philippa de menil

Both born in Houston - their three elders were born in France - they grew up in the rebellious 60's and seem to have come to terms more uneasily than the others with the Schlumberger aura. De Maria has a long history with Dia, having been one of the first artists in its collectionwhich was begun by Philippa de Menil, Heiner Friedrich, and Helen Winkler in 1974and a pivotal player in the institution's history. In 1960 they launched the ambitious scholarly research project "The Image of the Black in Western Art," directed by art historian Ladislas Bugner. (The two recently returned from a trek to western Tibet to take in the ruins of an 11th-century Buddhist temple.) The day and hour were set, with Dominique's agreement. Although family members say that the decline has affected them ''minimally,'' Dominique de Menil notes, ''A lot has been eroded. They had a foreign accent, and political views that for Texas were extremely liberal. ''Each branch of the Schlumberger clan has a wing,'' Christophe explains. Following Ozak's death, the tariqa was split into the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order and the Jerrahi Order of America, with the former reflecting a more "universalistic" orientation, and the latter a more . (To help finance this expensive venture, she sold a number of important paintings last year at Sotheby-Parke Bernet, realizing more than $2 million. Dominique de Menil (ne Schlumberger; March 23, 1908 - December 31, 1997) was a French - American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune. But we are definitely a collection of people very much influenced by John and Dominique. In the dining room, 18 rare chairs by the Viennese architect Josef Hoffman surround a pair of tables designed by Gwathmey. She is not a ''go-getter,'' she insists in her French-tinged English. Ever since, Dia's mission has been to commission, support, and present site-specific long-term installations and single-artists exhibitions to the public. Her second husband is. Photo by Michael Schmelling (An uncle, Jean Schlumberger, helped found the celebrated literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Francaise). In 1949 they commissioned the architect Philip Johnson to design their home in the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston. Georges and Lois de Menil have not lagged behind. A big show of the family's art collections was held at the Grand Palais in Paris two years ago. [2] Contents 1 Early life 2 Collecting art 3 Art patron [8] Over the years the family enjoyed close personal friendships with many of the artists whose work they collected, including Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Jasper Johns, Yves Klein, Ren Magritte, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorothea Tanning, and Andy Warhol. After his death, he lay in state, wrapped in a sheet in his own bed. THE NEW BUILDING will be close to another, even more un-Houstonian de Menil monument. For several artists besides Judd, houses with studio or living arrangements were provided along with annual stipends, and museums were set up for the work of others. But the falling price of Schlumberger stock and serious administrative problems brought big financial troubles. While the city council hemmed and hawed over acceptance of the gift, Newman himself suggested that it be placed at its present site. Additionally, they have a manicured beachfront estate on Fishers Island, off Connecticut, and a house in Paris. John was more interested in architecture as architecture, and in a sense maybe Christophe and Adelaide are taking his role. Menil Archives, The Menil Collection, Houston. 1584-1586 - Franoise du Chtelet. They buttressed a budding art history department, established an Institute for the Arts that sponsored exhibitions, lectures and events, and created an ''Art Barn'' for exhibitions. So serious, in fact, was the recent plight of Dia that Dominique asked her son Georges, a trustee of Philippa's inheritance, to help. Pianissimo: The Very Quiet Menil Collection., Holmes, Ann, and Patricia C. Johnson. You can look up the words in the phrase individually using these links: philippa? she asked, in genuine surprise. The issue was really the kind of institution St. Thomas was to be - would it maintain its Catholic identity or would it become a secular college? [1] After Jermayne MacAgy's death in 1964, de Menil took over her classes and became the chairperson of the art department at the University of St. Thomas, curating several exhibitions over the next few years. Spurred in part by the lack of a real arts community in Houston,[13] in the 1950s and 1960s the de Menils promoted modern art through exhibitions held at the Contemporary Arts Association (later the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston), such as Max Ernst's first solo exhibition in the United States, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to which they gave important gifts of art. They have four children, and collect modern and contemporary abstract art, including works by David Smith, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski. ''She feels a museum is all about interior spaces. Each is not only glamorously housed in Manhattan, most of them on the Upper East Side, but also has one or two lavish residences elsewhere -Paris, Texas, the Hamptons. Its basis was a device that was lowered by cable into the ground to measure the electrical resistance of formations in the earth. [1], The de Menils, however, did not limit their acquisitions to modern art, and their eclectic tastes became a hallmark of their collecting practices. The de Menils' Catholic faith, especially their interest in Father Yves Marie Joseph Congar's teachings on ecumenism, would become crucial to the development of their collecting ethos in the coming decades. ''We didn't really buy art, because we didn't have the money and we didn't think of it,'' says Dominique, whose scientist father considered spending money on art frivolous. Born 1947 Start a FameChain Trivia Philippa De Menil Family View Philippa De Menil's Family Tree and History, Ancestry and Genealogy The story goes back to the early 70's when Heiner, a European dealer, transferred his activities to New York, while retaining his interest in his Munich gallery. Eventually - despite their contributions of time and art - their ambitious projects brought them into conflict with budget-minded trustees. Playing savior to old buildings in the area, she and Ted Carpenter have rescued 15 of them and restored most, with the aid of the Houston architect, Howard Barnstone, a longtime family friend. [10] They bought more than two hundred pieces from Klejman's New York Gallery. [1], John and Dominique de Menil began collecting art intensively in the 1940s, beginning with a purchase of Paul Czanne's 1895 painting Montagne (Mountain) in 1945. Modern Reliquary: In a New Houston Museum, Francois de Menil Crafts an Authentic Setting for Two Byzantine Frescoes., Last edited on 16 December 2022, at 21:42, Houston-based oilfield services corporation. (Box, page 38.) His interest in architecture, he says, comes from his father and from working with Charles Gwathmey, who designed his East Hampton house. They gave major gifts of art to the school, bought land to expand the campus and hired Philip Johnson to design new buildings. Like the Rockefellers, the de Menils are distinguished by the variety and scope of their art interests. ''He reminds me of my father,'' she says, ''with his strong idealism and willingness to undertake certain things that others wouldn't. To supple-ment the scanty family income, John dropped out of school to work in a bank. (5) Philippa (Anne Caroline Philippa de Mnil) (born June 13, 1947) - A co-founder of the Dia Art Foundation. Beyond the family, their influence has been substantial, too. Ibish, Yusuf, and Peter Lamborn Wilson, eds. The couple also has a house in Bridgehampton, L.I., and a 60-square-mile holding in Texas, known as Mesquite Ranch, that is being restored, possibly for use as a retreat or conference center. Staff Interface | ArchivesSpace.org | Hosted by LYRASIS, Art and soul of GZ [ground zero] imams holy-pal heiress, 2010-09-27. ''It was the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in Houston.''. Very much the image of upper-class young marrieds, the pair rode horseback in the Bois de Boulogne, and confined their artistic interests to the likes of Christian Berard, a lightweight Parisian contemporary. ''At Marseilles, Mother wrapped us in our loden coats to conceal our spots, so the authorities wouldn't detain us.'' Kahn did produce some preliminary drawings, but the project was suspended in 1973 after John de Menil's and Kahn's deaths less than a year apart. ''I'm extreme and I have strong tastes,'' says Christophe, who is also an excellent though unexhibited photographer. ''It gives us a strong family feeling.''. The foundation, which commissions and purchases artworks, specializes in artists first recognized in the 1960s and 70s and younger artists working within the same aesthetic . 1538-1576 - Anne de Barbay, fille de Guyot de Barbay et d'Anne de Frenelle. When they arrived there from Paris in the early 1940's, they were not yet as wealthy as they would become, but they were almost too interesting. Dominique, who from childhood had an impulse toward collecting, acquiring such objects as ''shells, cut-out images, exotic seeds,'' attributes her interest in art -late-blooming as it was - to her mother, who would have collected, save for her husband's disapproval. ''Each of the children,'' says Adelaide now, ''would have preferred his or her own choice of architects, but after all, it is my mother's museum. But I think it will turn out superbly.''. Indeed, Adelaide has recently given the museum an important piece from her collection. When the de Menils acquired the sculpture in 1968, the year the Rev. Naturally, the artists involved - two of whom, Robert Whitman and La Monte Young, lost elaborate performance and living quarters - were hugely disappointed. Impressed with Leland, John de Menil took him under his wing and brought the young man into his own social and artistic circles, ''sophisticating a rough diamond,'' as Leland puts it. She spoke at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, inaugurating the Passionate Voices series, celebrating the 10th anniversary. stephen scherr family; nigel jones philadelphia. ''Dominque said, 'I'll take it,' and she bundled herself in a tacky fur coat and went trudging through the rain, arriving at Levi-Strauss's looking like a drowned rat. I try to stay close to them, and as time goes on, we are more and more in touch.'' With the guidance of the Dominican priest Marie-Alain Couturier, who introduced the de Menils to the work of artists in galleries and museums in New York, they became interested in the intersection of modern art and spirituality. "I dreamed of preserving some of the intimacy I had enjoyed with works of art," she wrote. Like the other children, he realizes fully that his parents are a difficult act to follow. Fariha de Menil Friedrich discussed the main principles of Sufism, how it can be a friend and a helper in the contemporary puzzle of conflicting visions and religious doctrines and reflected on how her early life in Houston influenced her spiritual search. THE COUPLE'S MOST INTENSE Houston involvement was with St. Thomas University, a small Catholic college. She recently bought another place near Sag Harbor, and in Manhattan she has a splendid three-story former carriage house with a swimming pool on the ground floor, redone with help from the Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry and the ''light sculptor'' Douglas Wheeler. The caller hung up. Philippa De Menil Bio Details Full name Philippa De Menil Gender Female Age 71 (approx.) Heiner Friedrich and Fariha Friedrich (formerly Philippa de Menil), who Articles in Zest section The Menil Opens.. ''Things just happen to me.'' After the Nazi invasion of France, Dominique fled Paris with her then-three children (Georges was a babe in arms), made her way to Spain and at Bilbao boarded a small freighter for Havana. Easily the most spectacular residence is Francois's, built a few years ago on seven acres of expensive East Hampton beachfront as a vacation retreat from his handsome Manhattan apartment. With Francois and Georges, she is also making a film about her father, who carried on his venturesome art and community activities while functioning as a key executive in the development of Schlumberger Ltd. ''She is painfully shy, but generous and thoughtful,'' a friend says. The chapel, opened in 1971, is an all-faith center, a ''no man's land of God,'' Dominique says. Early in 1969, the de Menils transferred their patronage from St. Thomas to Rice University, a secular, science-oriented school then beginning to branch out into the liberal arts. Philippa - called ''Phip'' by intimates - the mother of two, is probably the closest heir to her mother's ''spirituality,'' and has her good looks and unpretentious manner. It was there that the de Menils began their institutional involvement with art. [2], De Menil was born Dominique Isaline Zelia Henriette Clarisse Schlumberger, the daughter of Conrad Schlumberger and Louise Schlumberger (ne Delpech), Calvinist Alsatians. [12] The de Menils filled their home with art and hosted many of the leading artists, scientists, civil rights activists, and intellectuals of the day. Expansive main-floor displays will be made up of works in the storage areas, with space set aside for the spectacular theme shows that Dominique and the museum's director, Walter Hopps, have been doing together for years. [31] The result was a museum that appeared "small on the outside, butas big as possible inside". Later, attending classes at night, he got a degree from the University of Paris, adding other degrees in political science and law before taking his compulsory army service in the Rif Mountains of Morocco during some tribal wars - and falling in love for life with Africa. Few philanthropists of the 20th century contributed more to the American art world than Dominique and John de Menil. Also on display in Richmond Hall are four examples of Flavin's "monuments" to V. Tatlin, created between 1964 and 1969.[1][36]. The founders of the Dia Art Foundation have filed suit to stop the foundation from selling artworks in Dia's collection. A painter himself, he had been a prime mover in the commissioning of Leger, Matisse and Rouault to do work for churches in France. She has now turned her East Side carriage house into a fashion atelier. An 11th-century abbey revamped during the 18th century, the chateau has perhaps 100 rooms. Explains William Camfield, whom the de Menils brought over as professor of art history from St. Thomas, ''At Rice, the de Menils said, 'Let's see if it works and if you like it. . Designed by the architect Charles Gwathmey and built at a reported cost of $6 million, the house - called ''Toad Hall'' by its owner - is a fantasy version of a luxury ocean liner, with a three-story greenhouse, screening room, game room, exercise salon, wine cellar and the obligatory swimming pool. The stock decline was an element in the recent heavy retrenchment of the Dia Foundation, entirely supported by Philippa de Menil, to the tune of several million dollars a year. The minute the cops arrive, they form ranks. Soon the couple was on a collecting spree, venturing from Cezanne to Braque to Picasso, then - under the influence of the dealer Alexander Iolas - heavily into Surrealism. It is often cited as one of the most significant privately assembled art collections, alongside the Barnes Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum. In fact, all five de Menil children - Christophe, Adelaide, Georges, Francois and Philippa - have inherited their parents' interest in art and architecture. Raised in a code of stern Protestant morality, Dominique is quite prepared to give a million to a worthy cause, but not to spend money on such frivolities as taxis, according to Edmund (Ted) Carpenter. (Brought up a Protestant, she converted to Catholicism to marry John.) There are some who think they're crazy. Inheritance (oil) 20th-century art Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Icon Link Plus Icon; Overview Newswire RobbReport ''Once the children had the disposal of their own fortunes,'' Dominique says, ''John and I never wanted to interfere.'' [1], The Menil campus also includes the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. They found it after the war, when their view of Ernst had improved, and they later became one of the artist's most diligent patrons, winding up with more than 100 of his works. [2][3][4][5] Sheikh Muzaffer also gave direct transmission to fellow American dervish Sheikh Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi, who envisioned a radical and illumined path of the heart which he called Universal Islam. In 1930 she met the banker Jean de Mnil (who later anglicized his name to John de Menil), and they were married the next year. Philippa - called ''Phip'' by intimates - the mother of two, is probably the closest heir to her mother's ''spirituality,'' and has her good looks and unpretentious manner. John liked to gather the interesting, the creative and -by Houston's standards - the outrageous around him: black activists, artists, poets, renegades of every sort. Millionaires are different from us, as everyone knows, but as a clan the de Menils are different even from their fellow millionaires, most noticeably in the unconventional ways in which they spend their money. That same year they provided the University of St. Thomas, a small Catholic institution in Houston, with funding to build Strake Hall and Jones Hall, designed by Philip Johnson per their recommendation. Believing in art education and - though committed Catholics -religious ecumenism, they saw in St. Thomas, run by the Basilian Fathers, a chance to further the school and their causes. He later realized who had delivered the manuscript and wrote her a note.'' After undergoing revisions by several architects, including Philip Johnson, Howard Barnstone, and Eugene Aubry, the non-denominational Rothko Chapel was dedicated on Menil Foundation property in 1971 in a ceremony that included members of various religions. The Rothko Chapel, with its sculpture, Barnett Newman's ''Broken Obelisk,'' expresses their involvement not only with art, but with politics and religion. (A question mark next to a word above means that we couldn't find it, but clicking the word might provide spelling suggestions.) They were the first Americans to influence Europeans. Dominique and John de Menil, circa 1967. To suggest the institution's role in enabling such ambitions, they selected the name "Dia," taken from the Greek word meaning "through." But when the artist arrived, she appeared for a moment only. to find the word you're looking for. Someone recommended a Surrealist painter named Max Ernst to decorate a wall of their apartment; disliking his proposal, the newlyweds commissioned from him instead a portrait of Dominique. [2], Sheikha Fariha al-Jerrahi leads devotional prayers, ceremonies of divine remembrance, and provides spiritual guidance to initiates from her seat at the Dergah al-Farah in downtown Manhattan. French expats who left Paris for the United States during World War II, the de Menils were the heirs to multiple fortunesincluding Dominique's family's booming oil equipment company . As modernists, they recognized the profound formal and spiritual connections between contemporary works of art and the arts of ancient and indigenous cultures, broadening their collection to include works from classical Mediterranean and Byzantine cultures, as well as objects from Africa, Oceania, and the Pacific Northwest. But as a friend notes, ''She is maybe not so much a collector as a catalyst who makes things happen.'' Philippa and her husband Heiner have made over a former apartment building into a townhouse. The Menil Collection's discreet, low-key architecture befits its site in Montrose, a modest, socially mixed residential area of Houston. She studied mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1927-28 . Institute of Religion Accepts Controversial Broken Obelisk.. [21] Other filmmakers who visited the Media Center included Ola Balogun, Bernardo Bertolucci, James Blue, Jim McBride, and Colin Young. ''I'm really too busy to see you today,'' she announced, and vanished. Sheikha. Christophe, who at 53 is the oldest (and a grandmother of three, by her daughter Taya) has always been attuned to the avant-garde. Following the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi occupation of France, the de Menils emigrated from Paris to the United States of America. She received direct transmission from him in 1980. The foundation cut back drastically on its support of artists, began to sell some of its extensive real estate holdings and, at auction, some of its choice art works. [30], In the 1980s de Menil again began looking for an architect to design the museum, eventually commissioning Renzo Piano, a renowned Italian architect known for his provocative Centre Georges Pompidou building in Paris, to come up with a design that would fit her vision for the museum. You were sharing in the great adventure of making a work of art that was maybe too crazy to realize in any other way.'' Casey Lesser. The de Menils often personally recruited faculty members for the departments and brought many renowned artists and art historians to Houston, including Marcel Duchamp, Roberto Matta, and James Johnson Sweeney, whom they convinced to serve as museum director for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 1961 to 1967. The Fathers opted for Catholic identity, and after much soul-searching on both sides, the de Menils departed, reacquiring much of the art they had given, trading it for land purchased by them for St. Thomas's expansion. Back came a cable: ''BUY WHOLE SHOW.'' Looking back, I suppose we were too ambitious, and they felt overwhelmed.'' She spoke at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, inaugurating the Passionate Voices series, celebrating the 10th anniversary. He took the the couple around to galleries, singing the praises of the modernists. ''Wasn't I there?'' News Dia Sues Dia: Founders Try to Stop Art Auction. For starters, in a locale where the ideal home was a formal white-pillared mansion, the de Menils got Philip Johnson to do them a sprawling, one-level house. It was inescapable. Brennan, Marcia, Alfred Pacquement, and Ann Temkin. It has, among other gifts, attracted two $5 million contributions: one from the Cullen Foundation, set up by the late conservative oilman Hugh Roy Cullen, another from the Brown Foundation, established by the late Brown brothers, Herman and George R., who were partners in the giant engineering-construction firm of Brown & Root. ''The funny thing is, how it came out in me after my parents' collecting,'' says Philippa, a fresh-faced blonde who has her mother's unpretentious manner and good looks. Now it's a coalition of businessmen and minorities who run the city.''. Yet these holdings, together with those of the nearby Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum, should boost Houston's cultural status to that of a world-class center for the visual arts. In 1986, de Menil deepened her involvement in social causes, establishing the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation with former president Jimmy Carter to "promote the protection of human rights throughout the world". Over the course of nearly 20 years, beginning in the late 1940's, they set up a full-fledged art and art history department, hiring -and paying for - teachers, researchers and what one of the former de-scribes as ''others with whom they have loose and flexible arrangements.'' Notable exhibitions at Rice Museum organized with the help of the de Menils were "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age", curated by Pontus Hulten for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and "Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol",[17] an exhibition of objects selected by Warhol from the storage vaults of the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design. As it turned out, her parents, thanks to their holdings in Schlumberger, the giant multinational oil-field services company, were en route to developing one of the world's largest private art collections, noted today for its examples of Cubism, Surrealism, African sculpture, Mediterranean antiquities and contemporary works. The conflict, as is the case with most de Menil disagreements, actually reveals the strength of the family's ties, according to Ted Carpenter: ''It's like an Italian family arguing over the pasta. In 1980, the woman she was had become a Sufi dervish named Fariha al-Jerrahi, and when the house of Dia fell, she moved on. Schlumberger is still the global leader in well logging, and has expanded over the years into the manufacture of electric and gas meters, transformers, microcircuits, instruments and test systems for aerospace and other industries. A good part of the Menil Collection comprises objects of African and other tribal art, and the foundation began, in 1961, a long-range research project, ''The Image of the Black in Western Art.'' The family was met in Havana by John, who - having joined Schlumberger in 1938 - had been in Rumania, overseeing Schlumberger operations there, as well as putting sand into the gear boxes of Rumanian trains carrying oil to Germany. And next month, Dominique de Menil, the family matriarch (her husband John, ne Jean, died in 1973), will see the completion in Houston of a new $21 million museum known as the Menil Collection, minus the de, in the interest of simplicity. While fostering bonds with the greater Sufi & Muslim American communities, the role of women in Islam and spiritual ecology have been of special importance to her message. That his parents are a difficult act to follow Tibet to take in the earth the. Sheet in his own bed Connecticut, and vanished 's NEW York Gallery is all about spaces... Menils are distinguished by the variety and scope of their art interests and. The 18th century, the year the Rev Dia: Founders try to Stop Auction! Gender Female Age philippa de menil ( approx. 20th century contributed more to the school bought! Are definitely a collection of people very much influenced by John and Dominique his bed... 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