26 Facts About Ann Harithas

Ann O'Connor Williams Harithas was an American philanthropist, museum founder, curator and artist.

Ann Harithas loved Texas culture, enjoyed ranch life and befriended many O'Connor Ranch workers.

Years later, Harithas would celebrate her girlhood environs, the site where she felt "most connected to the land and to all of nature," by commissioning a six-channel video installation, Aransas: Axis of Observation, from artist Frank Gillette.

Ann Harithas became interested in art as a child, purchasing a Gauguin etching at age 15.

Ann Harithas took art lessons until she was 16 and was mentored by her second cousin, painter and naturalist Madeline O'Connor.

Ann Harithas began with cut paper and continued to make collages, incorporating new techniques such as digital compositing and large format color printing, throughout her life.

Ann Harithas earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Rice University.

Ann Harithas married first husband HP Kemp and had three daughters.

Ann Harithas married her second husband Thomas V Robinson, in 1970.

Ann Harithas was instrumental in launching the art careers of Mel Chin and Jesse Lott.

Ann Harithas made generous donations to the museum and underwrote a program of visiting artists at the University of Houston.

Ann Harithas funded the Lawndale Art Center and supported Project Row Houses.

Ann Harithas started showing her collages in 1978, the first as part of a group show at Delta Gallery in Houston.

Ann Harithas would go on to exhibit in more than 50 shows in the US and internationally.

Ann Harithas worked instinctively, letting the story unfold as she assembled collage elements.

Ann Harithas was intrigued by the way the collages changed at different scales, even shifting the focal point and meaning.

Ann Harithas was enthralled and bought it, but what she really wanted was one of Fuente's art cars.

Ann Harithas commissioned one that took him and a team of assistants five years to complete.

The Mad Cad was one of eight monumental works brought in for Collision, a show Ann Harithas curated at Lawndale Art Center in 1984.

Post-CAMH and without a governing board, Jim Ann Harithas was free to follow his curatorial passions: the work of local artists or groups of outside artists, often that of underrepresented or undiscovered voices of protest.

Ann Harithas exhibited her own work in two solo shows.

In 2007, The Nave organized a solo show for Ann Harithas entitled The Collages.

Ann Harithas established the free-to-the-public institution following her tenure at The Nave as a place where she could make her own rules.

Some cars and lowriders, which Ann Harithas described as South Texas "indigenous culture," were then put on display at the museum.

In 2012, Ann Harithas experienced brain trauma that left her with significant memory loss.

Ann Harithas died in Houston on December 23,2021, at age 80.