Established in 1967, named the Museum of Biblical Art in 1999, the MBA, is an art museum in Dallas, Texas that is unlike any museum in the world. It has a simple mission: To display art with a Biblical theme. Nothing of its size exists in the United States, making it a treasure trove for art enthusiasts. Diverse types of art are exhibited including bronze sculpture installations, drawings, fine prints, and oil paintings. Specialized galleries have been created for Biblical Archaeology, Jewish Art, Religious Architecture, Israeli Art, African American Art and Hispanic Art.
The Museum is a cultural crossroads, utilizing art for tolerance and understanding reflected in the various archaeological exhibits and decorative art from Israel and the Holy Land. The MBA's vision encompasses the classical arts with a call to beauty which emphasizes the Biblical figurative art illustrating the narratives of the Bible and a call to the study of classical Greco-Roman art, archaeology and architecture.
Featured Artists Include: John Singer Sargent, Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Ben Shahn, Paolo Verenese, Francesco Guardi, Agam, Kathe Köllwitz, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Emil Nolde, James Tissot, Oskar Kokoschka, Bernard Buffet, Andy Warhol, Everett Shinn, John Marin, and many more.
The King James Bible Exhibit
Extended to June 2012
This rare exhibit of original bibles from the private collection of Dr. Charles Ryrie celebrates the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.
Hours:
Tuesdays - Saturdays: 10 am - 5 pm
Sundays: 1 - 5 pm
Mondays: Closed
Admission Fee:
$12 Regular Admission
$10 for Seniors and Students (age 65+ and students with ID)
Please call ahead for Group Scheduling and Rates
The Museum of Biblical Art • The Biblical Arts Center 7500 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas 75225 phone: 214 368-4MBA (4622) fax: 214 361-1365
Today's Vision
Since its birth over 50 years ago, millions have visited the Biblical Arts Center, which was founded by Mattie Caruth Byrd. Exhibition highlights have included: the Marc Chagall Exhibit, Norman Rockwell's Family Life, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, named Texas Tourism's Attraction of the Year.
In 2005, a devastating fire destroyed the museum and its contents including 2,500 works of art and all of the popular Judeo-Christian displays and galleries. After careful consideration, the Board of Directors made the choice to re-build and make the new museum bigger and better in every way.
Today, the new museum serves all backgrounds and denominations particularly those interested in art history, because an understanding of Biblical themes is critical to both an understanding of the humanities and Western Culture.
The Museum is a cultural crossroads utilizing art for tolerance and understanding reflected in our various archaeological exhibits and decorative art from Israel and the Holy Land.
Our future vision encompasses the classical arts with:
• A call to beauty which emphasizes Biblical figurative art illustrating the narratives of the Bible.
• A call to the study of classical Greco-Roman art, archaeology and architecture.
The New Museum of Biblical Art Features:
There is no other museum quite like ours in the United States. We invite you to learn more about our Museum and to become a part of something very special in the heart of Dallas as we look to the future.
Galleries and Exhibits
The museum hosts various styles of biblical art from Contemporary to Renaissance. The following is a list of our current galleries and exhibitss:
Jewish Ceremonial Art
Part of the Judaic gallery, exhibits of Jewish ceremonial objects for Shabbat and Holidays, like Torah Covers, Seder Plates, Hanukkah Lamps and Menorahs.
Conservation Courses for 2011
• Beginner's Icon Workshop
• Caring for Your Family Heirlooms Workshop
• Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshops with Valentina Bezney
• Tobi Kahn Ceremonial Art Workshop and Lecture
• Gilded Holiday Ornament Workshop with Laura Pate
About the Conservation Lab
Several years have gone into the restoration of works that were damaged in the 2005 fire. Many more objects will continue to be treated or exhibited within the new lab/classroom of the Museum of Biblical Art by a variety of conservators.
"Adopt an Artifact" Program:
The museum began its "Adopt an Artifact" program in 2010. Artifacts that need conservation will be available for review and those who sponsor their recovery will be credited in the exhibition of the treated object after its completion. Before and after photos will be posted on the museum website.
Featured Treatment
The treatment of the month is the 7 foot high white Carrera marble sculpture of Jesus by artist Peter Fillerup. It is presently being treated for soot damage caused by the 2005 fire. The treatment will require a variety of methods which include dry cleaning, special detergents, spot poultices for stained areas and finally a protective coating.
Peter Fillerup grew up in Cody, Wyoming, the center of the Western Art world. His love of history and his frontier heritage is reflected in his art and designs. In addition to winning numerous gold medals and "Best of Show" awards from shows such as the American Indian and Cowboy Artist S how, the Buffalo Bill Art Show, and the Old West Museum Exhibit, Peter's sculptures grace private and public collections across the nation. His sculptures have been commissioned as public monuments across Utah and the United States, including the Brigham Young Historic Park in Salt Lake City, the Univer sity of Kansas, the Biblical Arts Center in Dallas, Texas, the Philmont Boy Scout Camp in New Mexico, Soldier Hollow 2002 Winter Olympic Venue, and the Wyoming Governors' Residence.
This treatment will be ongoing for the 2011 year. Come visit to see our progress!
Treatment to the sculpture is being conducted by Maria Valentina Sheets Conservation Inc. If you have any questions about conservation please contact Maria at mvsheets_verizon.net or 972-672-8965 or visit her web site at http://web.me.com/mvsheets/Conservation.
Featured Conservation Treatment
February NTAAC Meeting
Please join the North Texas Association for Art Conservation (NTAAC) at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday February 24th, at the Mattie Caruth Byrd Gallery, Museum Of Biblical Art, 7500 Park Lane,Dallas, Texas for this afternoon event. Maria Sheets (Maria Valentina Sheets Conservation Inc.) and Laura Pate (Brown Mountain Art and Antique Restoration), will present Rolling the Resurrection: Moving an Oversized Object. The "Resurrection" is the 12 x 40 foot MBA mural created by internationally-known artist, Ron DiCianni. Admission for this presentation is free to NTAAC or Museum Guild Members and paying visitors. Donations to the museum are encouraged. RSVP to Maria Sheets at 972-672-8965 or mvsheets_verizon.net.
NTAAC will hold their monthly business meeting prior to this presentation. Please meet us for lunch at 12:30pm, Panera Bread, Park Lane & Central, 7839 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas 75225. After lunch we will go across the street to the MBA for the afternoon presentation. Feel free to join us for one or both of these events.
Museum Rentals
With over 30,000 square feet of event and exhibit space, the newly renovated Museum of Biblical Art provides the perfect and unique venue for your fabulous event. Whether its the spacious Chagall Ballroom with a variety of lighting moods, the Atrium, or the private Library with fireplace - each has the ambiance of luxury, while offering the intimacy of quality design. Our preferred vendors make it easy to help coordinate every aspect of your special day or evening - from catering to photography.
Highlights
Services Included
For more information, please contact our rental department by calling
469-878-8475 or email Rebecca at rebeccaharris_biblicalarts.org
Donate to The Museum of Biblical Art
The Museum of Biblical Art is a 501(3)(c) Non Profit Organization. Donations are crucial to the ongoing success of the new museum. If you would like to make a donation, click on the PayPal Donate button. You do not need a PayPal account to donate.
Donate Now
Join The Guild
History
The Biblical Arts Guild was formed on September 8, 2008 by Mrs. Helen S. Towne, a long-time Museum supporter, and Patricia Martin, Senior Development Officer for MBA during a meeting at the construction site with Scott Peck, Director and Curator. The first Steering Committee meeting was held October 9, 2008.
Mission and Purpose
The Biblical Arts Guild is an organization dedicated to the support and assistance of the Museum of Biblical Art its mission, goals and objectives. Membership is open to singles and couples over the age of 18 wishing to support the mission of the Museum, "dedicated to the exhibition and display of Biblically themed artwork."
Join the Guild
Donations In-Kind
The Museum of Biblical Art would like to thank the following for their support:
In-Kind Donations:
Frank L. Meier - FLM Architects - Numerous
W. B. Kibler General Contractors - Numerous
Southwest Solutions Group Craig Crock - Art Storage Units and Rolling Racks
Glen Nerwin (Nerwin & Martin) - Art Storage and Transportation
Monte Martin (Nerwin & Martin) - Art Storage and Transportation
La Madeleine Restaurant - Press Conference
Sparkman-Hillcrest - Press Conference
Biblical Arts Guild - Press Conference
Discounts:
Moss Design - Web site, Logo, Signage
ACE Restaurant Supply, Dallas - Press Conference
Party City, Richardson - Press Conference
Promenade Printing, Richardson - Printing for Museum & Guild
Ducky Bobs Dallas - Press Conference
Martin Media Management, Inc. - Press Conference
The Museum of Biblical Art
7500 Park Lane, Dallas, Texas 75225
214 368-4MBA (4622)
fax: 214 361-1365
Contact Us
Guild Membership is offered at 3 different Levels. The following describes the benefits of each level:
Contributing Member
$500.
Regular Member
$100.
Sustaining Member
$250.
Join Now
Beginner's Icon Workshop
I nstructor: Irene Perez-Omer
March 21-26, 2011, 9am - 5pm
Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas
Fee: $625 per person
CLASS DESCRIPTION:
In this intensive six-day workshop, students will learn how to write a traditional Russian-Byzantine icon in egg-tempera, with 23.5 Kt. gold leaf halo, through a rigorous step-by-step process. All the students will write the same icon unless they have taken several icon workshops in the same style and are very familiar with the steps of the process. The instructor will give a brief description of the preparation of the board and gesso. All other steps will be demonstrated by the instructor in class. The theological symbolism of the process will be discussed in class as we progress in the stages of icon writing. At the end of class, the instructor will give a description of how to seal the icon with "olipha" (oil.) As the icon is a Holy Image, only pure and natural materials are chosen for the writing of icons. For this workshop, the materials include: solid wood gessoed boards, gilding clay, 23.5 Kt. gold leaf, natural ground raw pigments, brushes, palette, eggs, water.
BIOGRAPHY:
Irene Perez-Omer, a native of Venezuela, moved to Austin, Texas in the early 1980's. She earned a B.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked in a variety of media including drawing, printing, oil painting and stone and glass sculptures; and has exhibited in the USA and Mexico. In 1997, Ms. Perez-Omer began studying the art of icon writing, in the Russian style, under Master iconographer Vladislav Andrejev. Currently, Ms. Perez-Omer dedicates her talents exclusively to the writing of icons for private and church commissions and teaching iconography workshops in the USA, and abroad. She lives in Austin with her husband David Omer and her 8 year-old son. Her icons can be seen on her website www.iconarts.com, or on Facebook at the Icon Arts page, as well as at several churches around the USA, including St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox Church, San Antonio, Texas; Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, Austin, TX; St. Peter in Chains Antiochian Orthodox Church, MS; St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church, Austin, TX; St. Lakes Episcopal Church, VA; and All Souls Episcopal Church, CA.
Click here for registration form
Click here to pay online
If paying online, you will still
need to fax or mail in the
registration form
Students will be working on this icon.
ICON Registration Form 2011.pdf
Pay Online
Caring for Your Family Heirlooms Workshop
Instructor: Maria Valentina Sheets
October 2011 (1-2 day)
Details: TBA
In this workshop, Maria Sheets will share years of experience in her understanding of how to best preserve and store a wide variety of family heirlooms. The workshop will include both lectures and hands-on training covering basic environmental monitoring for home and small business collections, recovering materials from a disaster, storage and maintenance of objects ranging from antique furniture and photographs/documents, to modern sculpture and plastics.
Maria Valentina Sheets holds a Masters of Art from University of Texas, Dallas and is owner of Maria Valentina Sheets Conservation Inc. (MVSCI) . MVSCI is an art conservation and consulting service available to museums, corporate collections, galleries, designers, antique dealers, home maintenance services and private collectors. Sheets has been a leading conservator for conservation firms in the Dallas, Texas area serving some of the most distinguished collections in the nation. She has been prominent in educating the local museum and collecting culture about conservation through state-wide publications and lectures. Ms. Sheets is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation, a CAP assessor for Heritage Preservation, a member of the Western Association of Art Conservation and recommended by the Texas Association of Museums. Presently she serves as a Board member for Conservators In Private Practice(AIC). She coordinated the disaster recovery effort for the Museum for Biblical Art in Dallas, Texas since the tragic six-alarm fire in June 2005.
Resurrection Mural
After years in the making, Ron DiCianni's largest masterwork, The Resurrection Mural has been unveiled to the public. This incredible piece, commissioned for the Museum of Biblical Art, displays the Resurrection of Christ in a brand new format.
Standing 40 feet wide by 12 feet high, this breathtaking mural allows the viewer to look into Christ's eyes and see first hand that he alone has conquered the grave.
Michelangelo painted The Creation of Adam for the Sistine Chapel. Rembrandt painted the story of The Prodigal Son. Every artist longs for the definitive subject to paint. The one that captures a moment in time, hoping that the viewer will put themselves there.
For me, it is Christs Resurrection. The one act in history that separates Christianity from every philosophy, every religion we have a Savior. The fact that Christ walked out of the tomb is a historical and theological fact. Some may choose to ignore it, but none can deny it.
Taking my cue from Hebrews 12:1, I thought a great scene would be Christ emerging from the tomb, with many heroes of the faith waiting for Him. The result was a 40 foot by 12 foot oil-on-canvas Fine Art mural of Christ emerging from the tomb.
Let me draw your attention to some elements in the mural that you may miss at first glance. Notice the rock beginning to crack under Christs feet due to the earthquake. Notice the keys of death & hell (Rev. 1:18) tied on Christs belt. Of all the figures, the three kneeling are David, Esther & Daniel royalty bowing to the greatest of all Kings! In the right top background is Mt. Calvary, also known as the place of the skull. You can see the hint of a rainbow above as the same promise God gave after the flood. It still stands the test of time. There's even more elements that can be seen in the full size mural (and in the reproduction!) so I invite you to make a point to see it at the museum and bring a copy into your home today.
Of course I'd be remiss if I did not point out the part of the mural that matters most... Christ emerging from the tomb, victorious and alive!
I invite you to rejoice with me this Easter, not merely in the completion of this mural but in the Crossthe Empty Tomb the One who conquered both, our Savior Jesus Christ!
Ron DiCianni
Michelangelo's Pietá
The Museum of Biblical Art has recently acquired a life-size replica of Michelangelos
Pietá cast in bronze and authorized by the Vatican. It came directly from the Michelangelo
Museum--Fondazione Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy.
This extaordinary bronze was cast by Ferdinando Marinelli, Sr. working with family members, who have cast monumental sculptures all over the world. Working many years for the Vatican, Ferdinando had the opportunity to create negative molds on nearly every
important original classical and Renaissance sculpture, particularly Michelangelos masterpieces. The Artistic Foundry in Florence created the bronze replica using the same
traditional lost wax casting technique that was used by Greeks and Romans and by
famous artists of the Renaissance.
When Michelangelo completed the Pietá in 1499, he was only 24 years old and the
premier sculptor in Italy. Though he lived to be almost 90 and carved sculptures of inimitable force and compassion, Michelangelo never again achieved the sublime expression of the Pietá.
The scene of the Pietá, in which Christs body is placed across his mourning mothers knees, is not mentioned in the Bible, but during the middle ages was cited as one of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. the serenity of Michelangelos interpretation is a departure from the prior tradition. Our deepest feelings are touched by the sight of Christ, as if in death he has again become a child gathered up in his mothers arms. Her expression is mild and contemplative and the Savior's torso and limbs are smooth--hardly showing the marks of his sufferings.
Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshops with Valentina Bezney
Instructor: Valentina Bezney
March 8th or 9th (Tues or Wed) 2011
April 13th or 14th (Wed or Thurs) 2011
10am-12 noon
Tuition: $125
Deadline: March 1, 2011
The Museum of Biblical Arts, Dallas is excited to announce a short workshop available four different days! Valentina Bezney will be teaching the art form of Ukrainian Pysanky Easter Eggs.
Mrs. Bezney, a native Ukrainian, has practiced this art-form for over 35 years. The Pysanka art form became a traditional way of decorating Easter eggs using beeswax and dyes to create a
beautifully thematic work of art.
According to Bezney, Depending on the symbolism used, the Pysanka may convey a wish for good health, long life, wisdom, love, wealth and prosperity. The most important quality of the
Pysanka is the power of love which the egg conveys to the person receiving it. The egg signifies life and the shape represents the universe. According to legend, as long as Pysankys are made
there will be life in the universe.
Valentina has taken the art-form beyond its original roots by experimenting with new art design and themes. Her work has been judged and exhibited at numerous Museums and art shows including the TEXAS SESQUICENTENNIAL ART EXHIBIT-Austin, ARTFEST- Dallas, KITCHENS AND CULTURES EXHIBIT-Austin, and the MEMORIAL ART GALLERY-New York.
Valentina's eggs will be on display in the museum gift shop.
For Registration Form, email class coordinator, Maria Sheets at mvsheets_verizon.net or call 972-672-8965.
Tobi Kahn Ceremonial Art Workshop and Lecture
TO BE RESCHEDULED
Time: TBA
Tuition: $300
OBJECTS OF THE SPIRIT: A HANDS-ON ART MAKING WORKSHOP
How do people express their faith through the arts? How do life experiences influence what an artist creates? How does making art express a sense of belonging in the world? What is the connection between creativity and spirituality?
Join master artist Tobi Kahn for a dynamic, hands-on art making workshop in which we explore the meaning of ritual and ceremony in our own lives. Under Kahn's guidance, we will have the opportunity to design and create our own ceremonial objects.
As a group, we will discuss the ways in which the arts encourage expression of our deepest spiritual impulses and enhance our ability to find greater personal meaning in our traditions.
Celebrate the important moments in your life by constructing an object of your own design. Release your creative spirit! This is a workshop for artists, musicians, writers, dreamers and everyone with a creative soul.
Tobi Kahn is a internationally reknown painter and sculptor whose work has been shown in over 40 solo exhibitions and over 60 museum and groups shows since he was selected as one of nine artists to be included in the 1985 Guggenheim Museum exhibition, New Horizons in American Art. Works by Kahn are in major museum, corporate, and private collections.
A museum exhibition of over a decade of his work, Tobi Kahn: Metamorphoses, curated by Peter Selz, traveled to eight museums from 1997 through 1999, including the Weatherspoon Art Gallery in Greensboro, North Carolina and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Dore Ashton, Michael Brenson, and Peter Selz wrote the essays for the catalogue of Metamorphoses (University of Washington Press). Kahn's work has received significant critical attention.
For thirty years, Kahn has been steadfast in the pursuit of his distinct vision and persistent in his commitment to the redemptive possibilities of art. In paint, stone, and bronze, he has explored the correspondence between the intimate and monumental. While his early works drew on the tradition of American Romantic landscape painting, his more recent pieces reflect his fascination with contemporary science, inspired by the micro-images of cell formations and satellite photography.
Kahn's belief in art's spiritual capacity is at odds with the contemporary emphasis on irony and displacement. As Peter Selz wrote: "His paintings and his sculptures, executed with consummate craftsmanship, are animated by a yearning for the transcendent...at a time when the concept of beauty has become anathematized in critical discourse and the perception of the spiritual remains marginalized in the discussions of the art world."
Nevertheless, the influence of his vision is growing steadily. Since Metamorphoses, he has had four additional traveling museum shows, Avoda: Objects of the Spirit, Correspondence, Sky and Water, Paradisus, and Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century.
In 1999, Kahn initiated the Avoda project, an educational program that accompanied the exhibition as it traveled for nine years throughout the United States. Led by Kahn, over 9,000 university students of all races and religions have made their own ceremonial art for both traditional and contemporary ritual in their lives. For many, the Avoda workshops were their first experience in seeing, creating, and understanding the visual world. Objects of the Spirit: Ritual and the Art of Tobi Kahn, a book about Kahns ceremonial art, was published in June 2004 by Hudson Hill Press and the Avoda Institute.
For twenty-five years, Kahn has been making miniature sacred spaces he calls "shrines." The first full-scale shrine, Shalev, is in New Harmony, Indiana, commissioned as an outdoor sculpture for Jane Owen and the Robert Lee Blaffer Trust. For more info on Tobi Kahn and his work visit his website at http://www.tobikahn.com/press.html.
For Registration Form and details, contact Maria Sheets, mvsheets_verizon.net, 972-672-8965.
Gilded Holiday Ornament Workshop with Laura Pate
December 10th and 11th, 2011
10am - 2pm (break for lunch)
Tuition: $150
Just in time for the holiday season, Laura Pate, owner of Brown Mountain Restoration
will be teaching two available one day workshops on GILDING using a various choice of
Christmas and other holiday related ornaments. Laura has had extensive training in
both water and oil gilding techniques. For more than 20 years, Brown Mountain
Restoration has worked to restore and preserve gilded mirrors, frames and furniture.
The course will include both a light presentation on the history of gilding, care and
storage of gilded artifacts, identifying different types of gilding, and examples of these
techniques on a wide variety of surfaces. The workshop will provide hands on training in
using some of these techniques on a choice of holiday ornaments.
Judaica Art Gallery
Includes American and Israeli Jewish artists, such as Jacques Lipchitz, Leonard Baskin, William Gropper, Jack Levine, Max Weber and Ben Shahn, as well as Jewish Ceremonial Art.
American Art Gallery
American religious paintings from renowned artists like John LaFarge, Albert Pinkham Ryder and John Singer Sargent.
European Art Gallery
Gallery featuring a variety of art from the 1300s - 1800s. Fresco from 1400s, sculpture from 1300s, a Veronese drawing from the studio of Benjamin West and a painting from the School of Boticelli.
Israeli Art Gallery
Located in the Judaic Gallery, discover art and artists from Israel such as Menashe Kadishman, Jacob Steinhardt, Agam, Moshe Castel and Marcel Janco.
Contemporary Art Gallery
A large gallery featuring contemporary artists from Valley House, Craighead Green and Gerald Peters Galleries: Bill Komodore (SMU), Lyle Novinski (UD), Denise Brown, Nancy Rebal, Miguel Zapata and Pamela Nelson.
Illustration Art Gallery
Includes original works by Thomas Blackshear, Michael Dudash and Warner Sallman.
Biblical Archaeology
Currently on display, over 50 images of Egypt, Palestine and the Holy Land from the 1800's by artist David Roberts, watercolor and lithographs of mosques, temples, archaeological and holy sites.
David Roberts
Born in 1796 near Edinburgh, Scotland, to a shoemaker and his wife, David began to sketch the ancient castles in the Scottish countryside as a boy. His family recognized his talent and approved his apprenticeship with an Edinburgh ornamental house painter who taught him drawing and scene painting. There was a group of young artistic boys working for the master, and it became a sort of art academy, complete with life drawing classes.
Young Roberts worked on scenes for a theater in the house of a client, and that experience, combined with his interest in architectural landscape, led him to a position in London as a theater scenery designer. He never attended the Royal Academy as a student, but began to paint scenes of Scotland and exhibit them in his spare time in London. He became a member of the Society of British Artists, and within that group, found a group of friends with whom he traveled to France on painting excursions. Roberts commented in his journal that from these first journeys, he painted a series of pictures that brought him profit and fame.
Painters of Roberts time traveled to distant locations to sketch and paint monuments, architecture and people in watercolor. They would return to their studios to produce exotic oil paintings and lithographs. As Roberts career progressed, he became a professional painter, was voted a member of the Royal Academy, and traveled farther abroad to Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco. He fell in love with ancient architecture and the exotic Moorish and Arabic peoples, costume, and history. When Roberts translated his sketches into finished drawings and paintings back in London, it was said that his work was equal to J.M. Turner's, and his paintings of Spain were the most beautiful ever published in the Landscape Annual (published yearly in London; these paintings were published in the 1836 Annual). It was the success of his drawings and paintings of Spain and Morocco that encouraged Roberts to plan the trip of his lifetime: the journey to Egypt and the Holy Land he dreamed of as a boy in Edinburgh.
Architecture
Original architectural plans from our museum construction and design features, such as the Cast Stone Columns and Step Pyramid over the Atrium.
Sculpture
Frederick Hart installation of Rising Christ, Millennium Cross,and Ex Nihilo from the National Cathedral. Gib Singleton exhibit of life size Pieta, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Bowed Cross (Popes Crosier).
Tapestry of the Centuries Mural
Vladimir Gorsky's world famous Tapestry of the Centuries is a monumental 9 foot by 18 foot painting on canvas which comprises the people and events that shaped world history, from the birth of Jesus Christ through 1999 A.D. It was first displayed at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, unveiled at a special reception by President H. W. Bush.
"It took many hours to place on canvas ... history ... with an emphasis on Christ, the inspiration I wanted to share with children. In the Tapestry, I wove the images of great thinkers and political movers ... the texture looks like a tapestry, one image melted to one another, centuries radiating around Christ."
Vladimir Gorsky
"Tapestry of the Centuries is a work of deep faith soaked in the tragedies and grandeurs of humanity over the last twenty centuries. It discloses the mystery of the ongoing struggles between good and evil and between the achievements and degradation that is unfolding and has unfolded on the world stage.
Cardinal Miller
Click here for an Interactive Key Map to the Tapestry of the Centuries mural.
African American and Hispanic Art
Part of the Contemporary Gallery, features African American artists like Jean Lacy and Arthello Beck and a section of Hispanic art and traditional Hispanic religious imagery.
Via Dolorosa
Coming soon, an outdoor installation of sculptures by Gib Singleton.
Thomas Blackshear
Thomas Blackshear, II went to work for Hallmark Cards Company in Kansas City for one year, after his 1977 graduation from the American Academy of Art in Chicago. While there, he met the illustrator Mark English, and became his apprentice for several months. In 1980 Blackshear worked as head illustrator for Godbold/Richter Studio. Blackshear became a freelance illustrator in 1982.
Known for his dramatic lighting and sensitivity to mood, Blackshear has produced illustrations for stamps, posters, plates, magazines, greeting cards, calendars, books and advertising. His clients include: Disney Pictures, Coca-Cola, Jim Henson Studios, George Lucas Studios, Milton Bradley, National Geographic and Universal Studios.
Twenty-eight of his depictions of famous Black Americans are represented in the 1992 Black Heritage Series Commemorative Book entitled "I Have A Dream", and nineteen of the paintings are exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
Blackshear is also known for his best-selling inspirational prints, including "Coat of Many Colors, Lord of All", "Watchers In the Night", "For You" and "Forgiven," one of the most highly sought after inspirational prints of all time. The original illustrations for these prints can be seen at The Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas, Texas.
