The Menil Collection

The Menil Collection A museum and a neighborhood of art. As always, admission is free. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am to 7pm, and charges no admission fee.
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Housed in the first United States building designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the Menil’s main museum building anchors a 30-acre campus. The Menil presents regular rotations of artworks from the growing permanent collection, organizes special exhibitions and programs, publishes scholarly books, and conducts research into the conservation of modern and contemporary art.

Photojournalist Larry Burrows' centennial is tomorrow. See a selection of Burrows's images of the Vietnam War, on view i...
05/28/2026

Photojournalist Larry Burrows' centennial is tomorrow. See a selection of Burrows's images of the Vietnam War, on view in "Photography from The Menil Collection: Curated by Wendy Watriss."

Among Burrows's best-known photographs is "Reaching Out (Operation Prairie, Mutter Ridge, Nui Cay Tri), Vietnam," 1966, which shows a wounded U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Jeremiah Purdie approaching an injured Lance Corporal Roger Dale Treadway. The image "has served as the most indelible, searing illustration of the horrors inherent in that long, divisive war and, by implication, in all wars," wrote Ben Cosgrove in "LIFE Magazine."

Burrows spent nine years covering the war, until his death in 1971, when the helicopter carrying him and fellow photojournalists was shot down in Laos.

There's always a place for you at the Menil Collection.Across the museum's four art buildings and green spaces, take you...
05/26/2026

There's always a place for you at the Menil Collection.

Across the museum's four art buildings and green spaces, take your time while unplugging, exploring the art, and enjoying the neighborhood. Admission is always free.

Spend some time with "Middle Passage," 1970, by Frank Bowling, on view in the Menil Collection's modern and contemporary...
05/22/2026

Spend some time with "Middle Passage," 1970, by Frank Bowling, on view in the Menil Collection's modern and contemporary galleries.

As the artist began experimenting with paint, he moved canvases off the easel. "They all start on the floor of my studio," Bowling said, "and I flood the canvas with this thin color." This painting is among the works resulting from this process and features layers of bright paint and stenciled maps and letters.

Screen-printed photographs of Bowling's sons and mother are visible in the work held by the Menil. "I named the painting 'Middle Passage' because I am a product of the middle passage. I do not bring my images together because of the history and brutality of that terrible crossing, but rather in spite of it."

05/21/2026

Tag a friend in the comments that you'd like to meet at the Menil Collection this weekend. Spend time exploring the museum's four art buildings, outdoor sculpture, and more amid a neighborhood of art—free and open to all since 1987.

Make sure to visit:
🎨 Main building
✏️ Menil Drawing Institute
🖼️ Cy Twombly Gallery
🌈 Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall
🌳 Green spaces
📚 Menil Bookstore

The Menil's buildings are open Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.

In the Menil Collection's modern and contemporary galleries, find Jasper Johns' work "Voice," 1964/1967. The painting wa...
05/19/2026

In the Menil Collection's modern and contemporary galleries, find Jasper Johns' work "Voice," 1964/1967. The painting was the final acquisition made by John de Menil before his death.

Look closely—the painting is made of two canvases, and the word "VOICE" is visible just underneath the lath affixed at the base of a downward arc. "The wire and slat measure space in relation to the artist's body, with the sweeping motion recalling both his own presence and the Vitruvian Man's ideal proportions," wrote Kelly Montana, Associate Curator, Menil Drawing Institute, when the painting was included in the Menil's 30th anniversary exhibition.

Reaching over 25 feet into the air and nearly 32 feet across, "Bygones," 1976, has been installed in Menil Park since th...
05/15/2026

Reaching over 25 feet into the air and nearly 32 feet across, "Bygones," 1976, has been installed in Menil Park since the museum opened in 1987.

For the two I-beam girders and rectangular plate, Mark di Suvero chose to use weathered steel, which gradually develops a protective patina when exposed to Houston's climate. Dynamic yet poised, monumental in scale yet elegant in proportion, "Bygones" embodies di Suvero's command of materials, engineering, and geometry.

Menil Park and the museum's green spaces are open daily, dawn to dusk.

05/12/2026

In the Menil Collection's Byzantine gallery, see an early 16th century tapestry now on view for the first time since 1994.

Sometimes called "The Triumph of Knowledge," the tapestry shows two contrasting stories. On the left, a young couple hammers out an armillary sphere, a mathematical instrument demonstrating celestial bodies' movements around a stationary Earth. In the center, a scholar and an elderly woman—representing Will and Memory—shake the alphabet through a sieve for a man representing Understanding to gather.

Explore the Menil Collection's gallery dedicated to art of the Pacific Islands.Masks, figural sculptures, architectural ...
05/08/2026

Explore the Menil Collection's gallery dedicated to art of the Pacific Islands.

Masks, figural sculptures, architectural elements, and musical instruments are among the museum's holdings of more than 300 works from the Pacific Islands, primarily the regions of Melanesia and Polynesia. Visit the gallery in the Menil's main building—admission is always free.

05/07/2026

As early as the 1960s, John and Dominique de Menil supported artists who charted their own paths, collecting works by so-called outlier, visionary, or untrained artists.

See a new installation of paintings and assemblage sculptures by self-taught artists from the southern United States—including Hawkins Bolden, David Butler, and Bessie Harvey—on view in the main building's hallway gallery.

Gladys Nilsson was born on this day.In September 2025, the Chicago-based artist completed her site-specific work in the ...
05/06/2026

Gladys Nilsson was born on this day.

In September 2025, the Chicago-based artist completed her site-specific work in the seventh installment of the Menil Collection's ephemeral Wall Drawing Series. See the monumental "Drawing" on display at the Menil Drawing Institute through August 2026.

The Menil's art buildings are open Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Admission is always free.

Making travel plans this summer? Menil Collection members enjoy reciprocal membership benefits at over 1,000 museums acr...
05/05/2026

Making travel plans this summer? Menil Collection members enjoy reciprocal membership benefits at over 1,000 museums across North America, among other benefits such as exclusive event invitations and discounts at the Menil Bookstore.

Menil members are a dynamic community that helps keep the museum free and open to all.

Learn more at any Menil front desk, the bookstore, or at menil.org/membership.

Address

1533 Sul Ross Street
Houston, TX
77006

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 7pm
Thursday 11am - 7pm
Friday 11am - 7pm
Saturday 11am - 7pm
Sunday 11am - 7pm

Telephone

+17135259400

Website

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