The Menil Collection

Best known for his body of work depicting the effects of the Great Depression, American photographer Walker Evans also became recognized as an early leader in documentary photography.

Find these portraits by Evans among the works on view in "Photography from The Menil Collection: Curated by Wendy Watriss." "The strong presence of the people in these photographs calls us to pay attention to them, even when they give us only a slight hint of the contextual actualities of their lives," Watriss writes.

This Sunday marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. ☀️

Spend the longest days of the year exploring art and enjoying green spaces at the Menil Collection. Admission is always free.

Explore the Menil Collection, a campus of art buildings and green spaces in the heart of Houston. Admission is always free.

Make sure to visit:
🎨 Main building
✏️ Menil Drawing Institute
🖼️ Cy Twombly Gallery
🌈 Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall
🌳 Green spaces
📚 Menil Bookstore

The Menil's buildings are open Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Green spaces are open daily from dawn to dusk.

Surrealist painter Victor Brauner considered the large painting "The Nuptial March of the Sorcerer (La marche nuptiale du sorcier)," 1947, one of his most significant works. Typical of his paintings from this period, the large encaustic canvas synthesizes symbols from the diverse spiritual traditions he studied including those from Egyptian, Oceanic, Mayan, and Native American cultures.

In a 1954 letter to Dominique de Menil, Brauner describes the work as a “limitless homage to WOMAN.” He explains further, “It refers to the history of the mind and knowledge, it presents a trajectory of all knowledge, both initiatory and hermetic, which is synthesized in this idea, the triumphant liberation of women."

The Menil Collection's holdings of Surrealist artwork are considered one of the most significant in the United States. Visit the museum's Surrealism galleries to see this painting among works by Max Ernst, René Magritte, Dorothea Tanning, and more.

Attributed to a region in northwestern Kongo, this n'kondi power figure depicts twinned dogs joined at the waist, thus wielding the power to see ku ntwala ye ku nima ("forward and back") and ku mpemba ye ku nseke ("below and above").

The figure is among the Menil Collection's holdings of masks, musical instruments, and other forms of visual culture from West and Central Africa, and is presented as part of the six-channel video and sound installation "John Akomfrah: The Hour Of The Dog."

The Menil is open, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Admission is always free.

One of Yves Klein's over 150 Anthropométries works, "People Begin to Fly (ANT 96)," 1961, evokes the artist's interest in levitation: "Thus we will become aerial men. We will literally float in a total physical and mental freedom."

John and Dominique de Menil were early admirers of Klein's practice and displayed "People Begin to Fly (ANT 96)" in their home, a decade before the Menil Collection opened. Take a moment with the work before it goes off-view at the end of the month.

The Menil Collection opened to the public on this day in 1987.

In this photograph courtesy of the Menil Archives, see the main building under construction. The award-winning structure was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

Artist Dorothea Tanning wrote, "Two imaginations became as one: John and Dominique de Menil have found a way to hold the artists' vision like a mirror up to the gazers' eyes that they might see, along with so much else, themselves not as they were before. The Menil Collection is born."

Pink, yellow, green, and blue hues alternate among almost 250 fluorescent lamps in the largest of Dan Flavin's three site-specific installations in the Menil Collection's Richmond Hall. The building—formerly a grocery store, a series of bars, and a dance hall—houses Dominique de Menil's final commission.

Visit the Dan Flavin Installation, located at the southernmost edge of the Menil's campus. Admission is always free.

Join us at the Menil Collection and enjoy upcoming programs in June.

✏️ Inprint Writing Workout, Sat., June 6, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. This workshop has reached capacity. There will be a stand-by line onsite.
🎵 DACAMERA Stop, Look, and Listen!, Sat., June 20, 3–4 p.m.
🎤 Member Noontime Talk: "John Akomfrah: The Hour Of The Dog" with Michelle White, Fri., June 26, 12–12:30 p.m.
📽️ Film Screening: "Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists", Fri., June 26, 7–8:45 p.m.

The Menil's public programs are always free and open to all.

To attend special member events, join at menil.org/membership.