VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Menil Collection presents another in its Gallery Talk The Artist's Eye series.  Throughout the year, on the first Sunday of each month (except talks held on the second Sunday of April and July, due to the Easter and Independence Day holidays), a Houston artist talks about a work in the Menil Collection that has special meaning to him or her. The public is invited to these free, informal gallery discussions, which can be held in any Menil gallery or building (or outdoor space) of the artist’s choosing, begin at 3 p.m.

Karen Lastre on Mark Rothko
Sunday, April 3, 2011, 3:00 p.m.

Born in 1940 in St. Paul, MN, Ms. Lastre (pictured) became a citizen of Texas in 1965 where she began her art career as a painter in 1969. Over the years she has been influenced by the color field and abstract expressionist artists. Her work is included in major corporate and private collections throughout the United States and Europe.

Among her many awards, in late 1994 she won a Merit Award at the Cheekwood Museum of Art in Nashville, juried by none other than Kenneth Noland. Her introduction to Mark Rothko by another well known Texan, Jim Harithas, led her to study Rothko from the mid 1970s to the present.