Cultural Event The Dallas Museum of Art has several temporary exhibitions on display now. One is called "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties." Another related but separate exhibition is called "Texas in the Twenties: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from Lone Star Collections." Because both special exhibitions focus on a specific point in time in American and Texan history, it was helpful to view both together on the same day. I went on opening day of both exhibitions, which was on Sunday March 4, 2012. There was a small line to get in, but the space inside the museum was arranged so that it did not feel crowded. The museum published a brochure that explained each exhibition, why it was on display at that time at the museum, and what the exhibition meant in the context of modern American art.

The "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties" and the "Texas in the Twenties: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from Lone Star Collections" exhibitions will be at the Dallas Museum of Art until the end of March. The "Youth and Beauty" exhibition is in the Barrel Vault and Hanley, Lamont, Rachofsky, and Stoffel Galleries. The "Texas in the Twenties" exhibition is in the Focus II Gallery. I started with the "Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties" section to provide myself with an overview of what art in the 1920s was like. I was immediately struck by the diversity of paintings, photographs and sculptures on display. The entire exhibition was curated...

I was also struck by the fact that many of the pieces in the collection had an industrial feel to them.
One of the showpieces was Gerald Murphy's1924 painting "Razor." "Razor" is a masterpiece of graphic art design, composition, and subject matter. The painting, done in oil on canvas, is about 32 by 36 inches. It is symmetrically composed, rendered in a tight color palette using red, black, gray, white, and a touch of yellow-gold. The titular razor is in the foreground, but it is not necessarily the centerpiece. In fact, the box of "Three Stars" matches catches the eye just as much as the razor, which is balanced with the fountain pen. Together, the razor and the fountain pen form a cross shape and denote the diagonal axes of the canvas. Although Murphy's "Razor" seems cold, and lacking emotion, the composition is somehow compelling.

"Lighthouse Hill" by Edward Hopper is another outstanding painting that is a part of the "Youth and Beauty" collection. The viewer can practically feel the cool Atlantic breeze in the air when gazing at the painting, which is oil on a 28 by 29-inch canvas. In the foreground, taking up the entire lower portion of the composition, are windswept rolling hills, covered in stark gray and brown grass. The vertical motion of the grass draws the eye upwards to the centerpiece: a lighthouse and its accompanying cottage. Hopper offers his source of light as either a sunset or a sunrise to the viewer's left,…