Art
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Marriage at Cana, c. 1672, oil on canvas Image courtesy of The Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Murillo: From Heaven to Earth
Kimbell Art Museum 3333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, 817-332-8451, kimbellart.org
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s best-known works are renderings of biblical scenes, but this new Kimbell Art Museum exhibit examines more secular subjects, including day-to-day life in 17th-century Seville. The exhibit of 50 paintings, on loan to the museum, was inspired by Murillo’s Four Figures on a Step, part of the Kimbell’s permanent collection. That painting’s unusual cast of characters includes a bare-bottomed boy, thanks to his torn pants. (That detail had twice been painted over, but the painting has since been restored.) Expect to see beggars, street people and other ordinary figures in this collection of the Spanish painter’s work, the biggest in the U.S. in 20 years. Through Jan. 29, 2023
Faces from the Interior: The North American Portraits of Karl Bodmer
Amon Carter Museum of American Art 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth, 817-738-1933, cartermuseum.org
The Swiss-born Karl Bodmer is considered one of the most talented European artists who ever documented the landscape and indigenous people of North America. He was hired by a German explorer to be part of an 1833 expedition into tribal lands inhabited by many Plains tribes. These Native Americans are the subjects of Bodmer’s watercolor portraits, which are noted for their keen observation of his subjects, from their expressions to their clothing. Oct. 30-Jan. 22, 2023
Karl Bodmer, Assiniboine and Siksika Blackfoot Girl, 1883 Photo courtesy of the Joslyn Art Museum
Valeska Soares, Vagalume, 2010, mixed media Photo by Eduardo Ortega
Movement: The Legacy of Kineticism
Dallas Museum of Art 1717 N. Harwood St., 214-922-1200, dma.org
Drawing from some 80 works from the DMA collection, this new exhibition looks at the power of kineticism — energetic movement — in specific pieces. From paintings to sculpture to jewelry, artists from the early 20th century to the present use everything from mechanical parts to optical effects to engage the viewer. One installation, aptly titled Vagalume (Firefly) by Valeska Soares, invites you to interact with hanging pull chains to turn off overhead light fixtures. Through July 16, 2023