Free Admission
“Amazing . . . The exhibit may be the most compelling and inspirational commemoration of Kennedy’s assassination 50 years ago.”
—Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Dallas Museum of Art will bring together the works of art installed in the president’s suite at the Hotel Texas during his fateful trip in 1963. The original installation, orchestrated by a small group of Fort Worth art collectors, was created especially for the president and first lady in celebration of their overnight visit to the city and included paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Thomas Eakins, Lyonel Feininger, Franz Kline, and Marsden Hartley, and sculptures by Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore, among others.
On view through September 15, 2013, Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy will reunite the paintings, sculptures, and works on paper for the first time in their original gathering, highlighting the diverse and thoughtful installation of artworks brought together for the presidential couple. The exhibition will also reveal for the first time the complete story of the presidential Suite 850 installation, which had been overshadowed by the president’s tragic death, and examine the significance of art both to the Kennedys and to the Dallas–Fort Worth communities.
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Listening Hard – Remembering JFK on Record
Visit the C3 Theater to listen to recordings of calypso, blues, country, and corridos produced in the days and months after the assassination memorializing JFK. The audio and video installation is produced by Alan Govenar and is on view through the run of Hotel Texas.
Hotel Texas: Oral Histories smARTphone tour
Bring your own web-enabled device (such as an iPhone or Blackberry) to listen to first-hand memories of JFK’s trip to Texas.
Images (details): Ruth Carter Johnson and Lucile Weiner with Angry Owl by Pablo Picasso, November 21, 1963, Courtesy of the University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Special Collections; Second (smaller) Bedroom, Suite 850, Hotel Texas, Fort Worth, Friday, November 22, 1963; Thomas Eakins,Swimming (formerly The Swimming Hole), Charles M. Russell, Lost in a Snowstorm—We Are Friends (formerly Meeting in a Blizzard), Owen Day/Dana Day Henderson Papers, Photo by Byron Scott; Angry Owl, 1951–1953, bronze, Pablo Picasso © 2012 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Collection of Gwendolyn Weiner; Morris Graves, Spirit Bird, c. 1956, tempera on paper, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Gift of the William E. Scott Foundation
Hotel Texas: An Art Exhibition for the President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, in association with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. In addition, the Sixth Floor Museum will provide films and documentation of the president’s trip to Texas in 1963. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published in association with Yale University Press. It begins with an introductory essay by Olivier Meslay titled “Art Is Not a Form of Propaganda, It Is a Form of Truth,” and includes contributions from Scott Grant Barker, Texas art historian; David Lubin, Charlotte C. Weber Professor of Art at Wake Forest University and author of the much-lauded Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images; and Alexander Nemerov, Professor of Art and Art History at Stanford University.
The exhibition in Dallas is presented by Citi Private Bank. Air transportation is provided by American Airlines.