Menil Collection

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The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, is a museum that houses the private art collection of founders John and Dominique de Menil. Dominique was the heiress to the Schlumberger oil-drilling fortune, and John was an executive of the company.

The Renzo Piano-designed museum opened to the public in 1987 and houses one of the most important privately-assembled art collections of the twentieth century. It is made up of approximately 15,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books. The Museum's Surrealist collection is among the foremost of its kind in the world. The museum's collection includes the early to mid-twentieth century works of René Magritte, Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso among others. The museum also maintains an extensive collection of pop art and contemporary art from such noted artists as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. Also included in the museum's permanent collection are Antiquities and works of Byzantine, Medieval and Tribal art.

The museum campus has grown to include the adjacent Cy Twombly Gallery (also designed by Piano), The Richmond Hall, which houses Mrs. de Menil's last commission (a series of three site-specific installations by Dan Flavin installed in 1996), The Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum and the world-famous Rothko Chapel. The museum also has a library that is open to the public from 1pm to 3pm Wednesdays through Fridays.

The neighborhood as a whole has a coordinated feel. You will notice that the homes around the Menil Collection are all painted the same shade of gray. The Menil family gradually bought these homes, painted them the same color, and currently rents them. The result is a neighborhood that feels aesthetically unified.

The Rothko Chapel was originally designed to be a space for Catholic worship. However, this was unsettling to the University of St. Thomas with which the facility is affiliated. After much consultation with church authorities for the design of the space, in the end it became a non-denominational space open to public worship regardless of creed. In the entrance-way one can find a handful of dog-eared, donated holy books from various religious traditions that can be borrowed during your time in the chapel. This is a lovely space, sky-lit, with kneeling mats, prayer benches, and/or meditation cushions, not to mention Rothko's wall-sized paintings.

The Menil Collection is open to the public, and admission is free. It is located near the University of St. Thomas, in the Montrose district of Houston.