Art Brokerage: Dorothy Hood, Pioneer Modernist, lived from 1919 to 2000, mostly in Houston and in Mexico. Science and space exploration influenced her work. So did modern art, poetry and philosophy. In late 2001, trustees of the South Texas Institute for Arts put aside exhibition schedules and financial charts for a moment to explore two large abstract paintings by the late artist Dorothy Hood of Houston. The Institute recently had acquired half of Hood's estate: 900 works including paintings, drawings and collages, exhibition catalogs, the artist's unpublished autobiography and other writings and correspondence. Dorothy Hood was a major regional artist and, some say, the best abstract painter of her generation in Texas. But her reputation also has a greater reach. Hood's drawings and paintings are in permanent collections of major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She had numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Europe. Hood's honors include the 1973 Childe Hassam Prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters; the 1988 Outstanding Achievement in Visual Arts award form the Women's National Caucus for Art; and an honorary doctorate in 1990 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied in the late 1930's. Dorothy Hood died on Oct 28, 2000 at the age of 81.