So Long, Bert

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Houston artist Bert Long, Jr.
Houston artist Bert Long, Jr.

The Houston Chronicle has the news of artist Bert Long’s death today, at age 72, of pancreatic cancer.

Working in paint, sculpture, photography, and public space, Long was a Houston fixture whose influence suffused the state, and whose reach was international.

Houston Press‘ Kelly Klaasmeyer had a nice partially biographical piece on Long’s 2006 Museum of Fine Arts Houston show here.

At the time of Long’s death, Houston’s Menil Collection was planning to screen the film A Valentine for Bert Long on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m., and Houston Baptist University was set to open an exhibition of Long’s work on Feb. 28 at HBU’s Contemporary Art Gallery.

There will doubtless be further tributes and homages as word spreads that the state has lost one of its brightest lights.

 

 

 

 

 

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Houston native, 7th-generation Texan, and Rice grad Brad Tyer has contributed to the Observer as a writer and editor since the mid-1990s. He’s worked as music editor at the Houston Press and editor-in-chief of Missoula, Montana’s Independent; his freelance work has been published in The New York Times Book Review, Outside, High Country News, No Depression, and The Drake, among other venues. Brad was awarded a 2010 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship at the University of Michigan and a 2011 grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support research for his first book, Opportunity, Montana, published by Beacon Press in March, 2013.

  • stormkite

    It’s a serious loss for the art world and for Texas, Houston in particular. Bert was one of those wonderful folk who filled a room just by walking into it. Wherever he’s gone, it’s more interesting than it was.

  • austin888

    Met him once and he made a huge impression on me. What a great presence! Warm, gentle, full of life. He’s going to be sorely missed.