News

Menil Café News

The Menil Collection is moving forward with plans to develop a café for its visitors, and for reasons of sustainability has decided to proceed through the adaptive re-use of one of the existing structures on its campus, rather than construct a new freestanding building. Architecture students of the Rice Building Workshop at the Rice School of Architecture had earlier created a design for a freestanding café through a collaborative project with the Menil. Over the course of three semesters, 36 students, working with representatives of the museum and professional consultants, had the unique educational opportunity to develop a café design from concept to complete detail. Josef Helfenstein, director of the Menil Collection, stated, "We warmly thank RBW's students for their achievements in proposing a sensitive, intriguing design and are pleased to know that the students in their turn have regarded their work with us as a great learning experience. We look forward to many more collaborations with RBW, its faculty and its exceptionally thoughtful, enthusiastic and talented students."

A Selection of Menil Collection Works Traveling Internationally


The Menil Collection actively lends works from the collection to exhibitions around the world.  If your travel plans include any of the following locations, you may wish to visit these exhibitions.

“Claes Oldenburg. From Street to Mouse: 1959-1970”    
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao
October 30, 2012 – February 28, 2013
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
April 9 – August 4, 2013
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
September 13, 2013 – January 13, 2014
Claes Oldenburg, Left-Handed Flag, 1960, gift of the artist; Store Objects  – Watch in Case, Cupcakes, Sock, 1962, gift of the artist; Proposed Colossal Monument for Times Square, New York: Banana, Lying Position, 1965, gift of the artist; Late Submission to the Chicago Tribune Architectural Competition of 1922 - Clothespin, Version One, 1967, bequest of David Whitney; Proposed Colossal Monument for Central Park, N.Y.C. - Moving Pool Balls, 1967; Proposed Colossal Monument for Park Avenue, New York -  Bowling Balls, 1967; Potato Potato...!, 1959, gift of the artist; Ray Gun Poster – Figure with Hat, 1960, gift of the artist; Street Chick, 1960, gift of the artist; Street Chick with Manhole, 1960, gift of the artist; Street Scene with Marquee, Mamaganger, Van, "PDR,", 1960, gift of the artist; Poster for "Ironworks", 1961, gift of the artist; Street Chicks with Theater Sign, 1961, gift of the artist; Street Chicks with Theater Sign – MASTE WEE, 1961, gift of the artist

 “Regarding Warhol: Fifty Artists, Fifty Years”  
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
February 2 – April 28, 2013
Andy Warhol, Big Campbell's Soup Can, 19¢, 1962; Icebox, 1961

“This World is Not My Home: Danny Lyon Photographs”
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco de Young, San Francisco
September 29, 2012 – January 27, 2013
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara
February 16 – June 3, 2013
Danny Lyon, 28 photographs

“Picasso Black and White"
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
October 5, 2012 – January 23, 2013
Pablo Picasso, Femme nue (Female Nude), 1910

“Drawing Surrealism"
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
January 25, 2013 – May 12, 2013
Federico Castellon, Composition with Self-Portrait, 1936 ca., 1938; Max Ernst, Trés jolie forêt allongée (Very Pretty Elongated Forest), 1925; Max Ernst, la femme 100 têtes ouvre sa manche auguste  (The Hundred-Headed Woman opens her August Sleeve), 1929; René Magritte, Sketch for Les chants de Maldoror, 1945; Man Ray, Fil et aiguille (Needle and Thread), 1937; Wolfgang Paalen, Fumage (Smoke Painting), 1938 ca. 

“L’art en guerre – France 1939-1947 de Picasso à Dubuffet"
Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
October 12, 2012 – February 17, 2013
Pablo Picasso, Buffet: Still Life with Glasses and Cherries, 1943 (Paris, June 13)

“Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective"
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
November 3, 2012 – February 3, 2013
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
February 28 – June 2, 2013
Jay DeFeo, After Image, 1970, gift of Glenn Fukushima; Untitled (cross), 1953, gift of Caroline Huber and Walter Hopps in honor of Dominique de Menil; Untitled (Samurai series), 1986, gift of Louisa Stude Sarofim in honor of Walter Hopps

“Robert Indiana"
Grand Palais, Paris
November 21, 2012 – February 13, 2013
Robert Indiana, Love Cross, 1968


Friends and family celebrate the museum's 25th birthday on the Menil lawn.

Photo: David A. Brown