One of the great things about Houston is that all the (many) major museums are within walking distance -- or at least, they are in a few minutes by car. We visited the
Menil Collection, the
Contemporary Arts Museum and the
Asia Society Texas Center on different days. The Menil Collection was funded by the de Menil family with oil wealth. It has a stupendous collection of surrealist art and modern American art. Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed, so look up their website. The main building is by Renzo Piano and a striking example of his typical pavilions (and see my post on Fort Worth for another pavilion).
The
Contemporary Arts Museum had an exhibition of contemporary Texas design, which was lively and challenging. Who knew there was such as thing as contemporary Texas design!?
And the
Asia Society Texas Center is in a relatively new building by
Yoshio Taniguchi, who did the renovation of MOMA in NYC. The Center had an exhibition of contemporary art from Asia which was nothing less than stunning.
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| Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich works in rattan |
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| The building |
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| Seon Ghi Bahk works with charcoal, strung on nylon line from the ceiling. I have seen nothing like it. You have to stand and look at these works for quite some time. |
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| Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich works in rattan |
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| Mineko Grimmer’s sculptural sound installations |
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| Every 11 minutes, the pond on the second level has mist .. adds a mystical flavor to the building |
