Semipop Lifestyle: Art and architecture in Texas

(food is an art)

I hadn’t stayed in Texas before, so I went a couple of weeks ago trying to beat the summer heat (and was rewarded with 100-degree days), and I met up with a few longtime readers and saw and ate a bunch of stuff. Vegetarians and people willing to pretend to be vegetarian can skip this one. Music tomorrow.

Rothko Chapel, Houston

Did feel a bit incomplete with a wall of panels missing due to hurricane damage, but it’s still a sobering experience, if one could use being sobered. Enjoyed Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk outside, though not as much as the whistling ducks in its shade.

Menil Collection, Houston

Limited photography is a bummer since I’m used to framing my whole engagement with art through phone pics (then never looking at them.) Still, best actually-on-display Magritte and Ernst collections in the country, plus Renzo Piano’s building rules of course.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Goya, Still Life with Golden Bream (with imitators)

Three buildings! That’s a lot. There’s one of the world’s great goldwork collections, and more generally one of the better non-Western art collections, and it’s hard to really get in the mental zone for (here’s a gold thing, here’s another gold thing.) OTOH it wasn’t too crowded on a free day, I got to see stuff by most of the important Old Masters, and the 20th century collection is very well-chosen and well-presented.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

I think I enjoyed the non-Western (Egyptian and pre-Columbian) art here more, despite a much less impressive collection on paper, much of it on long-term loan from Boston. Representative objects are presented (with overheated blurbs, but see opening comments on temperature) in proximity so that comparing things isn’t a chore. Plus the dino and mineral exhibits are top class if you like that sort of thing (I like that sort of thing.)

The Alamo

Bald guy obsessed with postwar sanitizations of death for children, plus Casper the Friendly Ghost. (Casper is the one on the right.)

The site is exactly what your favored historical interpretation says it is. The museum is largely the Phil Collins Collection. Phil became a Davy Crockett fan after watching the old Disney shows, and it’s kind of touching that he’s finally rediscovered the one thing he’s ever been passionate about. See Crockett’s long rifle! Sam Houston’s boot knife! Santa Anna’s sword! Either don’t think about provenance at all or think about it constantly, depending on your sense of humor.

Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, Blanton Art Museum

Exterior and interior of Austin by Ellsworth Kelly

Probably won’t achieve the public belovedness of the Rothko Chapel if it’s only free one day a week. Economics aside, it’s at least as great a work if you don’t eschew optimism. It unites all his formal interests without claiming any religious purpose; it’s just a place to chill (literally on an aforementioned 100 degree day) and think about light, color, materiality. The bisected marble panels inside might be the clincher, adding additional balances of not just black and white but of B&W with the color windows.

Rest of the Blanton

Detail of The Triumph of Death, Artemio Rodríguez

Permanent collection is a bit whatever, but they make the most of it. In Creative Harmony: Three Artistic Partnerships was a very smartly put-together show. One might think the theme too loose—José Guadalupe Posada made prints, then a century later, Artemio Rodríguez made art inspired in part by Posada!—but it’s a way to get interesting artworks into dialogue. Rodríguez’s satire might be broad but it helps to know the same was true for its precedents; actual friends Isamu Noguchi and Arshile Gorky benefit from having their forms presented side-by-side.

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

Claude Monet, Sunset at Lavacourt (private collection)

One of the great American collections by average quality, plus we had UTD art history prof Mark Rosen with us (not to mention Brazil Beat Blogger emeritus Rod Taylor to drive us around), which certainly helped get us up to date on the state of the attribution of the claimed juvenile Michelangelo here. A few of the famous pieces were out (my bad luck with U.S. Caravaggios continues) but the loans were interesting, especially a sketchy (and hence modern) version of the Sunset at Lavacourt. Plus Louis Kahn’s building really rules of course (as does Piano’s addition.)

The Modern, Fort Worth

The Pied Piper, puffy painting by Alex Da Corte

Popped next door on a free Friday. Lots of fun stuff, with the funnest being the Alex Da Corte show; breadth is important for him, and this gives a sense of it that isn’t practical in group exhibitions. Da Corte reappropriates pop culture, cutting up and redrawing album covers for example, then does much the same thing to postwar art history.

NorthPark Mall, Dallas

Where KAWS seems aesthetically empty in a museum, in a shopping center he feels meaningful, even if the meaning is mostly “capitalism, baby.”

Other recommended tourist attractions

The Mission Control tour at Space Center Houston will briefly make you feel genuinely proud of American ingenuity, until you remember <waves arms> and get embarrassed again. The Discovery Tour at Natural Bridge Caverns has one of the best balances of “pretty stalactite formations” and “actually manageable” that I’ve experienced (though I haven’t been to much in the West.)

Some food I liked

Barbecue

Top left: Interstellar, Austin; top right: Louie Mueller, Taylor; bottom left: Truth, Houston; bottom right, Smoke N Ash, Arlington

I have a new respect for the Texas Monthly team, because rigorously ranking BBQ joints must take many repeat visits and endless post-meal calorie burning. The beef rib at Louie Mueller (top 50 in the new TM list, as always) was the best thing I ate on the trip (at least four distinct textures!), but was it because they were the best or was it because beef rib is inherently more interesting than brisket? How much should they be penalized for mediocre coleslaw? Truth in Houston (#10) had perhaps the best BBQ pork ribs I’ve had but I didn’t enjoy the boudin sausage; was that on me? Smoke N Ash in Arlington (honorable mention) wasn’t quite up to these but the Ethiopian spicing was a relief, as standard Texan barbecue does get kind of monotonous. I’ll pick Interstellar in Austin (#6) as the most consistent—everything was good and the lamb taco and coleslaw contended for best-ever in their categories.

Other superlatives

Goode Company Armadillo Palace, Houston: Very Texas. The chile has tender, flavorful beef; throw in all the jalapeños and there’s almost no heat at all but I don’t have to go to Jitlada every day, plus there’s Yellow Rose IPA on tap. Now to look up the origins of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and oooooooohboy

Pho Binh Heights, Houston: The richest beef broth I’ve had outside of SoCal. Regret not having the stomach space for their bone marrow. Atrocious parking.

Brennan’s, Houston: Almost as good as its sibling Commander’s Palace, which means it’s plausibly the best Creole food outside of Louisiana. Fresh seafood is unfussily prepared, beignets are at a Cafe du Monde level, lunch martinis are 25 cents (limit 2, which seems excessive, except I ended up drinking mine and most of my spouse’s.)

Dakar Street Food, Houston: I haven’t had much West African food, especially since moving out of the East Bay, but the dish named “C’est Bon” here is the best I can remember: a whole tilapia cooked to a crisp, served with an onion sauce and a chutney. The sort of thing an ahem-ethnic resto can do that fine dining won’t.

“C’est Bon” (yassa tilapia), Dakar Street Food, Houston

Les Weyes de la Asada truck, San Antonio: In the ranchero plate, the grilled steak beats the chorizo, but why not both at once (and beans and hot salsa)? In the same spirit, the agua fresca from La Elotera (also in the El Camino food truck park) is watermelon and lime and pineapple AND Jamaica. It’s the Texas spirit!

Thiru Kuppusamy Unavagan, Irving: To balance out too much meat on the trip, I ordered a nice veg combo, except my spouse’s crab masala was too hot for them so we swapped. Spiciest Indian food I’ve had, and the best I’ve had in the US since we did a Jersey City crawl pre-pandemic. Sinus- and brain-clearing.

Spicy crab masala (like really spicy), Thiru Kuppusamy Unavagan, Irving