Most trips to Houston involve visiting family for both my husband and myself. After attending a family wedding in Houston this spring, we decided to see Houston like tourists. MFAH, which stands for Museum of Fine Arts Houston, has always been on my list to visit. It did not disappoint!

The museum consists of three buildings – the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, the Caroline Weiss Law Building, and the Audrey Jones Beck Building. Our two-hour visit barely scratched the surface so I plan to spend more time on our next trip.

The buildings connect via underground tunnels, which in and of themselves are art exhibits. We entered MFAH at the Kinder Building but headed to the Beck Building taking in James Turrell’s purple neon exhibit, “The Light Inside” in the Wilson tunnel.

Beck Building

The Beck Building houses European and Mediterranean Art, as well as American Art through 1920. A two-story auditorium greeted us with ancient Roman and Greek sculptures. A large part of the building contains the Beck Collection on the second floor.

Audrey Jones Beck, the granddaughter of Houston entrepreneur and US Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones, amassed a significant collection of Impressionist, Post-impressionist, and Modernist paintings. During her lifetime, she introduced the arts to Houstonians through her involvement in MFAH, including the donation of over 70 works of art, the Houston Ballet, and the Houston Grand Opera.

The Impressionist collection includes the works of Alfred Sisley, Mary Cassatt, and Claude Monet. While I didn’t recognize Post-impressionists artists such as Henri-Edward Cross, Georges Braque, and Henri-Chaqrles Manquin, I felt drawn to their style. If I sound like I’m name-dropping – I am. I enjoy painting as a hobby and the Impressionist period is one of my favorites.

The rest of the building consisted of newly reinstalled European Art galleries, including a large Flemish wool tapestry, a terra cotta relief from the 1470s by Italian artist Adrea della Robia, and an 18th-century biombo (panel screen) from Mexico. On the first floor, the American Art section displayed a stained glass Tiffany window, decorative furniture pieces, and paintings by artists such as John Singer Sargent and Childe Hassam.

The Museum is hosting the special exhibit, Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence through May 27. Billboard-size paintings such as Young Taratine II (cover photo) and sculptures depict contemporary figures posing horizontally. While I didn’t have time to explore the exhibit in detail, the art stopped me in my tracks for a few moments.

Law Building

We explored the Caroline Weiss Law Building briefly. Home to Asian, Islamic, African, and Pacific Arts, the building exhibited “Vertigo of Color: Matisse, Derain, and the Origins of Fauvism.” Fauvism was a two-year movement within the Post-Impressionist era from 1905-1907, known for the use of bold colors to express emotions.

What I loved about the Law Building was the architectural style. The museum hired Meis Van der Rohe to modernize the original 1924-built MFAH building. He completed Cullinan Hall, a large, fan-shaped open space in the International Style in 1958. Brown Pavilion, a second Rohe-designed addition in 1974, doubled the museum’s space and included an auditorium for films.

The Flores Tunnel to the Kinder Building features “Chromosaturation MFAH” by Carlos Cruz-Dies. Unlike the dark Wilson tunnel, the white and airy Crus-Diez exhibit allows visitors to experience three sections, each lit by a single color (blue, red, and green).

Kinder Building

Completed in 2020, the Kinder Building showcases Modern and Contemporary Art with over 200,000 square feet. Underneath the main floor lies a parking deck and the Lynn Wyatt Theatre. Each work of art is surrounded by tons of white space so visitors can focus on the art itself.

So who are Rich and Nancy Kinder? Rich Kinder served as Enron’s President for six years before resigning in 1996. Some say Kinder left because his college buddy Ken Lay didn’t promote him to CEO. No matter the reason, Kinder got out just in time. Enron collapsed in 2001, taking down Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling who replaced Kinder, and many other top officials. Kinder formed the successful new energy firm, Kinder Morgan, making him the third wealthiest Houstonian. To date, the Kinder Foundation has donated $700 million to projects in Houston including Rice University, Discovery Green, and MFAH.

Cullen Sculpture Garden and Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza

With time running out, we quickly walked through the Cullen Sculpture Garden designed by Isamu Noguchi. Sculptures include works by Auguste Rodin and Joan Miro. The late Hugh Roy Cullen was a cotton trader turned wildcatter. By the 1950s, he and his wife donated 90% of their wealth to charities including the University of Houston and MFAH. The Cullen Sculpture Garden was built in 1986 for $3.2 million.

Adjacent is the free-to-the-public Brown Memorial, Inc. Plaza. The highlight is “Cloud Column” by Anish Kapoor, creator of “Cloud Gate” (affectionately called the Bean) in Chicago’s Millenium Park. The shiny stainless steel sculpture stands two stories tall and weighs over 20,000 pounds. A fountain, rooftop garden, and amphitheater complement the space.

In Conclusion

Plan to stay a while when visiting MFAH. Although we found street parking, the museum offers three parking decks. The downtown Sarafim campus includes the Kinder, Law, and Beck Buildings, Cullen Sculpture Garden, Glassell School of Art, and Brown Memorial Plaza. If you get hungry, plan to eat at Cafe Leonelli or Le Jardinier, located on the first floor of the Kinder Building.

Outside downtown, MFAH operates Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens (the former home of Ima Hogg) and the Rienzi (the former home of Carroll and Harris Masterson). For more about MFAH and special exhibits, visit the website here.