The most notable venue is the most prestigious of the RVA awards. Based on Tiqets customer reviews, The Menil Collection Houston stands out for providing a serene and contemplative atmosphere to enjoy some of the finest art in the United States.
Menil is home to the entire art collection of John and Dominique de Menil, French philanthropists and art collectors who immersed themselves in the Houston community in the 1940s and 1950s. It boasts one of the most important collections of surrealist art in the world, as well as Byzantine and medieval relics, indigenous art from around the world, and an extensive catalog of contemporary art.
The walls are adorned with works by masters such as René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico and Salvador Dalí, but Menil is as highly regarded for its light spaces as it is for its collection of treasures. The Cy Twombly Gallery and Dan Flavin’s Richmond Hall Installation are extremely popular spaces on the museum’s sprawling campus in Houston’s green Montrose neighborhood, making the Menil one of the top museums and attractions in the United States.
History
The Renzo Piano is an engineered museum that opened to the public in June 1987. It is operated by The Menil Foundation, Incorporated, a non-profit charitable corporation founded in 1954 whose stated purpose was to promote understanding and culture, primarily through the arts. Initially, the Foundation also pursued a land bank to stabilize the area surrounding the museum and structured the management and operations of the collection. When Dominique de Menil (a member of the Schlumberger family ) was president, early board members included Menil’s son François, daughter Philippe Pellizzi, Malcolm McCorcodale, Edmund Snow Carpenter, Miles Rudolph Glaser, and Mickey Leland. Dominique de Menil directed the museum until her death in December 1997.