In a watershed moment for postwar American art, the Menil Collection presents "Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight," the first major museum survey of this pivotal abstractionist in three decades. Opening today, the exhibition illuminates how Overstreet radically transformed painting while confronting profound questions of racial justice, cultural memory, and artistic autonomy.
Central to the presentation are Overstreet's revolutionary Flight Pattern works (1970-1972), which fundamentally redefined painting's relationship to space and politics. These "nomadic" canvases, suspended by ropes from floor, wall, and ceiling, emerge as complex meditations on both formal innovation and historical trauma. In works like "HooDoo Mandala" (1970), the taut ropes simultaneously evoke painful histories while suggesting transcendence—what Overstreet termed "birds in flight, able to take off, to lift up, rather than be held down."
The exhibition traces this transformative vision from Overstreet's early shaped canvases of 1967, exemplified by the politically charged "Justice, Faith, Hope, and Peace" (1968), through to his monumental Senegal paintings of the 1990s. These later works, inspired by visits to Gorée Island's House of Slaves memorial, manifest as luminous, weathered surfaces that probe questions of diaspora and inheritance. In "Gorée" (1993), Overstreet's material experimentation achieves a translucent complexity that evokes both physical landscape and metaphysical journey. He described the Senegal paintings as, "personal, emotional examinations of my past, present and future.”
Director of The Menil Collection, Rebecca Rabinow, explained, “The Menil is proud to present Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight. John and Dominique de Menil’s support of the artist began in the early 1970s when a painting was commissioned by him for an exhibition about the African American experience that the couple sponsored in Houston, Texas. Soon after, they purchased two of Overstreet’s Flight Pattern works and invited him back to Houston for a solo show. Now, some fifty years later, the Menil Collection looks forward to sharing his work with a new generation of visitors, both through this beautiful, thought-provoking exhibition, and the illustrated scholarly catalogue that provides fascinating insight and context for the appreciation of this artist’s work.”
The Menil's exhibition, curated by Natalie Dupêcher, Associate Curator of Modern Art, gains particular resonance from the institution's early championing of Overstreet. "We have been honored to work closely with the estate of Joe Overstreet to create this significant presentation of his work. Overstreet’s formally adventurous, culturally engaged, and politically responsive abstract work brilliantly expands the canon of 20th century art," she added.
Accompanied by a scholarly catalogue and programming including Richard Hylton's lecture "'To Go Past Slavery,'" the exhibition affirms Overstreet's position as a pivotal figure who expanded abstract painting's possibilities while maintaining an unwavering commitment to social engagement.
The show will be open to the public through July 13. Visit Menil.org for more information.
[Figures]
Joe Overstreet with his Flight Patterns, 1972. Courtesy of Menil Archives, The Menil Collection, Houston. Photo: Hickey-Robertson, Houston.
Joe Overstreet, Kermel, 1993. Oil on canvas. 120 × 144 in. (304.8 × 365.8 cm) © Estate of Joe Overstreet/Artist Rights Society (ARS), courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery, New York
Joe Overstreet, Gorée, 1993 Oil on canvas 120 × 144 in. (304.8 × 365.8 cm) © Estate of Joe Overstreet/Artist Rights Society (ARS), courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery, New York
Joe Overstreet "HooDoo Mandala," 1970. Acrylic on canvas with metal grommets and cotton rope. 90 × 89 1/2 in. (228.6 × 227.3 cm). Neil Lane Collection
Joe Overstreet, "Evolution," 1970. Acrylic on canvas with metal grommets and cotton rope. 115 1/2 × 97 in. (293.4 × 246.4 cm). Lent by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gift of Mary and Bob Mersky
Joe Overstreet, "Great Mother of All," 1970. Acrylic on constructed canvas with metal grommets and cotton rope Present overall installation: 115 × 195 × 65 in. (292.1 × 495.3 × 165.1 cm). Canvas laid flat: 72 × 193 in. (182.9 × 490.2 cm) © Estate of Joe Overstreet/Artist Rights Society (ARS), courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery, New York
