HOUSTON, TX.- The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston marks the 250th anniversary of America’s founding with a roster of more than 70 artworks that speak to the American experience from across its campus and collections—from antiquities to global modern and contemporary art. Beginning July 1, 2026, visitors to the MFAH main campus and its two decorative-arts house museums, Rienzi and Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, can map their own pathway, indoors and out, guided to the artworks and newly created audio stops and labels that discuss each of them from this historical and cultural perspective.
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Comments Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, “The collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston take pride of place within our galleries and our curators are continually engaging with and revisiting these works of art. On the occasion of the nation’s 250th anniversary, we saw a singular opportunity to look at our collections and select objects that reflect the multitudes of individuals who have contributed to the identity of our nation. The curators’ choices will allow our visitors to experience our collections framed within a series of illuminating and sometimes surprising narratives.”
Those stories span the encyclopedic collections of the MFAH:
At the turn of the 20th century, Houston philanthropist Annette Finnigan donated a group of antiquities to the MFAH; in the context of the nation’s anniversary, the vases, adornments and oil lamps that Finnigan collected from Corinth and elsewhere connect this Texas suffragette with the early democracies of ancient Greece.
An early 19th-century painting by Baltimore artist Joshua Johnson in the American galleries is a new acquisition, an elegant portrait of a woman by one of the first Black painters known to have established a career as a portraitist.
Hydrospatial City is a Utopian vision of life beyond Earth by Czechoslovakia-born, Argentinean artist Gyula Kosice. He created the room-size installation over three decades, between 1946 and 1972. In 1982, as American space exploration continued, Kosice presented the work to NASA engineers in Houston, underscoring his belief in art’s capacity to envision and shape alternate futures for humanity.
Isamu Noguchi designed the museum’s sculpture garden, which opened in 1986. Sited with modernist sculptures by August Rodin, Joan Miro, Henri Matisse and many others, the garden celebrates the legacy of the Japanese-American sculptor, whose own experiences with discrimination gave him such a profound sense of solidarity with incarcerated Japanese Americans during World War II that he voluntarily entered an internment camp; “I willfully became part of humanity uprooted,” he later said.
In addition, two exhibitions this fall at MFAH will celebrate American artists. American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection showcases the exceptional holdings of a Texas collector, from October 25, 2026 to January 18, 2027. Of Light and Air: Winslow Homer in Watercolor from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston presents 50 works by the artist considered the greatest American watercolorist of the 19th century, from November 1, 2026 to February 7, 2027.
The America 250 presentation is on view July 1 through January 3, 2027. The project has been organized by Dr. Kaylin H. Weber, The Lora Jean Kilroy Curator of American Painting and Sculpture, and by Christine Gervais, MFAH Curator for Decorative Arts and the Fredricka Crain Director of Rienzi.
