At La Colombe d’Or, the conversation between past and present is visible before anyone says a word. The Montrose hotel’s historic rooms hold a contemporary art collection that includes the bold, layered work of Houston artist Howard Sherman.

In a candid conversation with Houston City Beat publisher Lisbet Newton, Sherman considers what happens when contemporary art enters a building with its own history. The setting is more than a backdrop. It becomes part of a discussion about collecting, context and the kind of work that can continue speaking long after it leaves the studio.

A bold visual language inside historic architecture

Sherman’s paintings are built for attention. Their scale, color and restless surfaces can shift the energy of a room, making La Colombe d’Or a revealing place to encounter them. Historic architecture carries memory and expectation; Sherman’s work brings interruption, friction and a distinctly contemporary point of view.

Rather than asking new art to disappear politely into an old setting, the placement allows each to sharpen the other. The architecture frames the work, while the work encourages visitors to see the building anew. It is a productive tension: permanence meeting experimentation, and inherited visual traditions meeting an artist interested in pushing them forward.

Why boutique hotels are becoming art collectors

The conversation also turns to the growing role of boutique hotels as collectors of contemporary art. Unlike a conventional gallery visit, a hotel encounter unfolds as part of everyday movement. Guests may discover a painting in a salon, corridor or gathering space, then return to it from another angle or in another light.

That repeated exposure gives hospitality spaces an unusual place in the art ecosystem. A thoughtfully assembled collection can create identity for a hotel while introducing artists to people who may not have planned an art-focused visit. At La Colombe d’Or, the collection is woven into the experience of the property rather than treated as decoration added after the fact.

Tearing into art history and leaving something behind

Among the works highlighted in the conversation is The Night Is Paper That We Tear Apart. Its title captures a quality that runs through Sherman’s practice: something familiar is pulled, cut or disrupted until a new possibility appears.

Sherman discusses subverting art history as a way to contribute to it. The aim is not to reject everything that came before, but to enter the dialogue with enough force and independence to move it somewhere else. That philosophy places durability and provocation side by side. A work can be physically built to last while remaining open enough to challenge future viewers.

The cover work Sportsmanship is for Suckers, featured in Texas Abstract, brings Sherman’s irreverent edge into focus. The title is funny and confrontational, a reminder that humor can carry serious artistic intent. It also reflects a practice unwilling to settle for deference, whether toward art history, good taste or the conventions surrounding abstract painting.

In this conversation

The setting brings the ideas together. La Colombe d’Or preserves a piece of Houston history, yet its collection makes room for artists who refuse to treat history as untouchable. Sherman’s work belongs in that tension: confident enough to command the room and curious enough to keep the conversation moving.