{{Short description|Art museum in Houston, Texas, US}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} thumb|Menil Collection thumb|One corner of the Menil Collection
The '''Menil Collection''', located in Houston, Texas, refers to the museum that houses the art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs and rare books it houses.<ref>{{cite web|title=About the Menil |url=http://houstonmuseumdistrict.org/museums/menil-collection/ |publisher=Houston Museum District |access-date=23 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625100441/http://houstonmuseumdistrict.org/museums/menil-collection/ |archive-date=25 June 2014 }}</ref> The museum is said to rank with "the great private museums in the United States—the Frick in New York City, the Gardner in Boston, and the Phillips in Washington, D.C."<ref name=":2" />
The future couple met at a ball at Versailles in 1930. At that time, Jean Marie Joseph Menu de Ménil (who subsequently Americanized his name) was 26 year-old baron.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2025-02-14 |title=The Secret History of Dominique and John de Menil, Legendary Patrons of the Centre Pompidou |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-plus/magazine/article/the-secret-history-of-dominique-and-john-de-menil-legendary-patrons-of-the-centre-pompidou |access-date=2026-05-22 |website=www.centrepompidou.fr |language=en-EN}}</ref> Dominique was the daughter of Conrad Schlumberger, who was a founder of the oil-drilling equipment company Schlumberger, which was the basis of the family fortune, which exceeded $100 million.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=The Menil Collection: A Journey Through Art and Spirituality in Houston |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/menil-collection |access-date=2026-05-21 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}</ref> Dominique converted to Catholicism, and they were married in 1931. The family settled in Houston in 1941, to escape the Nazi occupation of France.<ref name=":3" />
The de Menils' most important mentor was a Dominican priest named Father Marie-Alaine Couturier. He taught them about modern art, with a strong interest in spirituality. He also advised them that with their great wealth, they should buy art and share it with the public.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ryzin |first=Jeanne Claire van |date=2018-03-25 |title='Double Vision' is a dual biography of Dominique and John de Menil |url=https://sightlinesmag.org/double-vision-a-dual-biography-of-dominique-and-john-de-menil |access-date=2026-05-22 |website=Sightlines |language=en-US}}</ref> By the time of John de Menil's death in 1973, the couple had collected 10,000 art objects.<ref name=":1" />
While the foundation of the collection is made up of a once-private collection, Menil Foundation, Inc. is a tax-exempt, nonprofit, public charity corporation formed under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Additionally, the Menil receives public funds granted by the City of Houston, the State of Texas, and the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/746045327|title=Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica|last=ProPublica|first=Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei|newspaper=ProPublica|access-date=2017-02-22|language=en}}</ref>
== Collection == In 2014, about 16,000 permanent collection works are held on the museum campus.<ref name=":2" /> According to the website, the museum now has more than 25,000 objects.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection - Menil |url=https://www.menil.org/collection |access-date=2026-05-22 |website=www.menil.org |language=en}}</ref> Only about 5% of the collection is exhibited at any given time. Collection rotation was desired by one of the founders: "it was one of Dominique de Menil's primary goals to rotate the works of art continually so that the public's experience in the museum would always be fresh."<ref name=":1" />
The museum's holdings include early to mid-twentieth century works of Yves Tanguy, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, and Pablo Picasso, among others.<ref>{{cite web|last=Peterson|first=Linda|title=John de Menil|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmeny|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> Highlights include "Over 1,000 examples of Max Ernst's oeuvre and some of Rene Magritte's most highly regarded paintings."<ref name=":1" />
The museum also maintains an extensive collection of contemporary art, including pop art and abstract expressionis, from Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns to Vija Celmins, Frank Stella, Donald Judd, and Cy Twombly, Jr., among others.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-02-14 |title=The Secret History of Dominique and John de Menil, Legendary Patrons of the Centre Pompidou |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-plus/magazine/article/the-secret-history-of-dominique-and-john-de-menil-legendary-patrons-of-the-centre-pompidou |access-date=2026-05-22 |website=www.centrepompidou.fr |language=en-EN}}</ref> The Menil also collects self-taught artists and documentary photographs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection - Menil |url=https://www.menil.org/collection |access-date=2026-05-22 |website=www.menil.org |language=en}}</ref>
Also included in the museum's permanent collection are antiquities, mainly classical (but also a few Near Eastern objects), and some works of Byzantine (mostly icons) and Medieval art. There is also a large tribal art collection.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|last=Davidson|first=John|title=Hiding in Plain Sight: Houston's Menil Collection|url=https://www.texashighways.com/culture-lifestyle/item/802-hiding-in-plain-sight-houston-s-menil-collection|publisher=Texas Highways|access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref>
The museum's holdings from Africa total more than 900 works, primarily from West and Central Africa, though works from half of Africa's countries are represented in the collection. Some of the most important African works, from France's former colonies, were acquired as early as the 1930s in Paris. The majority of the collection was put together between the 1950s and the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Africa - Menil |url=https://www.menil.org/exhibition/africa |access-date=2026-05-21 |website=www.menil.org |language=en}}</ref> 115 African objects are illustrated and discussed in a 2008 catalogue titled ''African art from the Menil Collection''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/africanartfromme0000unse |title=African art from the Menil Collection |date=2008 |publisher=Houston, Tex. : The Menil Collection ; New Haven : Distributed by Yale University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-300-12376-0}}</ref>
The indigenous Americas collection is substantial, with more than 800 works. The collection stems from the interest of the founders, who lived in South America for several years. Collection strengths include objects from Mesoamerica, South America, the Pacific Northwest, and the Arctic. Additionally, objects from the Rock Foundation (founded by anthropologist Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil) are on long-term loan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indigenous Americas - Menil |url=https://www.menil.org/exhibition/indigenous-americas |access-date=2026-05-20 |website=www.menil.org |language=en}}</ref>
One room features a highly diverse group of objects, including found objects, natural objects, ethnographic objects, and Surrealist works. It is now called A Surrealist Kunstkammer. It was conceived by Carpenter, and first opened in 1999. On its website, the museum describes it as "an interpretive matrix" for understanding human psychology through Surrealism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-30 |title=A Surrealist Wunderkammer at the Menil Collection + Interview with Paul R. Davis, Curator of Collections |url=https://www.artoftheancestors.com/blog/surrealist-wunderkammer-menil |access-date=2026-05-21 |website=Art of The Ancestors {{!}} Island Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Global Tribal Art News |language=en-US}}</ref>
==History== The Renzo Piano-designed museum opened to the public in June 1987. It is governed by the Menil Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit charitable corporation established in 1954, whose stated purpose was to promote understanding and culture, primarily through the arts. Initially, the Foundation also pursued land banking to stabilize the neighborhood surrounding the museum, and structured the administration and operations of the collection. Dominique de Menil (a member of the Schlumberger family) served as first president; early board members included the Menils' son Francois, daughter Philippa Pellizzi, Malcolm McCorquodale,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-01-21 |title=Malcohn Scott McCorquodale Jr. '55 |url=https://paw.princeton.edu/memorial/malcohn-scott-mccorquodale-jr-%E2%80%9955 |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=Princeton Alumni Weekly |language=en}}</ref> Edmund Snow Carpenter, Miles Rudolph Glaser,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E7D71F30F931A35752C0A9639C8B63|title=Paid Notice: Deaths GLASER, MILES RUDOLPH|newspaper=The New York Times |date=15 September 2017}}</ref> and Mickey Leland.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kleiner|first=Diana J.|title=Menil Foundation|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vrm04|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> Dominique de Menil ran the museum until her death in December 1997.<ref name="auto">Stephen Kinzer (January 31, 2001), [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/31/arts/soul-searching-private-pantheon-art-menil-collection-houston-grapples-with-its.html Soul Searching at a Private Pantheon of Art; Menil Collection in Houston Grapples With Its Identity Under New Leadership] ''New York Times''.</ref> In 2016, Rebecca Rabinow replaced Josef Helfenstein as director of the museum.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=2016-05-19 |title=Rebecca Rabinow, Met Curator, Departing to Lead Menil Collection |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/20/arts/design/rebecca-rabinow-met-curator-departing-to-lead-menil-collection.html |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==Campus and neighborhood== The museum campus has grown to include four satellite galleries to the main building: Cy Twombly Gallery (also designed by Piano); the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, which houses Dominique de Menil's last commission (a series of three site-specific installations by Dan Flavin that were installed in 1998); the Byzantine Fresco Chapel; and the Menil Drawing Institute. Another building founded by the Menils, but now operating as an independent foundation, is the Rothko Chapel.
The Menil Foundation began buying bungalow-style homes in the area in the 1960s, painting each the same shade of gray to establish a commonality. When the museum building was constructed, it was painted what has become known as "Menil gray," to coordinate with the bungalows.<ref>{{cite web|last=Sood|first=Khushboo|title=Menil Museum, Houston|date=7 May 2014 |url=http://www.slideshare.net/khushboosood/menil-museum-houston|publisher=Slideshare|access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref>
In 2013, the landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh was appointed to enhance and expand the Menil Collection’s {{convert|30|acre|ha|abbr=off|sp=us|adj=on}} campus. The master site plan, by David Chipperfield Architects, called for the creation of additional green space and walkways, a cafe, and new buildings for art.<ref>Robin Pogrebin (June 12, 2013), [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/menil-collection-hires-landscape-architect-to-enhance-its-houston-campus/ Menil Collection Hires Landscape Architect to Enhance Its Houston Campus] ''New York Times''.</ref>
==Admission== The Menil Collection is open to the public, and admission is free. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11 am to 7 pm. It is located near the University of St. Thomas, in the Montrose (Neartown) area of Houston.
===The Byzantine Fresco Chapel=== thumb|left|180px|Interior of the Byzantine Fresco Chapel showing the glass church {{main|Byzantine Fresco Chapel}}
Located in a separate building near the main collection, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel formerly housed two 13th century Byzantine church frescoes, an apse semi-dome of the Virgin Panagia and a dome featuring a depiction of Christ, known as Christ Pantocrator. After having been removed from a church in Lysi (in Turkish-occupied North Cyprus) by the illegal art trade, they were recovered during the 1980s. According to the museum, they were the only such frescoes in the Americas. They were held at the museum by agreement with their owners, the Church of Cyprus.
In September 2011 the Menil Collection announced that the frescoes would be permanently returned to Cyprus in February 2012, an example of art repatriation.<ref>[http://houston.culturemap.com/newsdetail/09-23-11-20-43-menil-returning-byzantine-frescoes-to-cypress/ Houston Culturemap]</ref> In January 2015, the Menil disclosed its plans to reuse the former consecrated chapel space as a site for long-term contemporary installation work. The first exhibition in the reopened space is "The Infinity Machine", a new work commissioned by the Menil by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.menil.org/assets/cardiff-miller-updated-final-1.23.15.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-03-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329051713/http://www.menil.org/assets/cardiff-miller-updated-final-1.23.15.pdf |archive-date=2015-03-29 }}</ref>
===Cy Twombly Gallery=== In 1992, Renzo Piano was commissioned by Dominique de Menil to build a small, independent pavilion dedicated to the work of Cy Twombly, Jr. in the grounds of the Menil Collection. In contrast to the Menil’s main museum building and the surrounding bungalows, the Cy Twombly Gallery is built of sand-colored block concrete, is square in plan and contains nine galleries. Similar to the main museum, it is lit through the roof, with an external canopy of louvers, a sloping, hipped glass roof, and a fabric ceiling (to diffuse the light).<ref>[http://www.rpbw.com/project/36/cy-twombly-pavilion/ Cy Twombly Pavilion (1992-1995)] Renzo Piano Building Workshop.</ref> The gift of works by Cy Twombly was announced in January of 2025, comprising two paintings, described as "early keystones," and 121 drawings, from the Cy Twombly Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Menil Collection Receives Major Gifts of Paintings and Drawings by Cy Twombly from the Cy Twombly Foundation - Menil |url=https://www.menil.org/press/the-menil-collection-receives-major-gifts-of-paintings-and-drawings-by-cy-twombly-from-the-cy-twombly-foundation |access-date=2026-05-14 |website=www.menil.org |language=en}}</ref>
===Menil Drawing Institute=== The Menil Drawing Institute, opened in 2018, is the first ground-up building in the United States dedicated to the exhibition, study, storage and conservation of modern and contemporary artworks on paper, according to the Menil Collection.<ref name="auto1">Molly Glentzer (February 19, 2014), [http://www.chron.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Menil-unveils-plans-for-long-awaited-drawing-5246115.php Menil unveils plans for long-awaited drawing institute] ''Houston Chronicle''.</ref> In 2016, two Menil trustees, Janie C. Lee and Louisa Stude Sarofim, promised a collection of 110 drawings made by 41 artists.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Desk |first=News |date=2016-06-16 |title=Menil Collection Receives Major Gift of 110 Drawings by 41 Artists |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/menil-collection-receives-major-gift-of-110-drawings-by-41-artists-229730/ |access-date=2026-05-14 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}</ref>
Los Angeles–based architecture firm Johnston Marklee and New York–based landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed the Drawing Institute.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2017/07/28/menil-drawing-institute-s-opening-date-postponed.html|title=Menil Drawing Institute's opening date postponed|website=www.bizjournals.com|access-date=2018-01-05}}</ref> They worked in close collaboration with the New York–based structural engineering firm Guy Nordenson and Associates.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dallasnews.com/arts/architecture/2018/12/05/houston-knife-edged-museum-drawing-future|title=Menil Collection's new Drawing Institute stands out by fitting in with museum's architectural aesthetic|last=Lamster|first=Mark|date=2018-12-05|website=Dallas News|language=en|access-date=2019-01-08}}</ref> Johnston Marklee was selected to design it after winning a competition that also included David Chipperfield, SANAA and Tatiana Bilbao. Rhode Island–based Gilbane Building Company, a subsidiary of Gilbane, Inc., was selected as the general contractor.<ref name=":0" />
The $40-million building, with a total of {{convert|30000|sqft|m2|abbr=off|sp=us}} on two floors, one of them below ground, is located near the southern edge of the Menil campus, adjacent to the Cy Twombly Gallery<ref>Christopher Hawthorne (February 19, 2014), [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-menil-design-by-la-firm-johnston-marklee-is-deceptively-simple-20140219,0,1009067.story Review: Menil design by L.A.'s Johnston Marklee is deceptively simple] ''Los Angeles Times''.</ref> and north of the Dan Flavin Installation.<ref>Robin Pogrebi (March 26, 2015), [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/27/arts/design/brooklyn-bridge-park-to-display-danish-artist.html Menil Is Set To Expand] ''New York Times''.</ref> Modestly scaled, the flat-roofed building tops out at {{convert|16|ft|m|abbr=off}}, no taller than the neighboring gray bungalows on the {{convert|30|acre|ha|abbr=off|sp=us|adj=on}} campus. Half of its space is for underground storage, while the ground level will contain a large, flexible central living room, about {{convert|3000|sqft|m2|abbr=off|sp=us}} of exhibition space, a scholar's cloister, rooms for seminars and other events, and a conservation lab, all wrapped around three courtyards.<ref name="auto1"/>
==Vandalism== On June 13, 2012, a 22-year-old museum visitor named Uriel Landeros defaced an original Picasso at the museum, ''Woman in a Red Armchair'', using black spray paint to stencil a bull and a matador and the word ''Conquista'' on the work of art.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Glentzer|first1=Molly|title=Picasso vandal hits Menil|url=http://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Picasso-vandal-hits-Menil-3642537.php|website=Houston Chronicle|date=18 June 2012 |access-date=24 August 2014}}</ref> The vandal, a self-proclaimed artist, said that he did it to make a statement, and did not intend to destroy the painting. Landeros was sentenced to two years in prison for felony graffiti and criminal mischief.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rogers|first1=Brian|title=Menil Picasso vandal gets 2 years in prison|url=http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Menil-Picasso-vandal-gets-2-years-in-prison-4535290.php|website=Houston Chronicle|date=22 May 2013 |access-date=24 August 2014}}</ref>
==Management==
===Menil Foundation=== The museum continues to be governed by the Menil Foundation. The foundation has been solely responsible for acquisition funds, which during the first years averaged more than $1 million annually, and operating disbursements of between $2.7 million and $2.9 million a year.<ref name="auto2">Grace Glueck (May 29, 1989), [https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/29/arts/menil-collection-seeks-35-million.html Menil Collection Seeks $35 Million] ''New York Times''.</ref> Nearly half of the money for the museum building was derived from outside sources in Houston, in particular the Cullen Foundation and the Brown Foundation, which contributed $5 million each.<ref>Grace Glueck (May 26, 1987), [https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/26/arts/houston-s-elegant-menil-collection.html Houston's Elegant Menil Collection] ''New York Times''.</ref> By 2001, the Menil Foundation's endowment was $200 million.<ref name="auto"/> The budget pays in part for the museum's operation and for exhibitions, research, and catalogs.<ref name="auto"/>
Brown & Root heir Louisa Stude Sarofim was president of the Menil Collection and Foundation starting in 1998, following the death of Dominique de Menil.<ref>Carol Vogel (October 17, 2003), [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/17/arts/inside-art.html New Hopes In Houston] ''New York Times''.</ref> She has since become one of the museum's largest donors.<ref name="auto"/> The Board of Trustees includes, among others, Suzanne Deal Booth.
===Directors=== The museum's first director was Walter Hopps. Before joining the Menil Collection as director in 1983, he had worked with Mrs. de Menil on planning the museum and its program.<ref name="auto2"/> Between 1999 and 2003, Ned Rifkin served as the museum's director;<ref name="auto"/> during his time in office, there were frequent clashes over the museum's direction and whether Rifkin was departing from the vision of its founder.<ref>Stephen Kinzer (November 12, 2001), [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/arts/sept-11-influenced-move-of-director-to-hirshhorn.html Sept. 11 Influenced Move Of Director to Hirshhorn] ''New York Times''.</ref> Josef Helfenstein was named director in 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=Menil Collection Director to Present George Heard Hamilton Memorial Lecture October 25 at the Clark|url=http://www.clarkart.edu/about/press/content.cfm?ID=494&year=2005|publisher=clarkart|access-date=23 May 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140523230731/http://www.clarkart.edu/about/press/content.cfm?ID=494&year=2005|archive-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> Until his departure in 2015, the Menil doubled its annual attendance, increased its endowment by almost 54 percent, and added more than 1,000 works to the collection, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra and Kara Walker.<ref>Robin Pogrebin (June 30, 2015), [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/menil-collection-director-departs-to-lead-kunstmuseum-basel/ Menil Collection Director Leaving for Kunstmuseum Basel] ''New York Times''.</ref>
==See also== * ''Bygones'' (1976) * ''Charmstone'' (1991) * ''Isolated Mass/Circumflex (Number 2)'' (1968–1978)
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{Official website|www.menil.org}} *{{Handbook of Texas|id=klm06|name=Menil Collection}} {{Neartown, Houston}} {{Houston}} {{Dia Art Foundation}} {{authority control}} {{Coord|29|44|14|N|95|23|55|W|type:landmark_region:US-TX|display=title}}
Category:1987 establishments in Texas Category:Art museums and galleries established in 1987 Category:Art museums and galleries in Texas Category:Biographical museums in Texas Category:Modern art museums in the United States Category:Modernist architecture in Texas Category:Museums in Houston Category:Renzo Piano buildings Category:Former private collections in the United States Category:Neartown, Houston Category:African art museums in the United States