0.1 Introduction  (Page 5/5)

A few years later, in the summer of 1976, a devastating flood destroyed historic records, files, works of art, and CAM’s physical plant. But the community responded immediately with a campaign to restore and rebuild, and the organization fully recovered, aggressively embracing its dynamic future.

No look at the development of the arts in Houston would be complete without consideration of Dominique and John de Menil, who arrived in Houston from Nazi-occupied France during the 1940s. In 1949, they built their Houston home, designed by Mies van der Rohe protégé Philip Johnson, and began their long, loving mission in service of the arts. John de Menil joined the Contemporary Arts Association that year, and two years later he and Dominique organized the CAA’s first one-man exhibition, a show by the legendary surrealist Max Ernst. In 1954, John and Dominique established the Menil Foundation, and began their generous support of the University of St. Thomas. The de Menils solidly reinforced Dr. Jermayne MacAgy in her effort to build the university’s new art department into a major center of arts activity. During MacAgy’s brief tenure, ten important exhibitions were mounted, the program was expanded, the art history department grew in size and influence, and a new generation of important young artists joined the department.

The unexpected death of Dr. MacAgy in 1964 brought the de Menils even more actively into the foreground of Houston’s emerging arts world. Mrs. de Menil became the acting chairman of the art department, hiring staff, teaching, and organizing exhibitions. Bill Camfield, having just arrived only a few months before MacAgy’s death, worked with Mrs. de Menil to hire art historians Mino Badner, Walter Widrig and Philip Oliver Smith. A young Rice University graduate, Geoff Winningham, arrived to teach photography, and James Blue took on filmmaking. A print club for collectors was begun; membership cost $5.00 and members could purchase prints and signed lithographs at cost. In September of 1964, Art Investments, Ltd., was formed as a limited partnership with capital of $100,000. The partners shared joint ownership of a few paintings, which rotated among them.

That same year, the de Menils commissioned Mark Rothko and engaged Philip Johnson to begin work on a University of St. Thomas chapel conceived as a memorial to Jermayne MacAgy. Originally planned for the university campus, the chapel eventually was built just west of the university, on property the de Menils had acquired. Dedicated in 1971, the Rothko Chapel houses 14 of Rothko’s dark, expressly quiet paintings, and is now known around the world as an exceptional venue promoting social justice, religious understanding, and introspection.

The de Menils abruptly withdrew their active support of the St. Thomas art department in 1969, shifting their attention and patronage to Rice University and a newly formed Institute for the Arts. The already-established Rice University Department of Art was chaired by John O’Neill and included among its faculty Katherine Brown, Earl Staley, and Bob Camblin. Charles Schorre had been on campus since 1959, teaching life drawing to students in the School of Architecture. Most of the St. Thomas art history and studio art faculty subsequently migrated to Rice, and Dominique de Menil, writing in the Institute’s first newsletter, declared, “The Institute for the Arts has now settled in alongside the Department of Fine Arts at Rice University. After hectic months of moving spiritually and bodily from the University of St. Thomas to Rice, we are happy to be able to concentrate once again on developing the Institute’s programs. We will continue to expand and diversify our exhibitions, films, and lectures to highlight the best traditions of history and the innovative trends of today. Our aim is to excite the campus and Houston with new ideas and new approaches to art.”

After the death of John de Menil in 1973, Dominique began work on plans to retain their collection in Houston. She named Walter Hopps director of her museum, and Paul Winkler associate director. In 1980, she commissioned Renzo Piano to design a new museum. Seven years later, Houston celebrated the opening of The Menil Collection, an extraordinary gift to the city and an extraordinary place for all who are inspired and transformed by art. There could no longer be any doubt that Houston had come of age as a major center of modern arts activity.

Sarah C. Reynolds, December 10, 2007

A longer version of this introduction is included in this volume’s archival materials, housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston archives.