Aubergine Tondo

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Artist Robert Courtright (American, 1926–2012)American, 1926–2012

CultureAmerican

Titles

Aubergine Tondo

Date1984

PlaceUnited States

MediumAcrylic on board

DimensionsFrame: 59 1/4 (diameter) × 2 1/4 in. (150.5 × 5.7 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr.

Object number2025.810

Not on view

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Department

Prints and Drawings

Object Type

DRAWINGS, PASTELS & WATERCOLORS

ProvenanceThe artist, 1984; Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr. (1915-1987)1, Houston, TX, to 1987; estate of Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr., 1987-2025; given to MFAH, 2025.

1. Hugo V. Neuhaus, Jr. (1915–1987) [Fig. 9] was among Houston’s leading modernist architects, and a staunch supporter of Houston’s cultural philanthropies. A native Houstonian, Neuhaus was a graduate of St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire (1934), Yale College (A.B., 1938), and the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University (B.Arch., 1941). He served in the United States Army Air Force from 1941 to 1946, attaining the rank of major. Upon returning to Houston in 1946, Neuhaus worked briefly for the architect Kenneth Franzheim, then entered the offices of C. Herbert Cowell (1947) and Magruder Wingfield, Jr. (1962), establishing his own firm, Neuhaus Associates, in 1967. When Philip Johnson was commissioned to design a house for Dominique and John de Menil in 1949, he asked Neuhaus to serve as his local associate architect. As a result of this collaboration, Neuhaus became a devoted admirer of both Johnson, and his mentor Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, whose influence profoundly shaped his practice.

Among the founders of the Contemporary Arts Association (now the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston) in 1948, Neuhaus joined the board of trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 1952, and over the subsequent three decades he took an active role in the supporting the museum’s accessions, the construction of Cullinan Hall, the construction of the Brown Pavilion, and many other activities, becoming a life trustee in 1986. Among his bequests to the MFAH was a cash donation which underwrote the establishment of our first conservation center, and his notable collection of Modern art, which ranged from the Post-Impressionists to such mid-century mavericks as Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, and Morris Louis was also bequeathed to the Museum. His widow, Olive Neuhaus Jenney held the collection in trust over the subsequent years, and with her passing in 2024, the collection is now being turned over to the Museum.
Exhibition Historynone known
Published References none known Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

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Catalogue raisonnénone

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