Want to schedule some inexpensive time in Houston? Why not take in a free day at the Menil Collection , a museum whose purpose is to exhibit the art collection of this city’s philanthropists, John and Dominique de Menil. The exhibits on display here, assembled over decades, is one of particular interest as it represents many cultures around the world and literally thousands of years of human inspiration, from the art of today to the art of prehistoric times.
The de Menil’s started collecting art in the 1940s, finally establishing a holding of 16,000 paintings and sculptures, prints and drawings, photographs and rare books.
In the early 1950s, they began sharing their collection with the public and lending the work to major museums. Among the first work they collected was European surrealist art. You’ll find paintings at the Menil Collection by Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, Yves Tanguy and Man Ray. They also collected Cubist and School of Paris paintings, such as the work of Henri Matisse, Fernand Leger, and Pablo Picasso.
In the 1960s, they began picking up work from Pop Art, Minimalism, as well as Abstract Expressionism. Any account of their lives would at least mention the close friendships they had with many of the artists, with Max Ernst, Jasper Johns, Rene Magritte, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol.
But the de Menil’s didn’t stop their collection with Surrealism and Pop Art; instead, they were interested in the connections, spiritual and formal, that these works had with the art of ancient cultures. For this reason, they brought in work from Mediterranean and Byzantine cultures, and included work from Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Pacific Northwest.
By the time of John de Menil’s death in 1973, the couple had already begun discussions about building their own museum. Dominique de Menil pursued that idea and opened the museum to the public in 1987.
With the inspiration you’ve gained and the money you’ve saved from a visit to this far-ranging museum, you may choose one of the luxury Houston hotels in which to stay, a place where you may contemplate the art work you’ve seen as well as the thousands of years of humanity’s relationship with art that the work represents.
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