Celebrating Texas art and Swiss modernism among collectors and scholars, this volume is occasioned by the first public exhibition of the Barrett Collection at the Meadows Museum of Art, Dallas (November 2004--January 2005). Lavishly illustrated, the volume pays tribute to a pair of astute art collectors. In the early 1980s Richard and Nona Barrett began collecting the untapped wealth of art being produced in Texas. At first they concentrated on the work of a few contemporary Texas artists such as Bill Komodore, Vernon Fisher, David Bates, Harry Geffert, and Melissa Miller. Later they expanded their holdings to include paintings by early Texas artists such as Frank Reaugh, Julian Onderdonk, and Jose Arpa y Perea and by European artists--in particular Swiss and Czech modernists--from Ferdinand Holder, Cuno Amiet, and Felix Vallotton to Frantisek Kupka. The Barretts now possess not only one of the largest and most important holdings of Texas art in public or private hands, but also one of the most significant holdings of modern Swiss art outside Europe. In addition to a catalogue of the Barretts' holdings and biographies of the Texas artists represented in the collection, this volume contains a landmark essay by Michael Ennis, which provides a host of clues to the cultural and historical reasons for the emergence of Texas aft as something of quality and enduring value; an essay by Richard R. Brettell that brilliantly characterizes Swiss modernism; and a moving tribute by artist Bill Komodore that describes the Barretts as visionary patrons.