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The Twombly Gallery 16 i t e S p r i n g 1 9 3 6 C i l e 3 4 S p r i n g 1 9 9 6 • t|U u Twombly Gallery, Renio Piano Building Workshop, architect, wilh Richord Filzgeiald & Partners, associate architect, I f f 5 . U I i ! The T w o m b l y G a l l e r y a n d William F. Stern he 1995 completion of the Twombly Foundation, founded by Dominique de sculpture drawn from the Menil and Dia the Order of St. Basil. The de Menils" TGallery in an early-20th-eentury Menil\ daughter Farina (Philippa) and collections, along with more than 33 architectural influence would first be Montrose neighborhood continues a con- her husband, Hciner Friedrich, owned works donated by the artist himself. The felt when they were asked by the univer- temporary pattern of building that was Twombly paintings and drawings collect- Menil took title of six paintings from Dia sity to assist in the selection of an archi- established with the Rothko Chapel in ed in the 1970s and additional pieces and in so doing helped the foundation ro tect for new buildings. Among those 1971. Like the Rothko and the nearby purchased for Dia in 1980. At the time purchase a building on West 22nd Street recommended, Philip Johnson, who had Menil Collection, the Twombly Gallery nl ilu I womhb exhtbitic i i louston, in New York, across the street from the designed the de Menil house ill River is the result of an unusual three-way discussion began about a collaboration foundation's existing four-story loft Oaks in 1950, received the commission collaboration between artist, architect, between Dia and the Menil for a perma- building. When renovated, the new build- to draw a master plan for the St. Thomas and patron. nent Twombly installation in Houston, ing will be used for single-artist installa- campus. The de Menils underwrote the For the 1987 opening of the Menil with a smaller installation in New York. tions drawn from Dia's collection, with costs of the master plan and soon became Collection, the collection's founder, In fall 1990, Paul Winkler, Dominique de part of one floor designated tor a perma- actively involved in helping to form a 1 Dominique de Menil, with the MeniTs Menil, and T.irth.i and I leiner Friedrich nent installation of works by 1 womhly. new art department for the university. first director, Walter Hopps, and its cur- visited Twombly at his home in Rome With this determined, in November 1991 Fashioning his plan after "Thomas rent director, Paul Winkler, had hoped to solicit his support for the project. the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Jefferson's academic village at the Uni- to mount an exhibition of paintings and Twombly was receptive, producing a Genoa began to develop a design for the versity ot Virginia, Johnson proposed .1 drawings by the American arrist Cy conceptual sketch that would later I u tmiblj (iallei \ in 1 louston. series of two-story block buildings laid out around an elongated court, intercon- Twombly. Nor until 19S9, however, was become the h.isis lnr the Twombly Thirty-five years earlier, in the mid- nected by a U-shaped covered walkway. such an exhibition presented. The Menil Gallery plan. He also offered to give 1950s, John and Dominique de Menil The design, a boldly modern composition Collection already owned works by works he owned to both spaces. The Dia came to the neighborhood that would nl exposed blac k steel frames inset w nil Twombly, and for the exhibition these and Menil representatives agreed that a eventually house their extensive collection panels of dusty-colored brick and floor- were augmented by paintings and draw- new building would be constructed in of art through their association with the tu-cciling glass, demonstrated Johnson's ings from the Ilia Art Foundation and I louston for a major installation of University of St. Thomas, a (latholic lib- allegiance to the international Style of from private collections. The Dia Art Twombly's paintings, drawings, and eral arts university founded by priests ot 17 Mies van der Rohe. Without upsetting houses are the Da Camera chamber music entrance, from Sul Ross, and the the balance and scale of the older neigh- society, Writers in the Schools, Texas secondare entrance, from llranard, are borhood, these buildings stood comfort- Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, placed slightly off center, further dimin- ably among the picturesque bungalows, and Inprint, Inc., the fundraising and ishing symmetrical formality. While the frame houses, and live oaks, setting a promotional arm of the University of use of gray-stained cypress siding and pattern that would be adopted by a suc- f louston creative writing program. The white steel structure help relate the Menil cession of architects. bungalows and frame houses acquired a to the neighboring bungalows, it is the At the time of the St. Thomas master particular distinction and the neighbor- asymmetrical siring that moderates the plan, the area surrounding the campus hood was unified when the architect impact of the greater building mass on was in decline. The Montrose subdivision Howard Barnstone suggested painting [nironie la Twombly Gallery with Menil Collertion m o s t the the residential neighborhood. ilr«l. and its adjoining neighborhoods hail been all the houses a medium gray with white The Twombly Callery, located across developed In the teens on open farmland trim. Another Menil property, Richmond the street from the Menil on Hranard, by entrepreneurs intent upon providing I laII, located on Richmond one block bors at the edge of the University of St. strategically aligns with the 1920s bunga- modest middle-class housing. With its south of the Menil Collection, has been Thomas campus. lows to either side. Unlike the bungalows, tree-lined streets and parklike landscape, used as a supplementary exhibition The much larger building for the Menil with their eccentrically articulated gabled Montrose was typical of America's first space for the Mem! and most recently Collection, designed by Rcnz.o Piano and front porches, the gallery turns a blank suburbs. Restricted for residential use and for FotoFest. completed in 19K7 to house the de Menil wall to the street, its entrance rotated 90 planned with uniform building setbacks, The trio of cultural buildings art collection, follows .1 similar pattern of degrees to the east, facing onto a grassy the neighborhood had matured during tin- constructed within the neighborhood siting to produce a compatible relation- pla/a anchored by a single mature live 1920s into a harmonious pattern of one- between 1971 and 1995 shows similar ship with the smaller surrounding houses. oak. l.ike the siting of the Koihko story Craftsman bungalows and larger patterns of site pl.ilining and general Occupying an entire block, the rectangu- Chapel, a block down the street, tins two-story houses set among graceful live relationship to their surrounding neigh- lar building is asymmetrically positioned maneuver effectively mitigates the formal oaks. After World War II, as a younger borhood. The first, an ecumenical chapel on the site. By adjoining llranard on the impact of the entrance. By establishing generation sought housing in newer designed to house commissioned paint- south and Mandell on the west, the build- the movement from street to building suburbs, the planning restrictions in ings by the great American abstract ing leaves a wide expanse of lawn to the entrance through the private space of a Montrose and many of its surrounding pocket park, the experience becomes painter Mark Rothko, was built by John north along Sul Ross, and a narrower neighborhoods lapsed, leaving the area relaxed and intimate. As the termination and Dominique de Menil to the west of space on the east that |oms with park vulnerable to apartment construction and of Mulberry Street, this space is also the University of St. Thomas between Sol space across Mulberry Street (see neigh- small-scale tomnierci.il development. linked to the two open spaces on either Ross and Branard, based on plans b) borhood plan). The building's main *- **>ff; y l U i:'\t the M a k i n g of P l a c e Paradoxically, the loss of the restrictions Philip Johnson, who had earlier been — W ALABAMA and the uniformity they maintained set in retained to design the chapel (then minion an unusual transformation of the intended for the south end of the St. neighborhood that continues to this day. Thomas mall I, the completed building During the 1950s and 1960s the de was designed by I toward Barnstone « in !>••: Menils began to acquire property west of and Kugene Aubry. Like the "Twombly the St. Thomas campus, at first for the Gallery, the Rothko Chapel is turned Si wis:- future expansion of the University of St. away Irom the street in favor of a self- Thomas and later for the building of contained site plan. Backing up closely what would become one of Houston's to Sul Ross on the north, this centrally P richest cultural enclaves. In retrospect, planned, octagoiialb shaped building their activity in this neighborhood can faces a rectangular reflecting pool on axis I^VijLiV* also be seen as the first and most compre- with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk hensive program of historical preserva- and is screened from Hranard Street to the tion in a city that cared little about its south by a dense stand of bamboo (see building past. The majority of the bunga- neighborhood plan I. The main approach lows and houses acquired by the de to the entrance is from a side street, fcrmaM-L Menils in this period were saved.
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