Stream in the Mountains, George Inness

A DMA DISCOVERY: The Dallas Museum of Art announced this morning that a painting in its collection once attributed to Asher B. Durand George Inness … is by George Inness. The work entered the collection in 1931, but questions arose over whether Durand Inness actually painted it. Fast forward to this past August, when DMA curator Sue Canterbury took an interest in the painting. After lots of sleuthing and consultation with other Inness experts, Canterbury and the museum are now confident that the work is by Inness after all. “This magnificent early work by Inness joins four additional paintings in the DMA’s collection that stem from the artist’s late career and, thus, will allow us to present visitors with a fuller understanding of the stylistic development of this superb American painter,” says DMA director Maxwell Anderson in a news release.

HITCHCOCK HAMS IT UP: He’s been dead for more than 30 years, but Alfred Hitchcock feels very much alive these days. HBO just aired The Girl, about his obsession with Tippi Hedren. And Anthony Hopkins plays him in Hitchcock, due out later this year. Locally, Theatre Arlington is producing The 39 Steps, the stage adaptation of the director’s wonderful 1935 film. And it sounds as if the transition from screen to stage is seamless. “This is such a foolproof farce that so long as the cast and crew give it their all, as they largely do here, it works just fine. You will laugh a lot and have the added pleasure of sitting through an entire Hitchcock work without being scared to death a single time,” is how Punch Shaw sums it up on dfw.com. “Thankfully, director Andy Baldwin and his cast nail it perfectly and make certain that no one will ever view the original film in the same light again,” Kris Noteboom writes on theaterjones.com. Catch it through Nov. 4.

REWARDING BAD BEHAVIOR: Remember the story from back in June about a guy who defaced a Picasso at Houston’s Menil Collection? Yeah, that guy’s now getting a solo showat Houston’s Cueto James Art Gallery. “It’s just taking something and making it your own. I like what Uriel did. That it makes it yours,” gallery owner James Perez says of Uriel Landeros’s vandalism. Sounds like an open invitation to bring your own spray paint to the gallery.