This year I unintentionally celebrated National Bird Day (Jan. 5) at an avant-garde jazz show. The newly-established Austin Cultural Exchange, together with local record label Astral Spirits and Brooklyn-based journal Sound American, presented Nate Wooley (Brooklyn) on trumpet and Ken Vandermark (Chicago) on clarinet and saxophone—in solo and duo sets that destroy common notions of what these instruments can do or the fullness of sound one or two horns can create.
Before joining San Antonio’s McNay Art Museum as its third director in September, Rich Aste was finishing work on the exhibition French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950, which turned out to be his swansong as the Brooklyn Museum's managing curator, arts of the Americas and Europe, and curator of European art. French Moderns travels to the McNay from March 1 to June 7. Devon Britt-Darby sat down with Aste to discuss his plans for Texas's oldest modern art museum.
Dorothy Hood’s artwork is a reflection of a life of unapologetic independence. Before man walked on the moon, the Texas native began making her own trailblazing discoveries in the art of abstraction.