An Interior of Spiritual and Artistic Subtlety
We don't normally associate austerity and self-effacing understatement with Texas, especially with free-wheeling Houston—city of oil, money, bayous, sports and urban cowboys. But courtesy of one great immigrant couple from France, John (1904-73) and Dominique (1908-97) de Menil, this city with no zoning laws possesses a locus of spiritual and artistic calm in the middle of a tranquil, verdant, in-town residential neighborhood abutting the University of St. Thomas.
The Menil Collection, in a great Renzo Piano building, houses the late couple's specialized collections of African and ancient art, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. Across the street stands another Piano building, dedicated to the work of Cy Twombly, also a Menil favorite. Down the block, the couple's architect son François has made a tiny chapel for a group of Byzantine frescoes.
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