{"id":6261,"date":"2025-09-26T14:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T19:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/news\/suzanne-paul-collection\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T14:38:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:38:19","slug":"suzanne-paul-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/news\/suzanne-paul-collection","title":{"rendered":"UH Libraries Announces the Suzanne Paul Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

UH Libraries thanks Deborah Colton for her contributions to this announcement.<\/em>
\r\n
\r\nUniversity of Houston Libraries Special Collections is pleased to announce the donation of the Suzanne Paul Collection.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"Image

Image of the photographer Suzanne Paul, circa 1970s, sourced from a contact sheet<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Suzanne Paul (1945 \u2013 2005), a native Houstonian and pioneering female photographer, has made a vast contribution to representing the arts of Houston and to recording Houston\u2019s art history. Through pure creative impetus and respect for the arts in the city, Suzanne photographed the heartbeat of Houston\u2019s art scene from the mid-1970\u2019s through the beginning of the millennium. This collection has now been generously donated by Suzanne\u2019s daughter, Mercedes Mallard Paul.<\/p>\r\n

Paul\u2019s introduction to the arts of Houston started in 1976 when James Harithas, who was then the Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum (CAMH) commissioned her to take photographs of artists and their art installations at the museum. Shortly thereafter, she was offered the first solo exhibition of a female artist there, which featured her photographs. Suzanne was always at every art happening that was significant in the city, carefully taking photos and capturing the essence and soul of each event.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

In revealing ways, Suzanne Paul has documented the artists, the curators, the gallery owners and patrons of that era. The people who shaped and defined Houston\u2019s rapid growth and helped the arts flourish, which set the stage for who we have become as a vibrant art city today.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Among the first artists Paul photographed were Dick Wray, Julian Schnabel, Terry Allen and Norman Bluhm. Soon after, she documented Richard Stout, Bert L. Long Jr., Jesse Lott, The Art Guys, Mel Chin and Edward Albee. In addition to her portraitures of artists and long-time friends, Paul captured photographs of museum curators like Anne Tucker, Walter Hopps, Alison de Lima Green and Edward Mayo, and patrons starting art nonprofits at the time, like Ann Harithas, Marilyn Oshman and others. So many art celebrities and patrons on this era were photographed through Paul\u2019s skillful lens. Without Suzanne Paul\u2019s photographic documentation of this incredible growth era of the arts in Houston, so much of this period would be lost.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

This collection of photographic negative, slides, prints and related memorabilia from this work was left in the care of Deborah Colton \u2013 Deborah Colton Gallery since the artist\u2019s passing in 2005. At the request of Suzanne\u2019s daughter, Deborah Colton Gallery hosted the Memorial Reception and Exhibition of Suzanne and her work in March of 2005, which was the time of her passing. This important exhibition was at Colton\u2019s gallery at 2500 Summer Street at the time, where hundreds of people from the art community came to pay their respects to this notable artist.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Deborah Colton Gallery, in collaboration with Suzanne’s daughter Mercedes Mallard Paul, worked tirelessly for many years to catalog and preserve Paul\u2019s imagery and related materials, including prints, negatives, slides, press articles, catalogs, and letters. The result is an impactful, tangible record affirming Paul\u2019s distinction and major contribution to Houston\u2019s arts and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

As Deborah Colton stated, \u201cI dedicated so much of my staff\u2019s and my time and financial resources to the Suzanne Paul project and protected this Collection for close to two decades. I did this with conviction and long-term dedication because I knew how important it was to Houston\u2019s art history. During the time Suzanne was photographing, she was known to be at anything and everything important in the arts happening in the city. She was the first and the last to put so much of her heart and soul into the documentation of the city\u2019s arts, and such an important time it was: a rapid period of growth, helping shape our arts and culture into the vibrant community that it is today. It has been my long-term goal to see this collection be placed with the Special Collections of the University of Houston Libraries.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI believe my mother wanted to capture the art world in Houston because that was her passion,\u201d Mercedes said. \u201cArt and photography were things that she lived and breathed daily.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Christian Kelleher, current director of exhibitions and external relations and former head of Special Collections, said \u201cthe work of Suzanne Paul will prove to be invaluable for research in the arts, women\u2019s history and the history of Houston. This is a special, influential legacy that we are honored to preserve in our collections.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The Suzanne Paul Collection is a compelling addition to an already rich archive of primary source materials in performing and visual arts. Through UH Special Collections, UH students and faculty, as well as global scholars, can explore records of well-known regional organizations that document theater companies, directors, producers, performers and artists, and art groups.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

“Suzanne Paul\u2019s work captures the soul of Houston\u2019s art scene with striking clarity and depth,\u201d said Lauren Gottlieb-Miller, associate dean for Special Libraries and Preservation. \u201cThis collection not only preserves her legacy but enriches UH Libraries\u2019 commitment to documenting the city\u2019s cultural history. We are deeply grateful for the dedication of Deborah Colton Gallery and Mercedes Mallard Paul in bringing this invaluable archive to our students, scholars, and community.”<\/p>\r\n

The collection is currently being processed. For information, contact <\/em>Christian Kelleher<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UH Libraries thanks Deborah Colton for her contributions to this announcement. University of Houston Libraries Special Collections is pleased to announce the donation of the Suzanne Paul Collection. Suzanne Paul (1945 \u2013 2005), a native Houstonian and pioneering female photographer, has made a vast contribution to representing the arts of Houston and to recording Houston\u2019s […]","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,44,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements","category-featured","category-special-collections"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6261"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6272,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6261\/revisions\/6272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.uh.edu\/special-collections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}