John and Dominique de Menil were a French couple who emigrated to Houston in 1941. By the time they moved here, they had already been collecting art in Europe for 10 years. They were active supporters of Houston’s local art community for 35 years, and, at the same time, continued to expand their private collection. After John’s death in 1973, Dominique started making plans for a museum:

As the idea of the museum slowly took shape, I dreamed of preserving some of the intimacy I had enjoyed with the works of art. I came up with the concept to which architect Renzo Piano responded brilliantly: we would rotate the works of art.

We would show only portions of the collection at a time, but displayed in generous and attractive space. The public would never know museum fatigue and would have the rare joy of sitting in front of a painting and contemplating it. Works would appear, disappear, and reappear like actors on a stage. Each time they would be seen with a fresh eye. Habit blunts vision.

The museum is everything she wanted it to be, from the simple exterior to the amount of natural light inside to the sculptures outside. The Menil Collection is the product of people who truly loved art, and it shows.