Bill Viola’s ‘Ascension,’ on display as part of ‘Living with the Gods’ at MFAH
THE ARTIST WHO ushered in the expressionist movement in the early 20th century was not, in fact, Picasso or Matisse. It was Paul Gauguin, whose career spanned the decades just preceding the turn of the century. The French painter is the subject of the Museum of Fine Arts’ latest exhibit, Gauguin in the World, which was organized by Henri Loyrette (formerly of the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris). The show, just one of the museum’s diverse winter season shows, debuted in Australia in June and will be on display through Feb. 16, 2025, at the MFAH, the only U.S. venue for the survey.
Gauguin famously — and somewhat controversially, as he’s often accused of cultural appropriation — enjoyed the latter part of his life in Tahiti, where he deemed himself free from European and Western influences and norms. The art created there is among his most iconic, “returning to the questions that haunted him as an artist — the challenges that he set himself and solved in his quest for his own identity,” says Loyrette.
The MFAH’s winter season also includes 150 Years of Design, a joint project with the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The organizations’ collaboration is the only one of its kind in the country; they’ve curated hundreds of architect-designed objects made beginning in 1880 — furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, lighting and industrial design. It runs through next summer.
Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples, on view until Jan. 20, 2025, is another expansive exhibit, this one featuring ancient and contemporary works depicting humanity’s relationship with spirituality over the course of 4,000 years. Objects are displayed across 11 different galleries, transversing themes of the cosmos, light, water and fire; the mysteries of life and death; the divine word; and pilgrimage. Meanwhile, Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery explores a specific medium as a vessel, both literally and figuratively, for indigenous narratives.
Finally, a collection of contemporary images depicts the role of photography in social and political movements in Cuba from the 1960s to the 2010s. Navigating the Waves: Contemporary Cuban Photography, on view through Aug. 3, 2025, explores “individual identity, the body and spirit, Afro-Cuban heritage, and the margins of society, all while navigating the changing prescriptions and proscriptions of official cultural policy,” says the museum.
Meanwhile, at the museum’s Glassell School of Art, Dec. 6-8, visitors can shop artworks — jewelry, prints, ceramics, paintings and more — by talented students.
‘The Offering of a Sentient Cry,’ by Tuan Andrew Nguyen, from ‘Living with the Gods’
Adjustable table lamp c. 1951, part of ‘150 Years of Design’
Alberto Korda’s ‘Guerillero Heroico,’ from ‘Navigating the Waves'
