9780375415432

0375415432

9781524732943

"The first and definitive biography of the celebrated collectors Dominique and John de Menil, who became one of the greatest cultural forces of the twentieth century through groundbreaking exhibits of art, artistic scholarship, the creation of innovative galleries and museums, and work with civil rights."--Amazon.

"Dominique and John de Menil created an oasis of culture in their Philip Johnson-designed house with everyone from Marlene Dietrich and René Magritte to Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. In Houston, they built the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, the Cy Twombly Gallery, and underwrote the Contemporary Arts Museum. Now, with unprecedented access to family archives, William Middleton has written a sweeping biography of this unique couple. From their ancestors in Normandy and Alsace, to their own early years in France, and their travels in South America before settling in Houston. We see them introduced to the artists in Europe and America whose works they would collect, and we see how, by the 1960s, their collection had grown to include 17,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, rare books, and decorative objects. And here is, as well, a vivid behind-the-scenes look at the art world of the twentieth century and the enormous influence the de Menils wielded through what they collected and built and through the causes they believed in."--Amazon.

Part one. The museum imagined

Fanfare

Part two. The old world

A family château

A protestant dynasty

Return to France

Foreign affairs

Honor and sacrifice

Monsieur le Baron

At first sight

Une jeunesse

Horizons broadened

A shared life

Engaged

Part three. War

Drôle de guerre

The debacle

Landings

Postwar

Part four. New frontiers

Home

Nail hit this time

The sky is the limit

A big splash

Worth the candle

Nothing and everything

Faith can be alive

Part five. A very strong woman

Aftermath

What now?

Other voices, other lands

Toward a new museum

Global visions

A museum with walls

From civil rights to human rights

Byzantium

A new generation

Un acte final.

Art > Collectors and collecting > United States > Biography.

Civil rights workers > United States > Biography.

Philanthropists > United States > Biography.

Art > Collectors and collecting.

Nonfiction.

Biographies.

Biography.