The Menil Collection in Houston is currently hosting Terry Winters: Vitalized Geometry, an exhibition featuring 44 prints, drawings, and paintings that span four decades of the artist’s career. The collection, which remains on view through April 4, 2027, highlights Winters’ focus on the intersection of biological forms and mathematical mapping.
Career-Spanning Works at the Menil Collection
The exhibition is organized by Sophie Asakura, the museum’s Curatorial Associate for Modern and Contemporary Art. It draws primarily from major gifts provided by Jack Shear, the estate of Ellsworth Kelly, and Winters himself. According to Glasstire, the selection traces the artist’s evolution from the early 1980s cellular Morula prints to the star-navigation grids found in his 2024 Azimuth portfolio.
Winters was present when the museum’s floorboards were brand new, forged his bond with then-curator and Dia Art Foundation co-founder Helen Winkler at The Lightning Field, and helped lay the conceptual groundwork for the Menil Drawing Institute.
Philosophical Foundations of the Work
Winters often references John Cage, who described art as an imitation of nature in its manner of operation. To further explain the nature of his prints, Winters cites Emily Dickinson, noting, Nature is a haunted house, and art is a house that wants to become haunted.
Materiality and Process in Printmaking
The exhibition features works produced across various international environments, including screenprints influenced by time in Tokyo and woodblocks carved in Switzerland. Asakura describes the curatorial approach as a "more was more" density, intended to showcase the artist’s consistent formal language across different media. As I move through the dense hang, the curatorial strategy becomes clear.
A central element of the display is the Morula lithographs (1983-84), which utilize handmade Japanese Toyoshi paper to emphasize the physical density of the lithographic process. The exhibition also highlights Red Stone (2019), a lithograph that incorporates green ink layers added as a final, non-planned necessity. This work serves as an example of what Asakura identifies as a "small catastrophe"—instances where the artwork expands beyond initial intentions. Winters characterizes his own methodology as a constant push between cognitive and catastrophe,
noting that for him, the goal was never reproducibility, but rather ensuring an image finally became a physical object in the world.
Visit the Menil Collection Before April 4, 2027
The exhibition is currently open to the public at the Menil Collection in Houston. Visitors can view the collection during regular museum hours until the exhibition closes on April 4, 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core theme of the exhibition?
The exhibition explores the relationship between nature and geometry, documenting how Winters uses printmaking to map biological structures and navigational grids. The works focus on the artist’s process of forcing images into physical form through varied technical mediums.
Where did the pieces in this exhibition come from?
The works are largely derived from recent major gifts to the Menil Collection, donated by Jack Shear, the estate of Ellsworth Kelly, and the artist himself. The selection is intended to provide a comprehensive look at forty years of Winters’ work.
Does the exhibition include recent works?
Yes, the display includes the 2024 Azimuth portfolio, which consists of 10 etchings and engravings that serve as the final chronological point in the exhibition’s arc.
Worth a look