Michael Ennis
Features
Change of Art
The 10 Best Buildings in Texas
A tour of our greatest architectural master-pieces—from the Alamo to the World Birding Center—shows how the collision of the Old World and the New forged a unique style on the Texas frontier.
He Was A Camera
Russell Lee’s rarely seen Texas photographs reveal an artist at the peak of his powers of observation.
Art • Joseph Havel
Breaking the mold.
Northern Exposure
With Fort Worth’s Michael Auping as a curator and nine of the state’s artists participating, this year’s Whitney Biennial puts a New York spotlight on the art of Texas.
ART • Luis Jimenez
Sculpting a legacy.
The Return of the Native
With a major retrospective of his work at three Houston museums, Robert Rauschenberg is once again the talk of Texas. What’s he been up to? A portrait of the artist as an old man.
Folks
The boom in “outsider” art that began in New York, Chicago, and Atlanta has finally come to Texas, driven by true visionaries whose images conjure worlds that may have never existed but are invariably inhabitedby penetrating psychological truths.
Shock Therapy
By employing stereotypes like Sambo and Aunt Jemima, Austin painter Michael Ray Charles hopes to master the art of racial healing.
So You Don’t Like The Way You Look?
To a plastic surgeon, your face is just the beginning.
Columns | Miscellany
Split Deception
Democrats refuse to acknowledge how wildly successful we are at creating jobs. Republicans misunderstand how we’ve done it. Here’s what everyone should know about the Texas Miracle—before it’s too late.
Arch of Triumph
Dallas’s almost-finished Calatrava bridge may be an emblem of the city’s status. But the smart urban plan for the small neighborhood it leads to says more about the city’s future.
Paint by Numbers
How Jerry Jones made Cowboys Stadium into one of the state’s best art galleries. Seriously!
The New New Deal
What University of Texas historian H. W. Brands’s new biography of Franklin Roosevelt tells us about the Obama administration.
The Drill Team
Is the answer to our energy crisis really offshore?
End of The Road
During all but two of the past twenty years, someone named Bush had led our nation or led our state. Now we’re moving on.
Bear Market
The historic showdown between Texas and California has been a cold war, a simmering ideological feud between two great powers. And the winner (for now) is . . .
Modern Problems
What Dallas has in common with Beijing—and why their shared vision of the twenty-first-century world must carry the day.
Centered
Where the great silent majority is taking politics, here and elsewhere.
How We Blew It
Remember all that talk of tipping the balance of history on a fulcrum of those “Texas values” everyone was crowing about?
The Mighty Metroplex
Just a few years after nearly being written off the map, the region has become a roaring engine of growth and social transformation.
All Shook Up
Independent candidates for governor won’t win this year, but they’ve certainly upended the established order. Democrats and Republicans, you have only yourselves to blame.
My Father’s War
What I learned about Iraq from World War II—and what all the president’s men could learn.
T.R. Fehrenbach Is History
He’s still the gold standard by which all chroniclers of our shared experience are judged, but it’s time to look to the new generation. How do his wannabe heirs stack up?
North Toward Home
As surprising as our immigrant-friendliness may be to many, it speaks to who we are. To be a Texan is to inhabit a vast bicultural frontera, one that extends far beyond the Rio Grande.
The Bidness Myth
Rethinking the way we do business—and government—down here.
Culture of Strife
Frozen embryos are destroyed every day in the name of in vitro fertilization. Tell me again what’s so wrong with stem cell research?
What’s the Matter With Dallas?
For starters, even though its self- image is big and brash, it’s the most politically wimpy city in Texas.
Dissing Darwin
Why Texas could lose the biotech revolution—and end up, once again, an economic also-ran.
No Hat, No Cattle
We Texans have long considered ourselves, in mythical terms, old cowhands. But we’re waking up to discover that we�re really city slickers.
The Cowboy Myth
The idea that U.S. policy bears an indelible made-in- Texas stamp is a rare point of bipartisan consensus. But there's nothing inherently Texan about the president's leadership style.
Apocalypse Now
What sets Dallas apart from other sophisticated American cities? Its unique end-of-the-world industry.
The Accidental City
A new anthology of articles about Houston from the journal of the Rice Design Alliance is a sweeping historical overview, a civic memoir, and a municipal self-help guide.
Everybody Loves Ray
As in Nasher, and everybody should. His $70 million sculpture center is the most eagerly anticipated arts opening in Dallas' history.
Prints of a Fellow
The addition of Leo Steinberg's magnificent collection makes it official: UT-Austin's Blanton is one of the best university art museums in the country.
The Minimalist
The real revelation of Donald Judd's early work is how far ahead of its time it looks—not simply its own time, but our time as well.
A Fine Modness
Modernism may yet be proved dead, but if so, it has left an exquisite corpse in Fort Worth's stunning new Modern Art Museum.
Peter's Principles
Some people look at Houston and see only rough edges. Peter Marzio, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, sees a brash upstart that should be proud of its cultural riches.
Moving Pictures
At Houston's FotoFest 2002, digital art took center stage as never before-and proved that the Next Big Thing might really be the next big thing.
Small Stuff
The Hyde Park Miniature Museum in Houston is an outsized testament to one man's love of his life's little treasures.
Amon High
With a massive addition to its gallery space and a host of new exhibitions in the works, Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum is back in the saddle.
Best Western
Frank Reaugh was one of the state's greatest artists. So why does his name draw so many blanks?
Thoroughly Modern
Denton's Toni LaSelle has a perspective on the modernist movement like no other artist. That's because she witnessed it first-hand.
Image Conscious
Meet two prominent Houston artists who are at the forefront of digital art—and the debate over what virtual reality means for reality itself.
The Reign of Spain
If you're searching for the splendor of Spain's golden age, look no further than the Meadows Museum in Dallas and the Alamo in San Antonio.
Master Builder
From Fort Worth's Amon Carter Museum to Houston's Pennzoil Place to Dallas' forthcoming Cathedral of Hope, architect Philip Johnson's grand vision for Texas is set in stone.
Time of Nic
Sixteen years after rocketing into the Whitney Biennial, Dallas photographer Nic Nicosia is still on the cutting edge.
Master Class
How a collection of paintings and drawings coveted by Sotheby’s and other art world Goliaths ended up at the University of Texas at Austin.
Joan of Art
Less than a decade ago, she was a homemaker and an arts volunteer, but today the Arlington Museum of Art’s Joan Davidow is the most imaginative and adventurous museum director working in Texas.
On With the Shows
Now that both its building and its mission have been renovated, Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum is ready to win back the public and reestablish its eminence.
The Mod Squad
Long mocked for making unrecognizable pieces of junk, Texas Modernists strike back in a superb exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Raw Visions
A Houston show introduces new black Texas artists in works that range from personal vision to political agitprop.
Southern Exposure
At Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Mexican photographers portray their culture with rare empathy and a sense of wonder.
Long Shot
Bert Long comes to Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum by way of the Fifth Ward, the Marines, haute cuisine—and the Prix de Rome.
Then and Now
Two San Antonio shows examine how Texas artists interpret the state’s past and present.
Buried Treasures
Sifting through stored collections, the Dallas Museum of Art discovers a tradition of spiritual subtlety among Texas artists.
Reporter
Medicine Brawl
Sure, Rick Perry doesn't want to expand Medicaid. But can he afford not to?
The Poll Truth
When a third of its citizens vote, can Texas really be called a democracy?
The Texas Supermodel
America is chasing the myth of Texas. Fortunately, we aren’t.
In the Red
Texas artists versus Texas galleries.
Web Exclusives
Reign of Thought
Contrary to our self-mythology, ideas—and the people who wrote them down—have always been central to Texas history.
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