Museums, Fine and Not

Houston has a lot of museums, duh. Heavy hitters. Such as the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (the 12th largest museum in the world according to Wikipedia), the Menil Collection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menil_Collection, and many others.

We went to the MFAH to see the Afro-Atlantic Histories, a joint exhibit with Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), "that explores the history and legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. The exhibition comprises more than 130 works of art and documents made in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe across 500 years, from the 17th century to the 21st century."  (Disclaimer: My cousin was a curator at MFAH for many years.)

Maybe not quite 130 pieces. The supply chain problems that caused Americans to get late Xmas presents (first world problem!) also hurt this exhibition. About a dozen works of art didn't make it to Houston, so there was a small reproduction and a "sorry" note. 

Some of more powerful images were of the enslaved Gordon.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_(slave) . The photo of his whipped back was widely circulated among abolitionists during the Civil War, and inspired several other paintings and sculptures, which are in the exhibit.

Barbara really appreciated a contemporary video made by the Brazilian equivalent of the ACLU on what to do and not do if being interrogated by the police in Brazil.

White Shoes was a project by a nude African-American (wearing only white shoes) in places where Blacks were oppressed. One of her photos was at the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan (now under the streets) early in the morning while a taxi races by.

The exhibit will be leaving Houston soon and traveling the USA. Next stop will be the National Gallery in DC https://www.nga.gov/press/exhibitions/exhibitions-2022/5480.html. Very worthwhile. 

The Menil Collection is a stunning, tightly curated set of collections from Africa to Alaska, Ancient to Contemporary and Surreal. A special exhibit of photographs by Bruce Davidson was great. He extensively documented a lot of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Powerful images.

Then, in the Not so Fine museum category, we visited the National Museum of Funeral History  https://www.nmfh.org/  Not ghoulish or gory, it looks like what a group of funeral directors would do to promote their industry - which it was. It had  exhibits from many of the US Presidents' funeral, with artifacts such as the program at the service, or the shoes of the lead bugler, newspaper articles, etc. It has a large collection of hearses, including a sleigh hearse for snow, hearses used for Presidents and celebrities, etc. The exhibits on cremation and embalming were pretty good.

Combination hearse and ambulance. Note the removable ambulance logo (red cross) on the back windows, and removable "Funeral Coach"  sign behind the windshield. Apparently common is small towns before WW II.

Japanese hearse. Japanese funerals are said to be the most expensive in the world, averaging over $37,000

This lobster is a custom made casket for fishermen. This coffin maker from Ghana makes all sorts of custom caskets, such as an outboard motor, a scallion, a tiger, etc

An unfortunate hearse was designed as a hearse bus, containing the coffin, the pall bearers, and the family and officiant. It was built on an extended truck chassis. Going up a steep hill to the cemetery, the pall bearers fell out of their seats to the back, falling on top of the family. The extra weight in the back then caused the hearse to do a wheelie, lifting the front wheels off the ground so the driver couldn't steer, and then the casket fell out onto the people in the back. Not mentioned is whether the casket opened.

That hearse was never used again.

Somewhat campy, but the museum takes itself pretty seriously. The t-shirt says Any day above ground is a good one. I'll agree with that.

Enough about museums. We went to Galveston today (yes, I put on the John Denvers standard, which Barbara had never heard). Big, huge expanses of sand almost to ourselves. Not really surprising so few folks since we were wearing our Criehaven winter jackets. The parking lots had space for thousands of cars. Despite having a nice 5 mile walk with our prancing dog, it is another beach I probably will never go back to voluntarily. 

Galveston Harbor is all backed up. We saw about about dozen anchored ships that appeared to be empty tankers waiting to get into the harbor to be loaded. A huge gray spume of  pollution, looking a little like a mushroom cloud, rose behind the tankers from the refineries 50 miles away in Beaumont. Otherwise, the sky was blue.

Happy Trails,

Krem and Barbara