This exhibition honors a remarkable gift from the estate of distinguished art historian William B. Jordan and his husband, Robert Dean Brownlee. Jordan was a DMA trustee, founding director of the Meadows Museum, and former deputy director and chief curator at the Kimbell Art Museum. The couple built a collection over decades that included works by Edgar Degas, Rosa Bonheur, Berthe Morisot, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Ellsworth Kelly, among others.
Presenting works on paper, sculpture, and decorative arts, the exhibition highlights a selection of nearly 70 works donated to the DMA by Jordan and Brownlee. Spanning the ancient to the contemporary, the featured works demonstrate an enduring fascination with artists’ use of expressive line, the depiction of the figure, and dialogs across media.
Focus Installation
Admission is FREE.
Point, Line, Plane: The William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee Bequest is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
Images: Berthe Morisot, Harbor Scene (Isle of Wight), 1880, watercolor on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.39; Edgar Degas, Seated Male Nude (recto), 1856-1858, pencil on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.21.A-B; Rosa Bonheur, Pattes de lion, 1880-1885, black crayon on medium-weight wove paper with stumping, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.5; Adolf Hiremy-Hirschl, Head of a Young Woman, 1890s, black and white chalk on brown paper, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.29; Jean–Baptiste–Camille Corot, Paysage, n.d., charcoal on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.15; Robert Rauschenberg, Autobiography: three works, 1968, offset lithographs on paper, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.45.A-C, © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Image courtesy of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; Ellsworth Kelly, Purple, 2001, single-color lithograph, Dallas Museum of Art, bequest of William B. Jordan and Robert Dean Brownlee, 2019.72.31, © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery