment it. Tod Bailey is in the thick of that shit it right now. It's a good place to be.

RXTT

CORPORATE JEWELRY: Bank of America Loves Mexico From a Distance

Everyone seems to hate corporations these days, and the bastards have definitely earned much of it. For all the moaning and crying that CEO's do, they are still making big bucks and spending that money to make more money. That is the main goal of acquiring an art collection. They think it is a nearly infallible investment. Whether that is true or not is highly questionable, but it is not the only reason powerful businesses battle each other for the latest big purchase. Art has for all time been used to burnish the persona of individuals as well as corporations. Modern Fortune 500 companies are no different from any other past conglomerate loading up their personal spaces with the world's art, seeking a bit of that art's glory to rub off.

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Art depends on this need that corporations have. The modern world's money engine are the multinational corporations. Like the Vatican before them, they use their power to gather art, chosen by professional art advisers not just for it's future value and current quality and beauty, but also for it's lack of scandal or controversy. This is evident in the current photography exhibit on display off the South entrance to the Bank of America lobby. Titled Luces y Sombras: Twelve Travelers in Mexico, the show's stated theme is that of the traveler, but judging from the selection of images, the Mexico being photographed is better enjoyed on it's formal aesthetic terms as opposed to anything culturally Mexican.

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This is odd because the core of the exhibition is pulled from a work called The Mexican Portfolio by painter, photographer, and filmmaker Paul Strand, who traveled to Mexico between the World Wars and decided to take up residence in the country for years at a time. The other choices also draw from expat artists, mostly American, who like Strand, found something tremendously beautiful in Mexico. Many became deeply enamored of their new home, using their art for social change.

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The Mexican Portfolio was one of these important works which drew people to Mexico in the years following it's publication. The selection of images are chosen for such formal qualities that any social commentary ends up ignored. It focuses on abstract architectural details, religious icons and statuary, and somber formal portraits. They are beautiful images, highly contrasted light and dark spaces in an infinity of tones, but collectively they build no narrative about the Mexico we are looking at, and that is how the bank wants it to be. After all, images of poverty cast a harsh shadow on the opulent bank lobby in which they reside. It doesn't help that the exhibit is tucked away in a corner, visited mainly by people making phone calls and seeking a quiet empty area to do so.

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Who else needs art to aid in image spin control? Mexico! Things are ugly and getting uglier in our neighbor's front yard. This exhibit is part of a Mexican Bicentennial celebration and is underwritten by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Consulate General of Mexico. Bank of America invests heavily in Mexico and needs to do something to improve the rightfully harsh public image of that country. Are these photos of Mexico by non-Mexicans beautiful artistic images? Yes. Do they collectively give the viewer a deeper knowledge of the Mexico the artists fell in love with? No. Even great art can be dulled by playing it safe.

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Corporations have their own individual personalities. Their art choices tell as much about them as your choices do about you. Join me in exploring Houston's corporate psyche through what they choose to adorn themselves with, their art collections.

RXTT