Dorothy Hood Resources

The University of Houston is the premier destination for scholars, students and others interested in the work of Dorothy Hood (1918-2000). Hood was a seminal figure in midcentury American modernism, fusing the Mexican and New York Schools through a unique Texas borderland ethos. As with many women artists of her generation, Hood is only now beginning to receive critical attention thanks, in large part, to the expanding body of artworks in Public Art UHS’ collection and the Dorothy Hood Papers (1920s-1990s), held at the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections.

Artworks on display across the University of Houston System include: Homage to Matisse (ca. 1969) at the Office of the Dean of the Katherine C. McGovern College of the Arts (UH), Time the Bridge of Doors (1979) in the Bayou Building of the University of Houston-Clear Lake, the collage Coptic Days (early 1980s) on view at the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections, and The Angel’s Key (1987) at the lobby of UH’s Wortham Theatre. 

In the fall of 2021, Public Art UHS opened the exhibition Dorothy Hood: The Edge of Being across multiple locations within the UH System. The exhibition features artworks from several collections including those of Public Art UHS and the Art Museum of South Texas (AMST) in Corpus Christi as well as objects drawn from the Dorothy Hood Papers, a collection of the AMST and the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections.

The Dorothy Hood Papers include 90 linear feet of materials such as correspondence, written works including a memoir and poetry, scrapbooks, catalogs and other publicity, photographs, financial documents, photographs, artifacts, and ephemera. The personal papers of her husband José María Velasco Maidana, the Bolivian composer and filmmaker, complement these holdings. Donated by the AMST, these materials document the lives and careers of Hood and Maidana over a 70-year span.