The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Location: The Caroline Weiss Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet St., Houston, 77005;
The Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main St., Houston, 77005
Hours: Tu-W, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Th, 10:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.; F-Sa, 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.; Su, 12:15 p.m.-7:00 p.m.; Closed M except on holidays.
Phone: (713) 639-7300 during museum hours; (713) 639-7310 after hours
Website: www.mfah.org Admission: Adults, $7; seniors/youth, $3.50; Adults w/ audio tour, $10; seniors/youth w/ audio tour, $5;
Thursdays admission is FREE for everyone! Getting there: The Museum is adjacent to the METRORail Museum District station.
MFAH is the country’s fifth largest art museum. In 2000 the Audrey Jones Beck Building opened, allowing the museum to greatly expand its permanent collection space, as well as provide additional galleries for special exhibitions. The Beck building houses an impressive collection of antiquities, European paintings and sculpture, decorative arts, and photography. A personal favorite of mine is Louis Comfort Tiffany’s A Wooded Landscape in Three Panels, a massive stained glass window depicting a forest scene, dating from around 1905.
Across the street from the Beck building is the older, Mies van der Rohe-designed Caroline Weiss Law Building. The two buildings are connected by a tunnel under Main St., which in itself is a work of art. Titled
The Light Inside, this installation by light sculptor James Turrell creates a black walkway slightly elevated above the rest of the tunnel. In contrast to the stark blackness of the walkway, the walls, floor below the walkway, and portions of the ceiling are washed in brilliantly colored light that changes color. The overall effect is quite surreal, and turns transiting between the two buildings into a direct interaction with art.
The museum’s Law building houses the museum’s 20th- and 21st-century collections, as well as artifacts from Oceania, Asia, Africa, and Indonesia. Many pieces in these collections are extremely rare and hundreds, if not thousands, of years old.
Across the street is the Museum’s Cullen Sculpture Garden. This outdoor exhibit is free of charge and open 9:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. daily. A variety of interesting outdoor sculptures are included in this secluded space.
MFAH is quite a large collection, and to see all of it requires nearly a full day. However, in a half day you can easily tour the Beck building (I prefer its collection to the Weiss Law's), and the sculpture garden makes for a nice evening or early morning stroll. Cafe Express in the Beck building serves very good sandwiches, pastas, burgers, and grilled and roasted chicken entrees at reasonable prices. A coffee bar, desserts, and beer and wine are also available.