Celebrating Texas art and Swiss modernism among collectors and 
scholars, this volume is occasioned by the first public exhibition of 
the Barrett Collection at the Meadows Museum of Art, Dallas 
(November 2004–January 2005). Lavishly illustrated, the volume pays 
tribute to a pair of astute art collectors.

    In the early 1980s Richard and Nona Barrett began collecting the 
untapped wealth of art being produced in Texas. At first they 
concentrated on the work of a few contemporary Texas artists such 
as Bill Komodore, Vernon Fisher, David Bates, Harry Geffert, and 
Melissa Miller. Later they expanded their holdings to include paintings
by early Texas artists such as Frank Reaugh, Julian Onderdonk, and 
José Arpa y Perea and by European artists—in particular Swiss and 
Czech modernists—from Ferdinand Hodler, Cuno Amiet, and Félix 
Vallotton to Frantiŝek Kupka. The Barretts now possess not only one 
of the largest and most important holdings of Texas art in public or 
private hands, but also one of the most significant holdings of modern 
Swiss art outside Europe.

    In addition to a catalogue of the Barretts' holdings and biographies 
of the Texas artists represented in the collection, this volume 
contains a landmark essay by Michael Ennis, which provides a host 
of clues to the cultural and historical reasons for the emergence of 
Texas art as something of quality and enduring value; an essay by 
Richard R. Brettell that brilliantly characterizes Swiss modernism; 
and a moving tribute by artist Bill Komodore that describes the 
Barretts as visionary patrons.

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EDMUND P. PILLSBURY is director of the Meadows Museum at 
Southern Methodist University, Dallas. From 1976 to 1980 he served 
as director of the Yale Center for British Art and CEO of the Paul 
Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London. He was director of 
the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, from 1980 to 1998.


Co-published with the Meadows Museum