philippa de menil

''It began to look more like de Menil University than St. Thomas. He wanted me to be exposed to every aspect of their life that would give me a chance to do things for my community. Now it's a coalition of businessmen and minorities who run the city.''. What they do should be balanced against what's possible.''. I never really wanted to collect, but the idea of a foundation that would help artists build excited me. 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. de? They were compelling.'' But the falling price of Schlumberger stock and serious administrative problems brought big financial troubles. She says now that she never imagined their acquisitions would someday fill a museum. Why Not Dedicate Art to King, De Menil Asks City Council., Richard, Paul. [5] 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 . But I think it will turn out superbly.''. An economist, with a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has taught at Princeton and is founding director of the economics research division of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, where he is a professor and where he spends time teaching each year. By the 1960s the de Menils had gravitated toward the major American post-war movements of abstract expressionism, pop art, and minimalism. Pianissimo: The Very Quiet Menil Collection., Holmes, Ann, and Patricia C. Johnson. Menil Archives, The Menil Collection, Houston. ''Yet I admire them, and I don't want to belittle their achievements.'' Carr, Annemarie Weyl, and Laurence J. Morrocco. Their associates tend not to be other superrichlings, but artists, film makers, poets, anthropologists, activists, professors, priests and - in the case of Philippa, who is involved with Sufism, an Islamic philosophy - sheiks and whirling dervishes. The Menil Foundation is contributing not only the art but about $8 million. After a substantial inheritance from their Schlumberger grandmother, nothing more would be forthcoming, the children were given to understand. You can look up the words in the phrase individually using these links: philippa? And when John died in 1973, he left his estate in part to Dominique and in part to the Menil Foundation, set up in 1954 to support ecumenism, education, the arts and minority causes. which cannot be easily produced, fi-nanced or owned by individual collectors because of their cost and magnitude". The Dan Flavin installation consists of two horizontal green fluorescent lights on the eastern and western sides of the building's exterior, two sets of diagonal white lights on the foyer walls, and a large work in the main interior space featuring pink, yellow, green, blue, and ultraviolet lights. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. "Les divers procds du film parlant". ''It was the most extraordinary thing that ever happened in Houston.''. In an effort to provide a strong art history curriculum in Houston for students and adults, they founded the art department at the University of St. Thomas in 1959, inviting Jermayne MacAgy to teach courses and curate exhibitions held at Jones Hall. Thus, the 657,829 shares owned by Georges de Menil and his wife and children, now worth about $20 million, have shrunk in value from the $57 million they were worth at the stock's high. Articles in Zest section The Menil Opens.. The gray clapboard of the museum is in keeping with the small, traditional timber-frame homes -some used as foundation offices, others rented to friends, associates and various locals - that surround it. 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. Schlumberger, Dominique. 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. [1], The de Menils, however, did not limit their acquisitions to modern art, and their eclectic tastes became a hallmark of their collecting practices. And there is no question that Houston's cultural establishment takes the new museum quite seriously. Plans called for Bob Dylan to sing at the service, but he was unavailable, and a tape was played of John's Dylan favorites. 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. A local citizen once called John up and railed against him as a ''red'' for his support of King. Says Dominique, ''The idea of the foundation was marvelous, and they've done great things. Christophe, for example, was once chided by an East Hampton hostess for not showing up at a party. Indeed, shuttling among residences in Houston, New York and Paris, Dominique has a heavy agenda. Indeed, Adelaide has recently given the museum an important piece from her collection. The work these artists made changed, or at least questioned, the nature of art: what it. [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. ''Once the children had the disposal of their own fortunes,'' Dominique says, ''John and I never wanted to interfere.'' 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. For years, she has quietly but wholeheartedly backed the work of such performance artists, dancers and musicians as Robert Whitman, La Monte Young, Robert Wilson, Twyla Tharp, Philip Glass, Trisha Brown and Terry Riley. Anyone can read what you share. She grew up, the middle sister of three, watching her physicist father, Conrad Schlumberger, struggle to perfect his invention, an electric measuring device that disclosed the location of oil deposits. John shot from the hip. '', AT 78, DOMINIQUE IS A HANDSOME WOMAN OF frail, unassuming presence, whose ''spiritual'' mien and austere garb evoke the image of a medieval saint. 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. A new board was appointed. Beyond the family, their influence has been substantial, too. ''Not only were they considered radical, but really different. Their actions in Houston focused upon the Civil Rights Movement in particular. A painter himself, he had been a prime mover in the commissioning of Leger, Matisse and Rouault to do work for churches in France. Both pupils received new Sufi names. Behind that fragile, otherworldly facade is a complex person of very ambitious reach.''. 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. In, Donald D. Clayton, "The Dark Night Sky: a personal adventure in cosmology" Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co. (New York 1975), Richard, Paul. [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. Today, Dominique says, her relationship with the still-small institution is ''very friendly. Dia Art Foundation, American foundation that supports contemporary art and artists, est. ''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. T HE SECOND-GENERATION de Menils all have established their own lives and embarked on their own projects - though none, perhaps, with the drive and range of their parents' activities. Heiner has helped me step out into life.''. ''What I inherited was my mother's craving. 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. Dominique, who maintains three homes herself, shakes her head indulgently over their ''extravagance.''. The chapel, opened in 1971, is an all-faith center, a ''no man's land of God,'' Dominique says. ''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. Married to Susan Silver, a Barnard graduate (their son was born in January), he collects contemporary art, furniture, craft objects of the turn-of-the-century Vienna Secessionist school and rare books on art and architecture. 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? Her second husband is is a German-born former art dealer, Heiner Friedrich, with whom she is deeply engaged in Sufism. De Menil, who lived in Houston until she was 12 and was raised Catholic, has been a practicing Muslim for more than 30 years, and is now known as Sheikha Fariha al-Jerrahi, having been officially . The foundation's extravagant expenditures have necessitated a family rescue effort. But we are definitely a collection of people very much influenced by John and Dominique. Ever since, Dia's mission has been to commission, support, and present site-specific long-term installations and single-artists exhibitions to the public. ''Life had been tough for him, and he saw how hard it was for some others.''. ''Ted really started it - he saved an old house that was going to be demolished, and so we bought the land,'' she says. 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. An ongoing project that seeks to catalogue and study the depiction of individuals of African descent in Western art, it is now under the aegis of Harvard University. (An uncle, Jean Schlumberger, helped found the celebrated literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Francaise). . Designed by Renzo Piano, the permanent gallery echoes some of the architectural features of the Menil Collection, such as the use of diffused natural light, while retaining its own, separate identity. [1] Contents 1 Biography 2 See also 3 References 4 External links Biography [ edit] She was born in 1947 into a socially committed, eclectic French Catholic family in Houston, Texas. Like the other children, he realizes fully that his parents are a difficult act to follow. ALTHOUGH DOMI-nique's children function in somewhat lower gear, they also have made ambitious forays into - and even careers in - the arts. WHERE THE DE MENIL MONEY COMES FROM. Though the building is not loved by some of Dominique's children, it is hoped that eventually the varied holdings of all of them will repose there, too. So hooked were they that, ''We went crazy,'' says Dominique. To supple-ment the scanty family income, John dropped out of school to work in a bank. ''If it hadn't been for them, we wouldn't be here,'' says Father Frank H. Bredeweg, now president of the college. THE DE MENILS' IN-volvement in the Houston art world began in the 1940's - an inevitable consequence of Father Couturier's evangelism. Ibish, Yusuf, and Peter Lamborn Wilson, eds. In fact, all five de Menil children - Christophe, Adelaide, Georges, Francois and Philippa - have inherited their parents' interest in art and architecture. "I dreamed of preserving some of the intimacy I had enjoyed with works of art," she wrote. Soon, Rice was a beehive of arts activities. 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. Philippa de Menil New York. 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. 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. Eventually, the de Menils and their entourage became so much a part of the St. Thomas scene that ''it became difficult to operate without stepping on one of their toes,'' says Father Patrick O. Braden, president of the college at the time. [8][9] De Menil credited dealer and adviser John Klejman with shaping their tastes in African and Oceanic objects, saying that he "made buying African art very tempting". (Dia, the Greek. THE DE MENIL FAMILY: THE MEDICI OF MODERN ART, https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/18/magazine/the-de-menil-family-the-medici-of-modern-art.html. At the suggestion of the Houston designer Howard Barnstone, who might be called the de Menils' architect-in-residence, the houses have mostly been painted a uniform gray, so that the museum and the bungalows together have the aspect of a small, but by no means unpleasant, company town. And Donald Judd has gone public with vociferous denunciations of the foundation, which is now but a shadow of itself. Their Georgian town house of brick and marble, while more for-mally ordered than the digs of the others, serves as a setting for high-caliber contemporary art, and is one of the Upper East Side's more elegant private dwellings. THE NEW BUILDING will be close to another, even more un-Houstonian de Menil monument. ''It's absolutely crazy what they did,'' says one New York dealer. The de Menils' involvement with blacks has not only been on the political level. ''I went to breakfast, lunch and dinner at their house and met every important person they knew. Her second husband is. 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. 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. She is not a ''go-getter,'' she insists in her French-tinged English. The project, not universally appreciated by black scholars who tend to feel the emphasis should be placed on what blacks themselves have created, has so far published two books on the subject. A more reticent, but still attention-getting, project is Adelaide's 40-acre housing complex, set in a former potato field not far from Francois's establishment. A former film maker, short-time magazine publisher, pilot and hell-raiser who never finished college, Fran,cois - who has his father's baby face - is now a hard-working architectural student at The Cooper Union. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. They actually maintained their support here for six or seven years before it began to happen.'' [6], "Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi | WISE Muslim Women Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fariha_al_Jerrahi&oldid=1096401510, This page was last edited on 4 July 2022, at 07:16. [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. (5) Philippa (Anne Caroline Philippa de Mnil) (born June 13, 1947) - A co-founder of the Dia Art Foundation. Says Philip Johnson, who met Dominique and John when they were ''still living in a tract house'' in Houston, ''They were unpretentious, yet arrogant enough. ''It's Dominique's museum and it's important to her,'' Francois says. As a trustee there, John was responsible in 1961 for bringing in as director the distinguished but controversial James Johnson Sweeney, former director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. De Menil died in Houston on December 31, 1997. The rest of John's and Dominique's estates would go to their own causes. 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. In 1974, the two formed the Dia Foundation - the name is Greek for catalyst - subsidized solely by Philippa's shares in Schlumberger Ltd. Dia soon became one of the largest and most venturesome nonprofit funding sources in the field of contemporary art, buying up the works of certain artists -more than 125 of John Chamberlain's sculptures of crushed auto parts, for example - and sponsoring projects that range from Walter de Maria's permanent ''earth sculpture,'' comprising 280,000 pounds of dirt that fill a gallery in a SoHo building, to the vast ''Art Museum of the Pecos,'' in Marfa, Tex., a compound of more than 340 acres which has deployed an array of indoor and outdoor works by Donald Judd and other artists. In 1949 they commissioned the architect Philip Johnson to design their home in the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston. She has now turned her East Side carriage house into a fashion atelier. There, surreal-looking dress dummies and women assistants with pins in their mouths share space with art by Cy Twombly, Yves Klein, Ralph Humphrey and John Chamberlain as well as furniture by the late Charles James, Dominique's favorite dress designer. ''It was very grand and typically him,'' says Adelaide. He remembers admiring a photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson at Adelaide's house. Hickey-Robertson. You were sharing in the great adventure of making a work of art that was maybe too crazy to realize in any other way.'' It is often cited as one of the most significant privately assembled art collections, alongside the Barnes Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum. He did. The middle child is Georges, an elegant and articulate - if slightly stuffy -scholar of 45 who more or less oversees the family's financial matters. ''She feels a museum is all about interior spaces. They were the first Americans to influence Europeans. The Barnett Newman ''Broken Obelisk,'' made of Cor-Ten steel, stands 26 feet high in a reflecting pool that faces the chapel's entrance. Fariha, born Philippa de Menil, . [25], The de Menils had originally made plans to build the Rothko Chapel in 1964 when Dominique de Menil commissioned a suite of meditative paintings by Mark Rothko for an ecumenical chapel intended for the University of St. Thomas as a space of dialogue and reflection between faiths. Guided by her longtime companion, the anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, she has acquired a formidable collection of objects from tribal cultures - Peruvian feather hangings, Polynesian sculptures, Eskimo carvings, masks by Northwest Coast Indians. 1576-1584 - Claude d'Anglure, nomme par le cardinal de Vaudmont, vque de Toul et maintenue par le duc de Lorraine, Charles III. He remembers a rainy night in Paris, when he was ill with a cold but had a manuscipt to deliver to the noted anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. 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