Pen & Paintbrush Book Discussion
The Pearl, in partnership with our neighbor, the Barbara Bush Branch Library, presents the Pen and Paintbrush Book Discussion series. The book club selects written works that relate to the current exhibitions on display at the museum, and typically meets 3 times a year -- once for each museum exhibition cycle.
Book club meetings include a discussion and a tour of the current exhibitions with a special emphasis on the common themes they share. All are welcome to join the discussion events -- no membership or RSVP required!
Book club meetings include a discussion and a tour of the current exhibitions with a special emphasis on the common themes they share. All are welcome to join the discussion events -- no membership or RSVP required!
Upcoming Book Selection
A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline (2017)
Thursday, January 31, 2019 • 1:30pm
Northgate Forest Conference Room, Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts
This instant New York Times bestseller is a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth's mysterious and iconic painting, Christina's World. American artist Andrew Wyeth, along with three other artist members of the Wyeth family, are featured in the Pearl's current exhibition, An American View Revisited: The Hosek Collection of American Art.
Book summary:
To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.
As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.
Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.
Thursday, January 31, 2019 • 1:30pm
Northgate Forest Conference Room, Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts
This instant New York Times bestseller is a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth's mysterious and iconic painting, Christina's World. American artist Andrew Wyeth, along with three other artist members of the Wyeth family, are featured in the Pearl's current exhibition, An American View Revisited: The Hosek Collection of American Art.
Book summary:
To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.
As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.
Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.
Previous Book Selections
|
Spring 2017
Book: The Purloined Paperweight by P.G. Wodehouse Exhibition: A Collector's Passion: Fine Art Glass Paperweights |
|
Winter 2017
Book: Riding the Black Cockatoo by John Danalis Exhibition: In the Dreamtime, Australian Aboriginal Paintings from Booker-Lowe Gallery |
|
Summer 2016
Book: Flashback by Nevada Barr Exhibition: The National Parks: Select Images by American Photographer Mark Burns |
|
Summer/Fall 2015
Book: The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art by Don Thompson Exhibition: Dual Nature: Selections from the Chaney Family Collection |
|
Spring 2015
Book: River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado by Margie Crisp Exhibition: Painting in the Texas Tradition: Contemporary Texas Regionalism |
|
|
Summer 2014
Book: Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon by Andrew Chaikin and Victoria Kohl Exhibition: “Standing on the Moon” – NASA, the Apollo Program, and Space Exploration |
|
Spring 2014
Book: Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling Exhibition: France: Northwest Houston Collects |
|
Fall 2013
Book: Gone to Texas: Quilts from a Pioneer Woman’s Journal by Betsy Chutchian Exhibition: Texas Art Quilts, 1993-2011 |
|
Summer 2013
Books: What Are You Looking At? The Surprising, Shocking, and Sometimes Strange Story of 150 Years of Modern Art by Will Gompertz - and - Always Looking: Essays on Art by John Updike Exhibition: Pop at the Pearl |
|
Spring 2013
Book: An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin Exhibitions: Mesmerize - and - Northwest Houston Collects: Selections from the Home of Ginger and Fred Palumbo |
|
Fall 2012
Book: Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros Exhibitions: My Journey, My Story Mi Viaje, Mi Historia - and - The Heart of Mary El Corazón de María |
|
Spring 2012
Books: Houston Then and Now by William Dylan Powell - and - Houston Deco: Modernistic Architecture of the Texas Coast by Jim Parsons and David Bush Exhibition: Drive By Landscape: Lillian Warren |
|
Fall 2011
Book: The Sky Unwashed by Irene Zabytko Exhibition: Thresholds: Lydia Bodnar-Balahutrak |
|
Summer 2011
Book: 36 Views of Mt. Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan by Cathy N. Davidson Exhibition: View of Mt. Fuji: Selections from the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens |
|
Spring 2011
Book: Spiral Jetta: A Road Trip through the Land Art of the American West by Erin Hogan Exhibition: Richard Long: Measured Spaces |
|
Fall 2010
Book: Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Exhibition: The Grand Tour: British and French Portraits from a Texas Collection |
|
Spring 2010
Book: True Women by Janice Woods Windle (Joint Selection with the Adult Book Club at the Barbara Bush Library) Exhibition: The Wilson Potters: An African-American Enterprise in 19th-Century Texas |
|
Fall 2009
Book: The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne Exhibition: An American View: The Hosek Collection of American Art |
|
Summer 2009
Book: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Exhibition: Legends of Texas Maritime: Art and Artifacts from the Texas Seaport Museum |