"Fawcett Goes on View in Texas, By Neil Fauerso," Exhibition Review of Mentoring a Muse: Charles Umlauf & Farrah Fawcett.

A legendary red swimsuit poster that sold in the millions and her role as a fetching detective on Charlie’s Angels established Farrah Fawcett as a sex symbol of the 1970s—long-limbed, feather-haired, often beaming with a thousand-watt smile. Despite a lengthy and interesting career—particularly her tough, enigmatic turns as different women reacting to the madness of men in the movies Extremities and The Apostle—Fawcett lived under a sort of pin-up shroud until her death from cancer in 2009. It is, therefore, something of a revelation to learn that Fawcett was a passionate lifelong artist and art collector.

In “Mentoring a Muse: Charles Umlauf & Farrah Fawcett” at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum in Austin, Texas, some of Fawcett’s sculptures and works on paper are interspersed with art by one of her early teachers—in a surprisingly beguiling and moving exhibition steeped in a mix of melancholy and resilience.

The sturdily successful artist Charles Umlauf spent 40 years as a life drawing and sculpture professor at the University of Texas in Austin. Fawcett began her studies there as a microbiology major in 1965. College life for the Corpus Christi-born beauty had a surreal tinge to it. According to a group of life-long friends assembled at the museum for a discussion event earlier this month, when Fawcett pledged her sorority, the line of men waiting to catch a glimpse of her latticed around buildings. She had a date for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Boys carried her books to class. She was “famous before she was famous.”

When Fawcett switched majors from science to art, Umlauf took a special interest in her, and she proved a serious student of her teacher’s rigorous, classical style. In 1968, Fawcett was convinced by persistent phone calls from agents to move to Los Angeles—she was voted one of the ten most beautiful coeds on campus for all three years she was in college, on lists that apparently made their way to Hollywood—but she and Umlauf remained close until his death in 1994.

Fawcett amassed an impressive collection of Umlauf works, and he cast multiple plaster and bronze sculptures of Fawcett and her only son, Redmond. Umlauf also arranged for Fawcett’s own plaster works to be bronzed at the foundry in Italy that he himself used. What the current show illustrates is a genuine friendship characterized by an almost cinematic symbiosis: she loved him as a mentor, and he loved her as a muse. Fawcett could well have starred in a movie about the union.

When Fawcett died, at the age of 62, she bequeathed a large portion of her art collection to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas. Katie Robinson Edwards, curator of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum, worked for several years with associates at the Blanton as well as Fawcett’s nephew Greg Walls (who inherited several works from Fawcett’s estate) to create an interlocking narrative of the works of Fawcett and Umlauf and the refuge they represented—for Fawcett, at least—from a life often marked by sadness.

In one of the earliest pieces in the show drawing titled Portrait of a Young Man (1967), Fawcett demonstrates a somber grace, depicting a haunted Texan boy—like one out of Hud or The Last Picture Show—and signing her name elegantly on one of the boy’s shirt buttons. The boy in the picture is Fawcett’s other nephew (Greg Walls’s brother), who died tragically on an oil rig. In other works, like an elegiac sculpture Fawcett made of her older sister Diane (who died nine years before her, at the same age and also from cancer), there is an astute and unsentimental understanding of mortality. The specter of death hangs over the show.

Another early work on paper is a mirthfully grotesque and scathing portrait of Fawcett’s first husband, the leathery and somewhat bloated Lee Majors. According to Ryan O’Neal’s memoir Both of Us: My Life with Farrah, Majors, the star of The Six Million Dollar Man and tennis partner of O’Neal, foolishly asked his court mate to take Fawcett out to dinner while he was filming a political thriller in Canada. After just two dates, the Fawcett-Majors union was effectively over, in favor of a new one with O’Neal that would remain for most of the rest of Fawcett’s life.

Interestingly, there are no direct portraits of O’Neal in the exhibition, but there is a large photo of him with Fawcett and Umlauf all together in 1985, when Umlauf received the Art League Houston award for Texas Artist of the Year. Umlauf and Fawcett look happy; O’Neal looks sour.

Among works in the show from Fawcett’s collection is an ’80s-era napkin sketch by Andy Warhol titled F.F. Eye (for “Farrah Fawcett’s eye”) that recalls the deftness of Warhol’s early hand as a fashion illustrator. It appears in a charming corner of the show that highlights Fawcett’s affinity for Surrealism—she had works by Man Ray and Magritte in her collection—and Pop art, as well as the affection that some artists of her era—including Warhol and Keith Haring—had for her.

Fawcett genially engaged in a bit of quasi-Surrealism in her own undated painting Two Faces, a competent freestyle profile of a male and female face from a skewed perspective that suggests two faces sharing one set of eyes.

Competency is one of the striking features of Fawcett’s art. Nothing in the show is cringe-inducing or embarrassing, as might be expected from celebrity painting and sculpture. Even the early pieces suggest sensitive, sympathetic vision. She seems to have intimately appreciated the yearning and folly of the heart. All of the pieces have a sadness, dignity, and a sort of humor to them.

Given the influence Umlauf had on Fawcett there are echoes and mirrors of him in her work throughout the show. But where, as the curator Robinson Edwards told me during a walk-through, Umlauf’s sculpture of a female torso highlights the relentless masculinity (and by extension misogyny) of Umlauf’s vision and technique, Fawcett’s torso sculptures have a gentler, savvier vibe.

Resistant in the ’70s to posing nude, Fawcett eventually appeared in Playboy at age 50 in 1997 (in an issue that sold 4 million copies), and one of the paper works is a self-portrait of her centerfold spread, clipped in the manner of the torso sculpture. Both in her life and in her work, Fawcett had a bemused and canny understanding of sex and the power and currency of the female body. In 2009, considering the success of Charlie’s Angels, she told a reporter from Vanity Fair: “When the show got to be number three [in the ratings], I figured it was our acting. When it got to be number one, I decided it could only be because none of us wears a bra.”

What lingers most in the exhibition, which remains on view through August 20, is a ghostly Self-Portrait (circa 1970) on a gauzy white background. Fawcett looks mournful and knowing, as if aware of how rare, regardless of fame, it is to actually be seen. The weight of glamour and desire is present in the painting, pulling Fawcett into a blank void.

Like the show as a whole, it articulates part of the vindicating but also vanquishing power of fame, which can be a curse even after death. In the words of Sylvia Dorsey, a friend from Fawcett’s college days present a few weeks ago at the museum event: “It’s still difficult being Farrah, even today.”

Submitted by Ande Rasmussen

Sources:
Websites of Art News, 4/20/2017; Google; Umlauf Sculpture Garden; Alcalde Texas

Charles Umlauf's sculptures range in style from realistic and abstract expressionism to lyrical abstraction. His influences include Rodin, Henry Moore and Jacques Lipschitz.

He was born in South Haven Michigan in 1911 of German immigrant parents and studied at the Chicago School of Sculpture and the Chicago Art Institute. He worked at numerous jobs in Chicago including the Federal Art Project for which he did sculpture commissions for public buildings.

He moved to Austin Texas in 1941 with his family where he taught for 40 years in the Art Department of the University of Texas. From 1960 until 1991 he personally supervised the casting of his sculptures in various foundries in Italy. Charles Umlauf died in 1994.

His sculptures are to be found in churches, at numerous public sites, in museums including the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C, and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in many private collections.

In 1985 he and his wife, Angeline Allen Umlauf, gave their home and studio with sculptures, drawings and paintings to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.

Source:
CharlesUmlauf.com

Born: 1911, Michigan
Died: 1994, Austin, Texas

Education:

1929 Art Institute of Chicago; studied and worked with Frederick Hibbard, Albin Polasek and Edouard Chassaing

Selected One Person Exhibitions:

1943 Whitte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1945 Fort Worth Children's Museum, sponsored by the Forth Worth Public Library, Fort Worth,
Texas
1946 Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York
1947 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1948 Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York
1951 Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York
1953 Betty McLean Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1955 Library of Incarnate World College, San Antonio, Texas
Passedoit Gallery, New York
1956 Thomas Fine Arts Center, Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas
1957 Cushman Gallery, Houston, Texas
Student Memorial Center of Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas
1958 Kendall Gallery, San Angelo, Texas
1959 Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1963 El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas
1964 Houston Galleries, Houston, Texas
Abilene Museum of Fine Arts, Abilene, Texas
1966 Galleria d'Arte Santacroce, Florence, Italy
1967 Umlauf Retrospective, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin, Texas
1970 Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, Texas
1971 La Galeria de Los Cruces, Corpus Christi, Texas
1974 Shook-Carrington Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
1975 Umlauf Home and Sculpture Garden showings, Austin, Texas
1977 Sol Del Rio Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
Umlauf Home and Sculpture Garden showings, Austin, Texas
1978 Umlauf Home and Sculpture Garden showings, Austin, Texas
1979 T.V. Robinson Galleries, Houston, Texas
Umlauf Home and Sculpture Garden showings, Austin, Texas
1980 Retrospective Exhibition, Archer M. Huntington Art Galleries, Austin, Texas
1995 "Memorial Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings by Charles Umlauf," Meredith Long and Company, Houston, Texas

Selected Group Exhibitions:

1940 Two-Man Exhibition, Gallery House, Chicago
1941 San Francisco Art Association Annual, San Francisco Museum of Art, California
1942 "Sculpture of the Western Hemisphere," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
"Artists for Victory," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Texas General Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, sponsored by the Witte Memorial Museum of San Antonio, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Two-Man Show, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1943 "Christ and the Children," Chicago, Illinois
Texas General Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
1944 Texas General Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
1946 Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Texas General Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
1947 Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Texas General Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
"Sculpture Today," Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
1948 Syracuse Museum Ceramic National Exhibition, New York
Toronto Museum of Art, Canada
Galerie Giroux, Brussels, Belgium
Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition, New York City
Denver Art Museum Annual Exhibition, Colorado
Texas General Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture
Membership Exhibition of the Texas Fine Arts Association
1949 Third International Sculpture Exhibition, Fairmont Park Association and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
Statue Project Exhibition, Demotte Gallery, New York City
Oakland Art Galleries Annual Exhibition, California
Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition, New York City
Denver Art Museum Annual Exhibition, Colorado
Syracuse Museum Ceramic National Exhibition, New York
Texas General Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Membership Exhibition of Texas Fine Arts Association
1950 Show of Sculpture and Photographs of Larger Work, University of Georgia
Candidates for Grants Exhibition, National Institute of Arts and Letters
National Religious Sculpture Exhibition, University Of Oklahoma
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
"American Painting, 1950," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Denver Art Museum Annual Exhibition, Colorado
Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition, New York City
Denver Art Museum Annual Exhibition, Colorado
Syracuse Museum Ceramic National Exhibition, New York
Membership Exhibition of Texas Fine Arts Association
Eleventh Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Dallas
1951 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annual Exhibition, Philadelphia
Midwestern University Museum Exhibition, Wichita Falls, Texas
Twelfth Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Houston
Candidates for Grants Exhibition, National Institute of Arts and Letters
"American Sculpture, 1951," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
"Brooklyn Watercolor International," Brooklyn Museum, New York
1952 Texas Fine Arts Association Spring Juried Exhibition
"The Artist's Vision," Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
"Contemporary Religious Art," Union Theological Seminary, New York City
"Texas Contemporary Artists," Knoedler Gallery, New York City
1953 Fourteenth Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition, New York City
Sculptor's Guild Annual Exhibition, Whitney Museum, New York City
"Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture," Krannert Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana
"Integration Show," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
1954 Fifty-third Annual Spring Exhibition, Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Texas Fine Arts Association Spring Juried Exhibition, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin
Candidates for Grants Exhibition, National Institute of Arts and Letters
"Contemporary Sculptors," Ohio State University
149th Annual Exhibition of American Oil Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
1955 Candidates for Grants Exhibition, National Institute of Arts and Letters
Religious Arts Exhibition, Denver Art Museum, Colorado
Contemporary Arts Exhibition, Chicago Art Institute, Illinois
Sculptor's Guild Annual Exhibition, Whitney Museum, New York City
1956 Two-Man Show, Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas
"Religious Art," Newark Museum, New Jersey
Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition, New York City
Denver Art Museum Annual Exhibition, Colorado
1957 Four-Man Show, Dallas Society for Contemporary Art, Dallas Little Theater, Texas
"Sculpture in Architecture," United States Information Agency, Sydney, Australia
Seventy-sixth Annual Exhibition, San Francisco Art Association, California
Texas Fine Arts Association Spring Membership Show, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin
Eighth Annual Christocentric Arts Festival, Newman Foundation Galleries, University of Illinois, Champaign
"Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture," Krannert Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana
"Contemporary Religious Art in Texas," San Antonio Art League, Witte Memorial Museum, Texas
American Federation of Arts Sculpture Exhibit, Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas
Nineteenth Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Feldman Exhibit, McNay Art Institute and the Fort Worth Art Museum
1958 "God and Man in Art, "The American Federation of Arts, touring exhibit
"Fifth Regional Biennial," Friends of Art Exhibition, Kansas State College
"Religious Art of the Western World," Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
"Sculpture Exhibition," Providence Art Club , Rhode Island
"From Rodin to Lipschitz," Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts and Meadows Building
Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
"International Religious Bienniala," Salzburg, Austria
"XX Ceramic International," Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York
Benedictine Heights College, Tulsa, Oklahoma
"Holiday of Arts," The Grail (Council on Christian Culture), New York
1959 "Holiday of Arts," The Grail (Council on Christian Culture), Boston
Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas
Dallas Arts Festival Sculpture Exhibition, Mercantile National Bank, Texas
155th Annual Exhibition of Oil Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia and the Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
"Dallas Collects," Fort Worth Art Museum and Dallas Museum of Contemporary Arts
1960 Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Texas
Twenty-second Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
"Contemporary Christian Art, "Princeton University, New Jersey
"Southwestern Art Exhibition," Dallas Museum of Fine Art, Texas
"First Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art," Religious Art Center, Seton Hill College, Greensberg, Pennsylvania
"Christ--The King--The Church," Second Biennial National Religious Art Exhibition, Holy Name Parish, Birmingham, Michigan
Second Annual Exhibition of Southwest American Art, Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City
Dallas Arts Festival Sculpture Exhibition, Southland Center, Dallas, Texas
1961 "Religious Sculpture and Modern Church Architecture," sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, held at the Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas
Benedictine Heights College Benefit Auction, Tulsa, Oklahoma
"Religious Art in Homes Pilgrimage," Birmingham, Alabama
University of Texas Art Student Scholarship Auction, Austin
Laguna Gloria Art Museum Auction, Austin, Texas
"American Business and the Arts Exhibition," San Francisco Museum of Art, California
Twenty-third Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
Texas Art Exhibition, Architects League, New York City
1962 157th Annual Exhibition of American Oil Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Adelaide Festival of Arts, National Museum of South Australia
University of Illinois Biennial
Texas Fine Arts Association Spring Juried Exhibition, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin
Houston Museum of Fine Arts Auction, Texas
Art Scholarship Auction, University of Texas Art Department, Austin
Laguna Gloria Art Museum Fiesta Auction, Austin
Twenty-fourth Texas Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture
University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibit, Austin
1963 Texas Fine Arts Association Spring Juried Exhibition, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin
"Festival of the Arts of the Southwest,"Saint Edward's University, Austin
University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, Dallas Museum for Contemporary Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio
"Tour of Homes," Texas Fine Arts Association
Twenty-fifth University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, Archer M. Huntington Gallery, Austin
1964 Spring Jury Show, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas
Twenty-sixth University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, Archer M. Huntington Gallery, Austin
"Christ--The King--The Church," Fourth Biennial National Religious Art Exhibition, Sacred Heart Seminary, Detroit, Michigan
"Painting and Sculpture Invitational," Louisiana State University Union Gallery, Baton Rouge
University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, Texas Pavilion, New York World's Fair
Dallas Arts Festival Sculpture Exhibition, Mercantile National Bank, Texas
"Fine Arts Festival," Saint Martins Evangelical Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas
Mulvane Art Center, Topeka, Kansas
Fourteenth Christocentric Arts Festival, Newman Foundation Galleries, University of Illinois, Champaign
1965 Lenten Exhibition, Saint Lukes Methodist Church, Houston, Texas
Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas
"Children in Art," Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas
"The Figure in Sculpture 1865-1965," J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Twenty-seventh University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, Archer M. Huntington Gallery, Austin
1966 161st Annual Exhibition of American Oil Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia
Friends of the Library Association Exhibition, Longview, Texas
Shook-Carrington Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
Dalzell Hatfield Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Twenty-eighth University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
1967 Library of the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Texas
"Our Patrons Collect," Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas
"Creative Collaboration," Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Rice University Medical Center, Texas
Spring Sculpture Exhibition, Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1968 Spring Sculpture Exhibition, Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Twenty-ninth Annual Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Hemisfair, San Antonio, Texas
"A Particular Portion of Earth," Pan American Building, Washington, D.C.
1969 Gallery of the Rapides Bank and Trust Company, Alexandria, Louisiana
Exhibition of Sculpture and Drawings on Tour, Southwestern Louisiana University, Lafayette and the Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge
Art Department of Dallas, Baptist College, Texas
Group Exhibition at Virgilio Cancogni Galleria d'Arte, Pietrasanta de Marina, Italy
"Past Jurors Invitational Exhibition," Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City
1970 Art Faculty Exhibition, Gallery of Men of Art Guild, San Antonio, Texas
Thirty-first Annual Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
1971 University of Texas Exhibition and Film on Bronze Sculpture in the Making, Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois
University of Texas Art Faculty Exhibition, Austin
Krannert Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana
1972 Thirty-second Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
Galleria de Bella Arte, Camiose, Italy
Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Medical School, San Antonio
1973 Fifteenth Annual Invitational Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, Longview Museum and Arts Center, Texas
University of Texas Art Museum Spring Exhibition, Austin
Thirty-third Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
American Bicentennial Celebration, Galveston, Texas
1974 "Sculpture Figurative," Mangoni Galleria d'Arte, Milan, Italy
Carrara Museum, Carrara, Italy
Thirty-fifth Annual Art Faculty Exhibition, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas
1975 Visitors' Pavilion, Waterwood Township, Lake Livingston, Texas
Thirty-sixth Annual Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
1976 Thirty-seventh Annual Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
1977 Thirty-eighth Annual Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
1978 Thirty-ninth Annual Art Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
Gallaudet College Exhibition and Lecture, Washington, D.C.
Sol Del Rio Gallery Exhibition, San Antonio, Texas
1979 Fortieth Annual Faculty Exhibition, University of Texas Art Museum, Austin
Centennial Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1985 Third Dimensional Evening Auction, Art League of Houston, Texas
1986 Sesquicentennial Celebration, First State Bank, Abilene, Texas
2006 Kingdom Animalia: Creatures Big and Small by Artists Old and New, Valley House Gallery, Dallas, Texas

Public Collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian Institution)
Art Institute of Chicago
Wichita Museum, Kansas
Santa Barbara Museum, California
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
Krannert Museum, Illinois
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
University of Texas, Austin, Texas
Syracuse Museum, New York
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Fort Worth Art Museum, Texas
Longview Museum of Art, Texas
Abilene Art Museum, Texas
El Paso Museum of Art, Texas
Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico
Lakeview Arts and Science Center, Peoria, Illinois
Palm Springs Desert Museum, California
Huntington Art Gallery, Austin
Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California
Marian Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Awards:

University of Texas Grant
Guggenheim Fellowship
Ford Foundation Grant
Ford Foundation Award
Member Honoris Causa of National Honorary Society, Omicron Delta Kappa
University of Texas Excellence Grant
Houston Art League Artist of the Year, 1985
Honorary Mayor for Life, City of San Antonio
Who's Who in America
Who's Who in the Southwest
Who's Who in the World, Fifth Edition