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Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique De Menil

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Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique De Menil surreal.” He talks about her scolding him for smoking in her museum and then tells the story of nearly crashing into her car during an alcohol- fueled daydream. By the time I reach the end of the book, I am thrilled someone had taken the risk of having fun with the grande dame herself. What would happen if we thought critically not only about their accomplishments, but also readings CAN WE BE CRITICAL OF THE their contradictions? » DE MENILS NOW? The principal antagonism shared by the de Menils and Houston itself is the co-existence of Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil extreme wealth and economic success alongside (edited by Josef Helfenstein and Laureen Schipsi, Yale University Press and the liberal politics and a sophisticated aesthetic sense. Menil Collection, 2010, 344 pages, $65, hardback) Even so, though the de Menil money fl owed from oil and gas exploitation, their politics were by JohnJohn PlueckerPlu hardly the same as those of Schlumberger, the corporation. In fact, Gerald O’Grady’s essay in the book details the Menils’ friendships with visionaryvisionary foresight.”fo They “demonstrate the numerous socialist and Communist thinkers powerpower and profundityprofundity ofof simplesi ideas executed from Roberto Rossellini to Jean Malaquais and withwith quality and passion.” TheTh question I am Leon Trotsky’s widow to grassroots groups in leftleft with after reading alalll 343 large-for- Latin America. Deloyd Parker, founder of Hous- mat, glossy pages is: yyes,e the de Menils ton’s SHAPE Center, has a short article about were great, but perfect?perf how John de Menil funded the SHAPE Center TheThe fact thatthat the book is a com- when it was fi rst emerging. Remarkably, this pendiumpendium of essayse means that funding continued for almost 20 years and thethe informationinfor tends to included the rent payment, the purchase of a repeat,repe spiraling around building, a van and even Parker’s fi rst trip to certaince facts. The de Africa. Amazing work, indeed: brought to us by MenilsM are continually the oil and gas industry. The world of arts and arrivinga to Houston in culture in Houston is inextricably bound up in theth 40s with Schlum- this fundamental contradiction. berger.ber The de Menils are It’s important to remember that this move to contincontinuallyu meeting Father turn the de Menils into a myth is irreducibly con- Marie-AlainMarie-Alain CouturierC and profi ting nected to institution-building. It’s been the fromfrom his guidance, llearninge from his philoso- central dilemma of the Menil Collection (and phyphy of “sacred modermodernism.”n The Menils are modern projects generally): how to institutional- continually commissicommissioningo Philip Johnson to ize a spirit and an energy of experimentation? buildbuild their home on SSan Felipe. This repetitive- And yet, the result of the modern project is A SMALL WAVE OF BOOKS IS COMING, ALLLL ness means that certcertaina facts, certain judgments not only a series of institutions (MFAH, CAMH, attempting to document the historical contribu- accrueue aandnd ggainain adaddedd weight, building an entire the Menil Collection, Rothko Chapel, Rice Media tions of John and Dominique de Menil. Art and mythology out off ttheh de Menils. Center, SHAPE, etc.) but also a wholly changed Activism: The Projects of John and Dominique de As Houston moves into the end of its second cultural space. A space within which we move. Menil was fi rst and subsequently followed by century as a city, producing a new mythology is The de Menils were intent on opening up the Sacred Modern: Faith, Activism, and Aesthetics in an urgent task. The book lauds the de Menils for traditions of Texas, making room for different the Menil Collection by anthropologist and art their experimentalism, their daring, and their kinds of people and different kinds of cultural historian Pamela Smart. In the coming year, playfulness. This is not the old myth of the wild expression outside of the old confi nes. Their suc- Knopf/Random House is planning to publish a frontiersmen of Allen Brothers’ lore. This is a cess was unequivocal. biography of the de Menils by journalist William myth to defeat another myth, the one most non- In actual fact, the community that formed Middleton and funded with almost $400,000 Texans are familiar with: the Republican around the de Menils has already been subdi- from the Houston Artists Fund. politicians of Bush and Perry fame. This is a vided in millions of ways since the fi fties and Without a doubt, these publications are a sign story a certain segment of Houstonians want to sixties. Houston is full of large institutions of art of a deepening interest in the histories of artistic tell ourselves now to prove to ourselves (and the and established non-profi ts and autonomous communities of Houston. These books posit a world) who we really can be. This need for a projects. This contestation and contradiction is history for Houston’s strange mix of progressive counter-narrative is understandable. the real legacy of the de Menils. They created a arts activism and oil-fueled capitalism. Art and Still, is all we can do merely celebrate them space within which we could transgress. And Activism also ends up being a veritable canoniza- and their actions? Can we criticize the de Menils part of that transgression should be looking back tion of the de Menils through a series of essays while still recognizing their contributions? on them with an urge and a willingness to cri- by various scholars, artists and arts workers, I fi nd myself drawn to texts in the book that tique and question. most of them previously associated with the de make room for more poetry and less didacticism. Menils on some level as students, employees, or Specifi cally, the text by Mel Chin seems to be Further reading in the Citemag.org archives: 48 fellow travelers. playful in a way that other essays do not make In Cite 82 an article on page 32 by Miah Arnold I say canonization because Art and Activism is room for. Only he, in the fi nal essay in the book, carefully chronicles the Menils’ contributions to the .cite an unencumbered celebration of the de Menils. pokes fun at Dominique de Menil, calling her countercultural movement of the mid-twentieth In the foreword, the de Menils are said to have “the empress of the Empire of Light and high century and to the artistic and political infrastruc- shown “independence and confi dence, as well as priestess of a collection holding things divine and ture of the city. FALL2011 MFAH BOOKSTORE RECOMMENDS: ANYONE CAN BE A HOUSTON ARCHITECTURE EXPERT y Digital archives of Cite issues 1 - 79 available on citemag.org MANIFEST DESTINY: A GUIDE TO THE ESSENTIAL INDIFFERENCE OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE WITH THE SUBURBAN HOUSING PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE / ARQUITECTURA BY JASON GRIFFITHS CON LA GENTE, POR LA GENTE, On October 18, 2002 Jason Griffi ths PARA LA GENTE and Alex Gino set out to explore the BY YONA FRIEDMAN American suburbs. Over 178 days they drove 22,383 miles, made 134 suburban This monograph is devoted to the house calls and took 2,593 photographs. distinguished Hungarian architect, living Structured through 58 short chapters, and working in Paris, Yona Friedman. His the anthology offers an architectural visionary, ground-breaking ideas have pattern book of suburban conditions all been at the forefront for several focused not on the unique or specifi c but generations of architects and urban the placeless. planners, and have clearly infl uenced the likes of Arata Isozaki or Bernard $29.00 / $23.20 FOR RDA MEMBERS Tschumi. This text was in turn used as the founding document of the Groupe d’étude d’architecture mobile (GEAM). INSULAR INSIGHT: $39.95 / $31.96 FOR RDA MEMBERS WHERE ART AND ARCHITECTURE CONSPIRE WITH NATURE: NAOSHIMA, TESHIMA, INUJIMA ROBERTO BURLE MARX: EDITED BY LARS MULLER AND AKIKO THE MODERNITY OF LANDSCAPE MIKI The islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and EDITED BY LAURO CAVALCANTI, FARÈS EL-DAHDAH, FRANCIS Inujima in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea are RAMBERT places of pilgrimage for friends of contemporary art and architecture. Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) , the Alongside works in public spaces and Brazilian landscape architect, was a site-specifi c installations, the islands multitalented artist. This beautifully also feature numerous museums and illustrated catalogue introduces the collections of contemporary art. They realm of the full sensory experience. are home to buildings by architects such as Kazuyo Sejima and Ruye Nishizawa $49.95 / $39.96 FOR RDA MEMBERS (SANAA), Tadao Ando, and Hiroshi Sambuichi, as well as works of art by 49 MFAH BOOKSTORE: 5601 Main Richard Long, Christian Boltanski, and Street, Houston, Texas. Mariko Mori, among many others. .cite Contact: Bernard Bonnet 713.639.7360 | mfah.org/shops $70 / $56 FOR RDA MEMBERS FALL2011.
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