Sheikha. Though John was born to a titled military family, he grew up poor, thanks to the efforts of his father to pay off a relative's debt. The children and their mother also occasionally drop in on Val-Richer, the vast estate in Normandy passed down by Schlumberger ancestors. Staff Interface | ArchivesSpace.org | Hosted by LYRASIS, Art and soul of GZ [ground zero] imams holy-pal heiress, 2010-09-27. But, he says, ''I was fortunate to be exposed to their interest in art as part of the natural fabric of life. 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. 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. ''She feels a museum is all about interior spaces. 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. The Rothko Chapel, with its sculpture, Barnett Newman's ''Broken Obelisk,'' expresses their involvement not only with art, but with politics and religion. Her second husband is is a German-born former art dealer, Heiner Friedrich, with whom she is deeply engaged in Sufism. 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. Website http://www.diaart.org Industries. (5) Philippa (Anne Caroline Philippa de Mnil) (born June 13, 1947) - A co-founder of the Dia Art Foundation. Brennan, Marcia, Alfred Pacquement, and Ann Temkin. Before, I did things for others, and now I'm doing something for myself. At the age of 29, she met her mentor and guide on the path of Sufism upon his first visit to the Americas, Sheikh Muzaffer zak k al-Jerrahi of Istanbul. But we are definitely a collection of people very much influenced by John and Dominique. '', Because Dominique saw ''collecting'' as pretentious, she was reluctant until recently to use the term. Most of the land and houses within a six-block radius, quietly assembled by John, are under de Menil ownership. I spent hours talking with John about world politics and philosophy. . What they do should be balanced against what's possible.''. They were the first Americans to influence Europeans. 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. 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. An informal art historian and teacher, Dominique has also organized some remarkable exhibitions, innovatively installed. Dia Art Foundation, American foundation that supports contemporary art and artists, est. 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. Now I have a vocation and much better bearings.''. Photography became an important component of the collection, which includes works by Eve Arnold, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Danny Lyon, Hans Namuth, and Eve Sonneman. Since its inception, the chapel has witnessed all manner of events, from high-minded colloquia to weddings, bar mitzvahs, a Sufi ceremony by whirling dervishes from Turkey, a reception for the Dalai Lama and avant-garde concerts. After his death, he lay in state, wrapped in a sheet in his own bed. "Les divers procds du film parlant". Congressman Mickey Leland, it was one of the first racially integrated art shows in the United States.[28]. ''It's absolutely crazy what they did,'' says one New York dealer. In a stronghold of segregation, they not only backed civil rights and Martin Luther King, but entertained blacks at dinner. Schlumberger, Dominique. Heiner Friedrich is an art dealer and collector of minimal art and conceptual art. 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. I could have worked with Dominique.''. ''It's Dominique's museum and it's important to her,'' Francois says. Dominique Isaline Zelia Henriette Clarisse Schlumberger. [7] Her first husband (whom she married on May 14, 1969, in Harris County, Texas) was Italian anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi (born July 14, 1940). When de Menil learned that a group of 13th-century Byzantine frescoes had been stolen from a chapel in Lysi, Cyprus, and cut up by smugglers, she paid the ransom and funded their restoration. The building, primly sheathed in what one Houstonian calls ''Protestant gray clapboard'' (probably a first for a museum in this country), has on the ground floor exhibition spaces set in a landscaped garden. ''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. In fact, its long, low bulk looks more like, say, the suburban branch of an elegant department store. Then you can see how a Communist lives.'' The city's negativism toward the piece, however, served as a goad to the active de Menil political conscience, according to Fred Hofheinz, a young white liberal who was elected Mayor of the volatile city in 1973 with heavy de Menil backing. Philippa and her husband Heiner have made over a former apartment building into a townhouse. Coordinated by civil rights activist and later U.S. 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. ''Life had been tough for him, and he saw how hard it was for some others.''. You can't just expand and expand. Apr 18, 2018 1:37PM. Why Not Dedicate Art to King, De Menil Asks City Council., Richard, Paul. Dominique, who maintains three homes herself, shakes her head indulgently over their ''extravagance.''. While pressing toward the completion of the Houston museum, she finds time to head the Georges Pompidou Art and Culture Foundation in Paris; work on a long-range ethno-historical project, ''The Image of the Black in Western Art''; oversee the editing of the writings of Father Marie-Alain Couturier, the Dominican priest who introduced her and John to modern art; keep up with the activities of such de Menil projects as the Institute for the Arts at Rice University and the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and promote religious ecumenism through worldwide contacts among clergy of various persuasions. In 1983, the foundation listed assets of approximately $30 million in art and real estate. ''When they didn't control things, they stepped aside,'' says Philippe de Montebello, now director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who took the job in Houston after Sweeney. Raised a Protestant, Dominique converted to Roman Catholicism in 1932. Called ''well logging,'' the process became the basic asset of the company, eventually proving indispensable to oil companies around the world. 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. Whitman brought a suit against Dia, which is pending. In return for her efforts, the Holy Bishopric of Cyprus allowed the works to remain in Houston on a 20-year loan. 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. I think they're inspired.'' 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. Adelaide wished that the starkly modern house, designed by the then-Mies-disciple Philip Johnson, could be like everyone else's. Of the siblings, she has also undertaken the most wildly ambitious involvement with the arts, as patron of the financially troubled Dia Foundation, whose aim is to support venturesome artists' projects of a nature or scale that make it difficult to obtain other backing. Hewing to the European tradition of millionaire radicals, they came to be Houston's most rewardingly subversive citizens, bringing maverick ideas to the provinces about art, politics and what to do with money. John listened patiently to the telephone tirade and then said, ''Listen, my friend, why don't you come to my house for a drink? [10] They bought more than two hundred pieces from Klejman's New York Gallery. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, they offered it to the city of Houston on condition that it be dedicated to the black leader. 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. 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. 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. Inevitably, John's impulse to control brought him into conflict with other trustees, notably John Blaffer, son of a powerful Houston family. While the city council hemmed and hawed over acceptance of the gift, Newman himself suggested that it be placed at its present site. [1] She also published articles on film technology in the French journal La revue du cinma.[4]. One of the world's largest corporations - its stock was worth nearly $10 billion at the end of 1985 - it employs some 73,000 people in more than 100 countries. De Menil's largesse had created a kind of refuge from the speculative market in art then taking shape in New York, and a new canon of monumental, spiritually charged epics: a SoHo gallery floor buried, permanently, wi th black ear th; a hollowed-out volcano, transformed into a science-fictional archaeo-astronomical laboratory for perceptual flight; a Promethean bed of nails poking dangerously into the desert sky, awaiting some gargantuan penitent. John shot from the hip. Described by another friend as a ''warm, impulsive, kind person who is something of a mark,'' Christophe, in designing costumes for Wilson's theater pieces, discovered a talent for inventing clothes, and has recently set up as a couturier. The reunited family went to Houston, then the American headquarters for the company. 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. The founders of the Dia Art Foundation have filed suit to stop the foundation from selling artworks in Dia's collection. And I loathed the black-tiled floor. THE DE MENILS' IN-volvement in the Houston art world began in the 1940's - an inevitable consequence of Father Couturier's evangelism. Plans called for Bob Dylan to sing at the service, but he was unavailable, and a tape was played of John's Dylan favorites. Dominique, who was courted by other cities, says that the museum is in Houston because ''I was so encouraged here.'' Like the other children, he realizes fully that his parents are a difficult act to follow. 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. Hickey-Robertson. BUT, AS DOMINIQUE likes to point out, she and John didn't start out rich. Dominique de Menil, the daughter of Conrad Schlumberger and his wife, Louise Delpech, was born in Paris on March 23, 1908. Ibish, Yusuf, and Peter Lamborn Wilson, eds. At one of them he met and influenced Philippa de Menil, a member of a famous Franco-American family of art patrons, and her German-born husband. (Brought up a Protestant, she converted to Catholicism to marry John.) Friedrich has exhibited works by Blinky Palermo, Walter De Maria, Donald Judd, La Monte Young, Andy Warhol, Michael Heizer, and Joseph Beuys, among others in his galleries in Germany, but became less interested in short term gallery installations and through Dia began to collect, and support majo The rest of John's and Dominique's estates would go to their own causes. Philippa de Menil. For the marriage, Dominique converted to John's Catholicism, a move that at first shocked her clannish family. 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