We love seeing (and hearing) art everywhere we go, don’t you? From the local galleries, museums and performance spaces…to international art fairs that reflect the economic trends in the $56 billion dollar-a-year industry of the robust cultural world in which we all live. We truly realize these venues are the gatekeepers of culture for generations past and future.
Recent stories from the art world have become mainstream news like the Bansky piece of art that sold at auction and then self-destructed before the audience’s eyes. Or, DaVinci’s Salvator Mundi that sold to the Louvre Abu Dhabi for $450 million dollars, and has now disappeared. The Warhol that went for over $100 million dollars. The artful world is a never ending source of amazement, to the more regional scope of Texas’ performing and visual art philanthropies receiving record sums of contributions that will fuel art for decades here.
In fact, the arts in Texas run deep. “Art is a nation’s most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish,” said President Lyndon Baines Johnson upon signing the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965. The legacy, we all hope, continues.
Last month, in our debut issue of Society Texas, we kicked off our new media journey by teaming today’s fashion and several contemporary Texas artists we love. We are always keeping an artful–and art-filled–eye on the prize. Living in a state like Texas makes it easier. Paul Klee, whose work can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston as well as museums across the world, once said, “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather it makes it visible.”
If you haven’t screened it yet, The Price of Everything, the recently released documentary that explores the world of collectors and high level collection sales at Sotheby’s, is worth the watch. A quote from it, “There are people who know the price of everything, but the value of none” speaks to the fact of really loving art before investing in it. As we all know and have seen, many collectors buy a certain piece as if was an addition to the 40 stocks in their portfolio. Instead, the true art lover buys with passion, their hearts and with a keen eye on future value, of course.
Passion is the thing Texans have for the arts. And, so do we. In this issue, beyond our special artful section, we go back in time to the high flyin’ 70s when Texas-based Braniff Airlines ruled the skies in William Jack Sibley’s feature, The Art of Flying, as well as the chic hotels that have made Dallas an epicenter of chic hospitality in the Room At The Inn feature by Lori Duran. Plus, with all our fashionable and informative departments, we’re keeping you in the know and on the scene with all the best recommendations for what to do and where to go. You want to go to some parties? Join us as we travel around the world and in our state’s backyard for some of the finest events in recent history.
Happy summer and remember to pop Society Texas in your beach bag so you have a little bit of Texas wherever you roam and keep those cards and letters coming about what you’d like to see in future issues that reflects the best of Texas and Texans.
XOLance Avery Morgan
Portrait photography by Megan Kyle Bennett