Hard to believe, but our beloved Menil Collection will be 20 years old this June! They’re celebrating their b-day with a slew of predictably innovative and great-looking shows, including Everyday People, a show of photographs from the collection inspired by Steichen’s Family of Man show in 1955; and also with the upcoming Rauschenberg Cardboards, the first large-scale exhibit to focus on R’s cardboard series from the early 1970s. This fall they’ll have the Bruce Nauman 1960s exhibit organized by the Berkley Art Museum, which should also be great. Lest we forget in the current glut of fancy museum buildings, the Menil was the first US building for Renzo Piano (and, many of us would argue, is still his gold standard for museum buildings). Here’s what founder Dominique de Menil had to say at the opening 20 years ago: "I have been asked many times whether this building corresponded to my dreams. It does. Actually it surpasses my dreams… The gifted artists are the great benefactors of the world. Life flows from their souls, from their hearts, from their fingers. They invite us to celebrate life and to meditate on the mystery of the world… Artists constantly open new horizons and challenge our way of looking at things. They bring us back to the essential."
Menil @ 20
