Programs
VIVIAN L. SMITH LECTURE
Glenn Peers
From the Collection: "Gold and Face: Living Members of the Menil’s Byzantium"
Monday, February 15, 2010, 8:00 p.m.
This illustrated lecture by the University of Texas Byzantine scholar argues for new ways of responding to and interpreting Byzantine objects. First we must see the objects as active and alive; then we must understand them as relevant to, and reflective of, ourselves; and finally we must open ourselves to their invitation to personal transformation.
This talk is the Menil's 2010 From the Collection lecture, and is generously supported by the Vivian L. Smith Foundation.
The Artist's Eye
Michael Bise on topic to be announced
Sunday, March 7, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Michael Bise received his undergraduate degree in painting at the University of North Texas and his MFA in painting and drawing at the University of Houston. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at Houston’s Moody Gallery. His work appeared in the group exhibition Four Stories Four Artists at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and is included in the Jean Pigozzi Collection, New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Poetry Reading
Rita Dove
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Esteemed American writer and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove will read at the Menil Collection as part of the opening of the Houston Museum of African American Culture. She is the author of a dozen volumes of verse; her awards and honors include the 1987 Pulitzer Prize and Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (2004–2006). Dove will read from her new book-length narrative poem, Sonata Mulaticca (2009), which re-creates the life of the biracial violinist George Bridgetower, the first performer of Beethoven’s "Kreutzer" Sonata.
Menil Community Arts Festival
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 11:00 a.m.– 4:00 p.m.
This one-day festival highlights the activity and diversity of the Menil neighborhood arts community, offering visitors free musical performances, light food and beverages, art galleries open to the public, and film and writing workshops throughout the day.
FotoFest Gallery Talk
Michelle White
Harry Shunk’s “Leap into the Void”
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
On October 23, 1960, photographer Harry Shunk’s camera captured artist Yves Klein hurling himself from a Parisian rooftop. The now iconic image, which has had a lasting influence on performance art, is one of some thirty works—by artists including Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Christo, and Arman—gathered for the exhibition “Leaps into the Void.” Exhibition curator Michelle White’s gallery talk about Shunk’s photograph is presented in conjunction with FotoFest 2010.
Harry Shunk, Saut dans le vide ( Leaps into the Void), 1960. The Menil Collection, Houston
Photo: Shunk-Kender © Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
Outdoor FIlm Screening
“Yves Klein, la révolution bleue”
Sunday, March 21, 2010, 7:30 p.m.
This 2006 French film (52 minutes, directed by François Lévy-Kuentz) was produced for the recent Yves Klein retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. A work of “documentary fiction,” the film presents library footage, artwork, and unreleased archival material in an attempt to unravel the mysterious correlations running through Klein’s work.
Co-sponsored by the Consulate General of France in Houston and the Texan-French Alliance for the Arts and shown in conjunction with the exhibition “Leaps into the Void.”
Panel Discussion
Steve Wolfe, Franklin Sirmans, and Carter Foster
“Steve Wolfe on Paper”
Thursday, April 1, 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Steve Wolfe’s exacting trompe l’oeil drawings of books and record albums are rendered as worn and tattered to convey the marks of time and handling. Wolfe will join in a conversation about his work with exhibition co-organizers, Carter Foster, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and Franklin Sirmans, former curator at the Menil Collection.
Film Screening
Andrea Grover
From the Menil Film Archive: “Leaps into the Void”
Friday, April 9, 2010, 8:00 p.m.
Andrea Grover, the founder of Aurora Picture Show, presents a program of newly discovered and largely unseen films and videos that resonate with the exhibition “Leaps into the Void.”
Co-presented with Aurora Picture Show.
STOP LOOK AND LISTEN Conert
The Menil Collection and Da Camera of Houston Present A Family Concert Series
Sam Dinkins III at Richmond Hall
Saturday, April 10, 2010, 3:00 p.m., Richmond Hall, 1500 Richmond Ave.
Houston favorite Sam Dinkins III, esteemed educator, bandleader, and jazz percussionist, teaches and performs in the Menil’s Dan Flavin Installation, Richmond Hall.
This popular afternoon series offers musical performances in different Menil settings—a pleasurable way to experience the various museums and galleries on the Menil campus as well as a great introduction to music outside the usual repertoire. For information, call 713-524-5050.
The Artist's Eye
Jillian Conrad on René Magritte
Sunday, April 11, 2010, 3:00 p.m. (note: second Sunday in April due to Easter holiday).
Jillian Conrad is an assistant professor of sculpture at the University of Houston and a resident of the Core Fellowship Program, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her work, which crosses the boundaries of sculpture, drawing, and architecture, has been shown in venues such as the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut. She has had recent residencies through the Lower Eastside Printshop, New York, and the Art Omi International Artists Residency, Ghent, New York.
Concert
John Butcher and Joe McPhee: A Presentation of Nameless Sound
Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 8:00 p.m., Richmond Hall, 1500 Richmond Ave.
British improvisor John Butcher is one of the foremost architects of the saxophone’s extended techniques. A living voice of 1960s-era revolutionary jazz, New York–based saxophonist Joe McPhee is possibly the single stylistic heir to the last radical saxophone innovator in jazz, the late Albert Ayler. McPhee is equally at home with the trumpet, piano, valve-trombone, and electronics.
The Artist’s Eye:
Julie Ann Nagle on topic to be announced
Sunday, May 2, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Julie Ann Nagle was born and raised in Pittsburgh. She received her BFA degree at New York’s Cooper Union in 2004. Nagle then obtained her MFA in sculpture and extended media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her sculptures combine narrtives from multiple histories to create monuments in both homage to, and critique of, unlikely heroes and unbelievable events. Nagle is currently a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
STOP LOOK AND LISTEN Conert
The Menil Collection and Da Camera of Houston Present
Young Artists Family Concert
Saturday, May 8, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Young musicians explore fairy tales and fantasy.
This popular afternoon series offers musical performances in different Menil settings—a pleasurable way to experience the various museums and galleries on the Menil campus as well as a great introduction to music outside the usual repertoire. For information, call 713-524-5050.
The Artist’s Eye:
Nathaniel Donnett on Robert Rauschenberg
Sunday, June 6, 2010, 3:00 p.m.
Nathaniel Donnett’s work has been exhibited at the Lawndale Art Center, Deborah Colton Gallery, and Project Row Houses. Donnett has developed the art literacy project I CAN, where participants create art to raise funds for home and school libraries. A 2009 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award nominee, he studied at Texas Southern University and lives and works in Houston.