A Good Day for Readers in Houston
January 17 of this year was a bad day for Houston book lovers. Half Price Books closed their Westheimer location. They had closed their University Village location earlier. The closure of these two locations of the venerable used bookstore removed two large bookstores from inside the 610 Loop. I had been buying books from both for decades.
Bookstores are difficult businesses to run profitably in these post-literate times. It is easy to get literally any book you might want online. Starting a bookstore is an inherently precarious proposition. So I was stunned when I read “A New Independent Bookstore and Art Gallery Comes to Houston’s Montrose Neighborhood” in Glasstire. By the time I saw this piece, it was too late to visit the new shop, Basket Books, until it reopened today, Tuesday. I drove over, and here’s what I found.
It’s over on Hyde Park at Genessee. It’s a funky old building with fragments of a large George Sugarman sculpture, Saint Paul Sculptural Complex, in front of it and on its side. I’ve written about this dismembered sculpture several times in the past. It’s nice to see the pieces being used to enliven an art-related business, although seeing them inevitably reminds me of the grotesque act of artistic vandalism that formed them in the first place.
The interior of the shop is atractive and the selection of books seems well-chosen.
The name of the store comes from the name of Gertrude Stein’s pet dog. The owners of the shop wanted a name that reflected both literature and art, and Stein felt like someone at the crossroads of those two worlds.
The owners are Laura Hughes and Edwin Smalling. When I went there today, Smalling was manning the register and talked about what they were doing with the shop.
He pointed out some locally produced chapbooks to me—I am always interested in local publishers. Houston’s literary scene seems so paltry (in part because I am not a part of it in the way I am a part of the local art scene). But talking to local literati does nothing to dissuade me of this opinion. Smalling told me that he is the art and Hughes the literature, which makes Basket a combination of the two.
This is the cover of F Magazine, which I picked up at Basket. It looks like a bad photocopy because my scanner is totally inadequate, so I apologize to Darya Diamond, who created the image. It is published by someone named Adam Marnie. The magazine has been published since 2014 and somehow I have never heard of it until today. They are the ones who published the chapbooks I mentioned above. I haven’t really dived into reading it yet: I’ll report back later. Still, I’m exciting that anyone is doing anything this cool here in Houston.
Basket Books is half a bookstore and half an art gallery. While some small artworks were hung downstairs above and among the bookshelves, the main gallery space is upstairs. They currently have a two-person show, Hollows, featuring work by Brandon Araujo and Ben Peterson. I’ve seen Brandon Araujo’s work in the past, but Ben Peterson is new to me. I’ve found his work online—at least I think it’s his.
Caminar is an enormous painting using an ancient technique, fresco. It is interesting to see an archaic way of painting used with a geometric abstraction.
In addition to paintings, Peterson shows several sculptures like I Lean Grey. They all have the appearance of duct work or exhaust ports. They seem quite industrial, and their material makes them seem like parts of old buildings.
Araujo has two pieces that combine abstract painting a photography. Anion II is above. I’ve seen a lot of dark and mysterious paintings by Araujo, and he doesn’t change the mood of his work here, just the content. It almost looks like a 4AD album cover.
When I look at the art by Peterson and Araujo in this show, my first reaction is that they seem so much cooler than me. And, in a way, that’s how I feel about F Magazine and Basket as a whole. The stuff in this store and gallery are almost aspirational. In Basket Books, I don’t feel like an old guy who has been thinking hard about art and literature for his whole life—I feel like a naive young student slightly intimidated by the cool kids. I highly recommend getting yourself over to Basket Books, as soon as possible.
Thanks! I will visit this store after I feel better from my two vaccinations yesterday. As for scanners, there's a lot you can do with just a phone now, just like I used to make slides of Polaroids and paintings with a 35mm camera. Hardest part of using a camera is the lighting, but this guy is on his way with a semitransparent box... https://youtu.be/-4pF1lW2-7w (I'd probably use a bigger box for magazines and some black paper on the top to avoid reflections and glair, but then I'd probably start with whatever cardboard boxes I can find too.)
Robert, thanks so much for the kind words. It was great to meet you. I've just read through your enlightening George Sugarman posts, thank you for sharing your research and documentation of his work. It is indeed a rather sad story, the sculptures dismemberment and separation, but I'm thankful that we are in proximity, and can appreciate, the bits that remain.