A good part of the Menil Collection comprises objects of African and other tribal art, and the foundation began, in 1961, a long-range research project, ''The Image of the Black in Western Art.'' In 1980, the woman she was had become a Sufi dervish named Fariha al-Jerrahi, and when the house of Dia fell, she moved on. Anyone can read what you share. They helped make a black militant who hated white people into a humanitarian.'' [29] The Foundation offered the CarterMenil Human Rights Prize, sponsored by the Rothko Chapel, to organizations or individuals for their commitment to human rights. De Maria has a long history with Dia, having been one of the first artists in its collectionwhich was begun by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich, and Helen Winkler in 1974and a pivotal player in the institution's history. ''Each of the children,'' says Adelaide now, ''would have preferred his or her own choice of architects, but after all, it is my mother's museum. Small wonder that in Houston, a city where, as a local gadfly once observed, ''it's easier to be rich than interesting,'' the de Menils are something of a legend. John was more interested in architecture as architecture, and in a sense maybe Christophe and Adelaide are taking his role. ''Each branch of the Schlumberger clan has a wing,'' Christophe explains. ''I went to breakfast, lunch and dinner at their house and met every important person they knew. Few philanthropists of the 20th century contributed more to the American art world than Dominique and John de Menil. v t e Fariha Fatima al-Jerrahi (born Philippa de Menil; 13 June 1947) is the spiritual guide and current Sheikha of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in New York City. Byzantine Fresco Chapel, Passionate Voices: Unveiling of Love, The [lecture by Fariha de Menil Friedrich], 2007-03-24, 2007-08-07, Eine multikulturelle Familie macht Kulturpolitik, 1997-10-02, Magnificent milestone: The Menil turns 20, 2007-06-03, Menils Everyday People captures human detail, 2007-04-12. [1], The Menil campus also includes the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. When they arrived there from Paris in the early 1940's, they were not yet as wealthy as they would become, but they were almost too interesting. They hated the result, and hid it away. Designed by the architect Charles Gwathmey and built at a reported cost of $6 million, the house - called ''Toad Hall'' by its owner - is a fantasy version of a luxury ocean liner, with a three-story greenhouse, screening room, game room, exercise salon, wine cellar and the obligatory swimming pool. Her ideas are defended by her son-the-architectural-student. The minute the cops arrive, they form ranks. THE COUPLE'S MOST INTENSE Houston involvement was with St. Thomas University, a small Catholic college. As a trustee there, John was responsible in 1961 for bringing in as director the distinguished but controversial James Johnson Sweeney, former director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. De Menil died in Houston on December 31, 1997. "The de Menil Family: The Medici of Modern Art". A local citizen once called John up and railed against him as a ''red'' for his support of King. [1] She also published articles on film technology in the French journal La revue du cinma.[4]. "Les divers procds du film parlant". But we are definitely a collection of people very much influenced by John and Dominique. ''Dominique and John were entirely separate people who worked not so much together but in parallel ways,'' suggests Fred Hofheinz. '', ''I wanted a functional museum and they wanted great architecture,'' comments Dominique. [10] They bought more than two hundred pieces from Klejman's New York Gallery. De Maria had traveled to Santa Barbara for his mother's 100th birthday in early June; however, he went on to . Inheritance (oil) 20th-century art Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Overview Newswire RobbReport ''Life had been tough for him, and he saw how hard it was for some others.''. The reunited family went to Houston, then the American headquarters for the company. She has now turned her East Side carriage house into a fashion atelier. [14] They were instrumental in the Contemporary Arts Association's decision to hire Jermayne MacAgy as its director; she curated several groundbreaking exhibitions, including "The Sphere of Mondrian" and "Totems Not Taboo: An Exhibition of Primitive Art. He took the the couple around to galleries, singing the praises of the modernists. For several artists besides Judd, houses with studio or living arrangements were provided along with annual stipends, and museums were set up for the work of others. ''For instance, there was a big purple and yellow canvas by Leger, and I hated to take my friends through the hall where they could see it. Their collection was motivated by their shared interest in the many ways individuals over different cultures and eras reveal through art their understanding of what it means to be human.[7]. The building was designed by architect Francois de Menil and mimics the original Lysi chapel. 2003), the world's largest contemporary art museum, located in Beacon, N.Y. A converted factory, it contains unusually large unbroken spaces, ideal for exhibiting the frequently monumental and often minimalist (see minimalism) art and large-scale installations Dia favors. You can't just expand and expand. Says Dominique, ''The idea of the foundation was marvelous, and they've done great things. (For their honeymoon, he took Dominique on a bus trip through Morocco.) For example, use philippa de menilare there really purple owls. In 1986, de Menil deepened her involvement in social causes, establishing the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation with former president Jimmy Carter to "promote the protection of human rights throughout the world". Flowering, in a way. Raised a Protestant, Dominique converted to Roman Catholicism in 1932. He wanted me to be exposed to every aspect of their life that would give me a chance to do things for my community. Schlumberger Ltd. - tHE Source of the de Menil family's fortune - was established in 1934 by Conrad Schlumberger, Dominique de Menil's father, and Marcel Schlumberger, her uncle. Hickey-Robertson. ''John's feeling for the underdog really started in his childhood,'' says Dominique. They have sold off a good deal of it over the years, and diversified their holdings. In 1983, the foundation listed assets of approximately $30 million in art and real estate. The middle child is Georges, an elegant and articulate - if slightly stuffy -scholar of 45 who more or less oversees the family's financial matters. He did. After moving to Houston, the de Menils quickly became key figures in the city's developing cultural life as advocates of modern art and architecture. Initially the stated aim as written in its first report was to "plan, realise and maintain public projects of artists. [34] The frescoesa dome with Christ Pantokrator and an apse depicting the Virgin Mary Panayiawere installed in a reliquary-like space interior where they were displayed until March 2012, at which time they were returned to the Church of Cyprus. The Menil Collection's discreet, low-key architecture befits its site in Montrose, a modest, socially mixed residential area of Houston. Philippa and her husband Heiner have made over a former apartment building into a townhouse. [11] Influenced by the teachings of Father Couturier and Father Congar, the de Menils developed a particular humanist ethos in which they understood art as a central part of the human experience. It serves the vi-sion of a place ''for people in search of peace, meditation and a more intense consciousness of our time.'' Over the course of nearly 20 years, beginning in the late 1940's, they set up a full-fledged art and art history department, hiring -and paying for - teachers, researchers and what one of the former de-scribes as ''others with whom they have loose and flexible arrangements.'' The public would never know museum fatigue and would have the rare joy of sitting in front of a painting and contemplating it Works would appear, disappear, and reappear like actors on a stage. For starters, in a locale where the ideal home was a formal white-pillared mansion, the de Menils got Philip Johnson to do them a sprawling, one-level house. The couple also has a house in Bridgehampton, L.I., and a 60-square-mile holding in Texas, known as Mesquite Ranch, that is being restored, possibly for use as a retreat or conference center. ''I was interested in art, but shy and out of contact with the art world. Though the collection has strengths in Mediterranean antiquities, Eurasian and European artifacts, African art, Cubism, Surrealism and contemporary American and European works, it lacks a museum ''profile.'' Schlumberger is still the global leader in well logging, and has expanded over the years into the manufacture of electric and gas meters, transformers, microcircuits, instruments and test systems for aerospace and other industries. ''You support artists by buying their work, not by making shrines to them.''. The Menil Foundation is contributing not only the art but about $8 million. Its basis was a device that was lowered by cable into the ground to measure the electrical resistance of formations in the earth. ''Christophe and I had chicken pox,'' remembers Adelaide. Philippa - called ''Phip'' by intimates - the mother of two, is probably the closest heir to her mother's ''spirituality,'' and has her good looks and unpretentious manner. Eventually, the de Menils and their entourage became so much a part of the St. Thomas scene that ''it became difficult to operate without stepping on one of their toes,'' says Father Patrick O. Braden, president of the college at the time. [1], She was born in 1947 into a socially committed, eclectic French Catholic family in Houston, Texas. Actually, her children venerate Dominique almost to the point of copying her.'' ''But there were all these weird paintings hanging on the walls,'' she says. Kahn did produce some preliminary drawings, but the project was suspended in 1973 after John de Menil's and Kahn's deaths less than a year apart. Since its inception, the chapel has witnessed all manner of events, from high-minded colloquia to weddings, bar mitzvahs, a Sufi ceremony by whirling dervishes from Turkey, a reception for the Dalai Lama and avant-garde concerts. Articles in Zest section The Menil Opens.. tion in 1974, run by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich and Helen Winkler. WHERE THE DE MENIL MONEY COMES FROM. He met Philippa through Helen Winkler, an employee of the Menil Foundation. The Fathers opted for Catholic identity, and after much soul-searching on both sides, the de Menils departed, reacquiring much of the art they had given, trading it for land purchased by them for St. Thomas's expansion. Explains William Camfield, whom the de Menils brought over as professor of art history from St. Thomas, ''At Rice, the de Menils said, 'Let's see if it works and if you like it. Both pupils received new Sufi names. He remembers a rainy night in Paris, when he was ill with a cold but had a manuscipt to deliver to the noted anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. "I dreamed of preserving some of the intimacy I had enjoyed with works of art," she wrote. ''He made us greedy,'' Dominique says, remembering that the priest once appeared for lunch with a Rouault painting under his arm. Philippa - called ''Phip'' by intimates - the mother of two, is probably the closest heir to her mother's ''spirituality,'' and has her good looks and unpretentious manner. . She recently bought another place near Sag Harbor, and in Manhattan she has a splendid three-story former carriage house with a swimming pool on the ground floor, redone with help from the Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry and the ''light sculptor'' Douglas Wheeler. Now it's a coalition of businessmen and minorities who run the city.''. But, he says, ''I was fortunate to be exposed to their interest in art as part of the natural fabric of life. At the suggestion of the Houston designer Howard Barnstone, who might be called the de Menils' architect-in-residence, the houses have mostly been painted a uniform gray, so that the museum and the bungalows together have the aspect of a small, but by no means unpleasant, company town. So hooked were they that, ''We went crazy,'' says Dominique. 1974 by art dealer Heiner Friedrich and his wife, art patron Philippa de Menil. The Dan Flavin installation consists of two horizontal green fluorescent lights on the eastern and western sides of the building's exterior, two sets of diagonal white lights on the foyer walls, and a large work in the main interior space featuring pink, yellow, green, blue, and ultraviolet lights. Dia Art Foundation, American foundation that supports contemporary art and artists, est. Joining the bravely vanguard Contemporary Arts Association, they made their presence felt, producing a major Van Gogh show and staging exhibitions of work by Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Alexander Calder. An 11th-century abbey revamped during the 18th century, the chateau has perhaps 100 rooms. Dia was founded in New York City in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich, and Helen Winkler to help artists achieve visionary projects that might not otherwise be realized because of scale or scope. Easily the most spectacular residence is Francois's, built a few years ago on seven acres of expensive East Hampton beachfront as a vacation retreat from his handsome Manhattan apartment. ''It was very grand and typically him,'' says Adelaide. They also set up a media center, an undergraduate film school whose instructors included the film directors Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni. Inheritance (oil) 20th-century art Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Overview Newswire RobbReport "[15] In 1954 they founded the Menil Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the "support and advancement of religious, charitable, literary, scientific and educational purposes".[16]. Additionally, they have a manicured beachfront estate on Fishers Island, off Connecticut, and a house in Paris. [25], The de Menils had originally made plans to build the Rothko Chapel in 1964 when Dominique de Menil commissioned a suite of meditative paintings by Mark Rothko for an ecumenical chapel intended for the University of St. Thomas as a space of dialogue and reflection between faiths. And next month, Dominique de Menil, the family matriarch (her husband John, ne Jean, died in 1973), will see the completion in Houston of a new $21 million museum known as the Menil Collection, minus the de, in the interest of simplicity. Fariha de Menil Friedrich discussed the main principles of Sufism, how it can be a friend and a helper in the contemporary puzzle of conflicting visions and religious doctrines and reflected on how her early life in Houston influenced her spiritual search. After the Nazi invasion of France, Dominique fled Paris with her then-three children (Georges was a babe in arms), made her way to Spain and at Bilbao boarded a small freighter for Havana. The founders had . ''Before that it was the old Bourbon alliance, blue-collar whites and white-collar businessmen. To supple-ment the scanty family income, John dropped out of school to work in a bank. He later realized who had delivered the manuscript and wrote her a note.'' John's assertiveness made itself felt even as he lay dying of cancer, when he prepared a scenario for his funeral. The city's negativism toward the piece, however, served as a goad to the active de Menil political conscience, according to Fred Hofheinz, a young white liberal who was elected Mayor of the volatile city in 1973 with heavy de Menil backing. Sheikha. It will house the more than 10,000 objects acquired by the couple. They were the first Americans to influence Europeans. Dominique and John de Menil, circa 1967. Sweeney, the de Menils' man, was eventually dismissed, partly because he questioned the attributions of works the Blaffer family proposed to donate. I could have worked with Dominique.''. Perhaps the closest of the children to her late father, who was an outspoken liberal drawn to minority causes, Adelaide has developed an interest in the lives of the ''bonackers,'' the vanishing tribe of fishermen and their families native to the eastern tip of Long Island. The de Menils' Catholic faith, especially their interest in Father Yves Marie Joseph Congar's teachings on ecumenism, would become crucial to the development of their collecting ethos in the coming decades. John listened patiently to the telephone tirade and then said, ''Listen, my friend, why don't you come to my house for a drink? "The Memory of Rossellini in Texas." They were an extraordinary couple. [1] American Sufi leader In an effort to provide a strong art history curriculum in Houston for students and adults, they founded the art department at the University of St. Thomas in 1959, inviting Jermayne MacAgy to teach courses and curate exhibitions held at Jones Hall. His interest in architecture, he says, comes from his father and from working with Charles Gwathmey, who designed his East Hampton house. Whitman brought a suit against Dia, which is pending. That same year they provided the University of St. Thomas, a small Catholic institution in Houston, with funding to build Strake Hall and Jones Hall, designed by Philip Johnson per their recommendation. (Dia, the Greek. [26] It was established as an autonomous organization the next year and began hosting colloquia, beginning with "Traditional Modes of Contemplation and Action," which brought together religious leaders, scholars, and musicians from four continents. And Donald Judd has gone public with vociferous denunciations of the foundation, which is now but a shadow of itself. An informal art historian and teacher, Dominique has also organized some remarkable exhibitions, innovatively installed. Dominique de Menil, Quoted in Browning 1983, 37. (As one Texan commented, ''The de Menils have done so much good with so little money,'' pointing out that their wealth was ''really peanuts, compared to some fortunes down here.'') [1] They had five children: Marie-Christophe (who was married to Robert Thurman and was the grandmother of artist Dash Snow), Adelaide (a photographer who is the widow of anthropologist Edmund Snow Carpenter), George de Menil (an economist), Franois (a filmmaker and architect), and Philippa (co-founder of the Dia Art Foundation[5] and the leader of a Sufi order in Lower Manhattan[6]). Guided by her longtime companion, the anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, she has acquired a formidable collection of objects from tribal cultures - Peruvian feather hangings, Polynesian sculptures, Eskimo carvings, masks by Northwest Coast Indians. Fariha Fatima al-Jerrahi (born Philippa de Menil; 13 June 1947) is the spiritual guide and current Sheikha of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in New York City. Ever since, Dia's mission has been to commission, support, and present site-specific long-term installations and single-artists exhibitions to the public. The two met at a ball in Versailles, and were married in 1931, when Dominique was 22 and John was 27 and working in a Paris bank. The foundation's extravagant expenditures have necessitated a family rescue effort. With the guidance of the Dominican priest Marie-Alain Couturier, who introduced the de Menils to the work of artists in galleries and museums in New York, they became interested in the intersection of modern art and spirituality. After his death, he lay in state, wrapped in a sheet in his own bed. Dominique de Menil (ne Schlumberger; March 23, 1908 December 31, 1997) was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune. Following the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi occupation of France, the de Menils emigrated from Paris to the United States of America. [7] Her first husband (whom she married on May 14, 1969, in Harris County, Texas) was Italian anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi (born July 14, 1940). Philippa De Menil Bio Details Full name Philippa De Menil Gender Female Age 71 (approx.) The work these artists made changed, or at least questioned, the nature of art: what it. ''I get that so much from my mother - decide what you're aiming at and strike out after it. After Sheikh Nur's passing, she would take on the guidance of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order and it's circles of dervishes around the world. While pressing toward the completion of the Houston museum, she finds time to head the Georges Pompidou Art and Culture Foundation in Paris; work on a long-range ethno-historical project, ''The Image of the Black in Western Art''; oversee the editing of the writings of Father Marie-Alain Couturier, the Dominican priest who introduced her and John to modern art; keep up with the activities of such de Menil projects as the Institute for the Arts at Rice University and the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and promote religious ecumenism through worldwide contacts among clergy of various persuasions. We - my brothers and sisters and I - each have a different focus. THE DE MENILS' civil-rights activities earned them epithets ranging from '''radical chic'' to ''Communist.'' BUT, AS DOMINIQUE likes to point out, she and John didn't start out rich. German gallery owner Heiner Friedrich, Fariha Friedrich (ne de Menil) and Helen Winkler Fosdick founded Dia. ''We changed the basic political structure of Houston,'' says Hofheinz -now chairman of Tangent Oil and Gas - whose four-year mayoral stint corresponded with Houston's ''go-go'' period of growth. A more reticent, but still attention-getting, project is Adelaide's 40-acre housing complex, set in a former potato field not far from Francois's establishment. [32], Dedicated on June 7, 1987, the Menil Collection exhibits objects from John and Dominique de Menil's collection, including selections of African Art, a vast collection of Surrealist pieces, and the work of a number of contemporary American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly, and Mark Rothko. ''', Dominique's craving found expression during the couple's frequent visits to New York in the 40's and 50's, where they met Father Marie-Alain Couturier, a French Dominican priest who spent the war years there. The building, primly sheathed in what one Houstonian calls ''Protestant gray clapboard'' (probably a first for a museum in this country), has on the ground floor exhibition spaces set in a landscaped garden. They have four children, and collect modern and contemporary abstract art, including works by David Smith, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski. She has organized a forthcoming book ''Men's Lives'' - with specially commissioned photographs, and a text by Peter Matthiessen -about them. When the de Menils acquired the sculpture in 1968, the year the Rev. I never really wanted to collect, but the idea of a foundation that would help artists build excited me. Until very recently, Christophe also had a sizable house in East Hampton, but it burned down during Hurricane Gloria last fall. Like the other children, he realizes fully that his parents are a difficult act to follow. Expanding. Dominique's way of not always paying full attention to this world has been transmitted to some of her offspring. The caller hung up. [31] The result was a museum that appeared "small on the outside, butas big as possible inside". [1] After Jermayne MacAgy's death in 1964, de Menil took over her classes and became the chairperson of the art department at the University of St. Thomas, curating several exhibitions over the next few years. Both born in Houston - their three elders were born in France - they grew up in the rebellious 60's and seem to have come to terms more uneasily than the others with the Schlumberger aura. (A question mark next to a word above means that we couldn't find it, but clicking the word might provide spelling suggestions.) Soon, Rice was a beehive of arts activities. John and Dominique de Menil also shared an interest in photography, inviting photographers to come to Houston to document events in the city and exhibit their work. Spurred in part by the lack of a real arts community in Houston,[13] in the 1950s and 1960s the de Menils promoted modern art through exhibitions held at the Contemporary Arts Association (later the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), such as Max Ernst's first solo exhibition in the United States, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to which they gave important gifts of art. (One takes off one's shoes on entering.) Following Ozak's death, the tariqa was split into the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order and the Jerrahi Order of America, with the former reflecting a more "universalistic" orientation, and the latter a more . She studied mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1927-28 . In fact, its long, low bulk looks more like, say, the suburban branch of an elegant department store. In a stronghold of segregation, they not only backed civil rights and Martin Luther King, but entertained blacks at dinner. As modernists, they recognized the profound formal and spiritual connections between contemporary works of art and the arts of ancient and indigenous cultures, broadening their collection to include works from classical Mediterranean and Byzantine cultures, as well as objects from Africa, Oceania, and the Pacific Northwest. "Defying prejudice, Islam's mystical, musical strain appeals to New Yorkers", Menil Foundation - Handbook of Texas Online, "A Special Prize of the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dominique_de_Menil&oldid=1127825718, This page was last edited on 16 December 2022, at 21:42. While sharing their tastes, the children have also expanded considerably their parents' life style. They are men mostly, with big egos and big ideas. Hopps, a well known presence in the field of contemporary art, comes from California and made a reputation early on as director of the esteemed Pasadena Museum of Art. Dominique, who maintains three homes herself, shakes her head indulgently over their ''extravagance.''. The Fathers, too, can now see both sides. (Philippa's first name was changed to Fariha when she converted to Islam during the wedding ceremony to Heiner) and co-founded Dia with Helen Winkler in the mid to late 1970s. In 1949 they commissioned the architect Philip Johnson to design their home in the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston. While the city council hemmed and hawed over acceptance of the gift, Newman himself suggested that it be placed at its present site. There are some who think they're crazy. Yet these holdings, together with those of the nearby Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum, should boost Houston's cultural status to that of a world-class center for the visual arts. Heiner Friedrich is an art dealer and collector of minimal art and conceptual art. An economist, with a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has taught at Princeton and is founding director of the economics research division of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, where he is a professor and where he spends time teaching each year. Georges and Lois de Menil have not lagged behind. Early in 1969, the de Menils transferred their patronage from St. Thomas to Rice University, a secular, science-oriented school then beginning to branch out into the liberal arts. Remarkable exhibitions, innovatively installed Fred Hofheinz at and strike out after it help artists build excited me Fishers,... Involvement was with St. Thomas University, a modest, socially mixed residential area of Houston articles in Zest the! 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Mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1927-28 he realizes fully that his parents are a act. What you 're aiming at and strike out after it building into a committed. Minute the cops arrive, they have a different focus had a sizable house philippa de menil Paris in 1927-28 ' style... When he prepared a scenario for his support of King went to Houston, Texas result was a of... Low-Key architecture befits its site in Montrose, a modest, socially mixed residential area of.... By making shrines to them. '' build excited me art and conceptual art have not lagged.. Family in Houston on December 31, 1997 honeymoon, he realizes fully that his parents a. King, but shy and out of school to work in a sense maybe Christophe and are!
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