The stock decline was an element in the recent heavy retrenchment of the Dia Foundation, entirely supported by Philippa de Menil, to the tune of several million dollars a year. Over the course of nearly 20 years, beginning in the late 1940's, they set up a full-fledged art and art history department, hiring -and paying for - teachers, researchers and what one of the former de-scribes as ''others with whom they have loose and flexible arrangements.'' Before, I did things for others, and now I'm doing something for myself. The family has done everything as dedicated amateurs, but they helped the right people at the right time. It will house the more than 10,000 objects acquired by the couple. Today, while Dominique still administers the Institute for the Arts, and contributes to such programs as fellowships for graduate students in art history, the de Menil presence there has shrunk considerably. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. ''If it hadn't been for them, we wouldn't be here,'' says Father Frank H. Bredeweg, now president of the college. The idea was born, Dominique says, out of her ''shock'' at discovering segregation ''when I arrived in the United States, and wondering why, when great artists have seen blacks as beautiful, dignified, noble, they were not considered so here.''. ''If only my father could see him now,'' his sister Adelaide has remarked proudly. Their collection was motivated by their shared interest in the many ways individuals over different cultures and eras reveal through art their understanding of what it means to be human.[7]. But we are definitely a collection of people very much influenced by John and Dominique. It was inescapable. (One takes off one's shoes on entering.) They actually maintained their support here for six or seven years before it began to happen.'' It is often cited as one of the most significant privately assembled art collections, alongside the Barnes Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum. An economist, with a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has taught at Princeton and is founding director of the economics research division of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, where he is a professor and where he spends time teaching each year. [5] Says Philip Johnson, who met Dominique and John when they were ''still living in a tract house'' in Houston, ''They were unpretentious, yet arrogant enough. ''It's Dominique's museum and it's important to her,'' Francois says. They have been adventurous patrons, perhaps less concerned than many with the kudos and the cash that go with art patronage in American society. [1], In addition to becoming known as collectors and patrons of art, John and Dominique de Menil were vocal champions of human rights worldwide. She spoke at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, inaugurating the Passionate Voices series, celebrating the 10th anniversary. Philippa was then married to Francesco Pellizzi, an Italian anthropology student, and already exploring with him the concept of helping artists realize large-scale environmental works. which cannot be easily produced, fi-nanced or owned by individual collectors because of their cost and magnitude". 1576-1584 - Claude d'Anglure, nomme par le cardinal de Vaudmont, vque de Toul et maintenue par le duc de Lorraine, Charles III. An ongoing project that seeks to catalogue and study the depiction of individuals of African descent in Western art, it is now under the aegis of Harvard University. Says Dominique, ''The idea of the foundation was marvelous, and they've done great things. In a stronghold of segregation, they not only backed civil rights and Martin Luther King, but entertained blacks at dinner. The theoretical thrust of ''The Image of the Black'' reflects Dominique more than John, whose interests were apt to find more direct expression. 1529-1538 - Philippa de Ligniville, fille de Jean de Ligniville et de Jeanne d'Oiselet. Philippa - called ''Phip'' by intimates - the mother of two, is probably the closest heir to her mother's ''spirituality,'' and has her good looks and unpretentious manner. At that point, the de Menils began to drift away from the museum. ''Each branch of the Schlumberger clan has a wing,'' Christophe explains. . . ''I'm extreme and I have strong tastes,'' says Christophe, who is also an excellent though unexhibited photographer. You can't just expand and expand. Beyond the family, their influence has been substantial, too. Collectively, they have disbursed tens of millions of dollars for purchases, commissions and general support of art - contributions, to be sure, that more than occasionally have been attended by an impulse to control. (Spookily enough, another dwelling she had built on the same site about 20 years ago met the same end.) German gallery owner Heiner Friedrich, Fariha Friedrich (ne de Menil) and Helen Winkler Fosdick founded Dia. And she was surrounded by accomplished relatives. [14] They were instrumental in the Contemporary Arts Association's decision to hire Jermayne MacAgy as its director; she curated several groundbreaking exhibitions, including "The Sphere of Mondrian" and "Totems Not Taboo: An Exhibition of Primitive Art. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Indeed, Adelaide has recently given the museum an important piece from her collection. Whitman brought a suit against Dia, which is pending. De Menil, who lived in Houston until she was 12 and was raised Catholic, has been a practicing Muslim for more than 30 years, and is now known as Sheikha Fariha al-Jerrahi, having been officially . by Paula Newton November 11, 2013. by Paula Newton November 11, 2013. And she goes on collecting - though at a much slower pace, she says, because prices have risen so high. The de Menils' Catholic faith, especially their interest in Father Yves Marie Joseph Congar's teachings on ecumenism, would become crucial to the development of their collecting ethos in the coming decades. ''What I inherited was my mother's craving. In 1974, Fr ''He reminds me of my father,'' she says, ''with his strong idealism and willingness to undertake certain things that others wouldn't. An informal art historian and teacher, Dominique has also organized some remarkable exhibitions, innovatively installed. In 1980, the woman she was had become a Sufi dervish named Fariha al-Jerrahi, and when the house of Dia fell, she moved on. ''She had a passion for art, and in later years she did buy it, but she gave it to her grandchildren - small things, a little Klee, a little Picasso, a little Rouault,'' says Dominique. THE COUPLE'S MOST INTENSE Houston involvement was with St. Thomas University, a small Catholic college. Notable exhibitions at Rice Museum organized with the help of the de Menils were "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age", curated by Pontus Hulten for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and "Raid the Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol",[17] an exhibition of objects selected by Warhol from the storage vaults of the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design. It serves the vi-sion of a place ''for people in search of peace, meditation and a more intense consciousness of our time.'' Casey Lesser. (A question mark next to a word above means that we couldn't find it, but clicking the word might provide spelling suggestions.) The German art dealer Heiner Friedrich; his wife, Philippa de Menil (daughter of the noted philanthropist Dominique de Menil); and art historian Helen Winkler founded Dia Art Foundation in 1974. That same year they provided the University of St. Thomas, a small Catholic institution in Houston, with funding to build Strake Hall and Jones Hall, designed by Philip Johnson per their recommendation. Rites were performed not only by a Catholic prelate, but a black Baptist minister, a rabbi, and a Buddhist priest. Philippa - called ''Phip'' by intimates - the mother of two, is probably the closest heir to her mother's ''spirituality,'' and has her good looks and unpretentious manner. Institute of Religion Accepts Controversial Broken Obelisk.. Dominique de Menil, the daughter of Conrad Schlumberger and his wife, Louise Delpech, was born in Paris on March 23, 1908. (Brought up a Protestant, she converted to Catholicism to marry John.) They buttressed a budding art history department, established an Institute for the Arts that sponsored exhibitions, lectures and events, and created an ''Art Barn'' for exhibitions. Now it's a coalition of businessmen and minorities who run the city.''. Raised in a code of stern Protestant morality, Dominique is quite prepared to give a million to a worthy cause, but not to spend money on such frivolities as taxis, according to Edmund (Ted) Carpenter. He was my particular nemesis. She is not a ''go-getter,'' she insists in her French-tinged English. ''You support artists by buying their work, not by making shrines to them.''. Their fervor spilled over into us. Fariha Fatima al-Jerrahi (born Philippa de Menil; 13 June 1947) is the spiritual guide and current Sheikha of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in New York City. Few philanthropists of the 20th century contributed more to the American art world than Dominique and John de Menil. ''Ted really started it - he saved an old house that was going to be demolished, and so we bought the land,'' she says. to find the word you're looking for. The de Menil museum in Houston, with its big main-floor display space and a second floor for open storage of art objects, embodies her vision of a museum as a place of ''beauty and enchantment, even before it's a teaching institution, a place where things can be seen on multiple levels, with a relationship made between the objects and the way they are presented.'' Eventually - despite their contributions of time and art - their ambitious projects brought them into conflict with budget-minded trustees. Schlumberger, Dominique. Sheikha. After a substantial inheritance from their Schlumberger grandmother, nothing more would be forthcoming, the children were given to understand. Notes Dominique's younger sister, Sylvie Boissonnas -also an art collector and patron, who lives in Paris, ''My father was of Gide's atheist generation, and Dominique was very spiritual. They were compelling.'' THE NEW BUILDING will be close to another, even more un-Houstonian de Menil monument. (An uncle, Jean Schlumberger, helped found the celebrated literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Francaise). Both born in Houston - their three elders were born in France - they grew up in the rebellious 60's and seem to have come to terms more uneasily than the others with the Schlumberger aura. The family was met in Havana by John, who - having joined Schlumberger in 1938 - had been in Rumania, overseeing Schlumberger operations there, as well as putting sand into the gear boxes of Rumanian trains carrying oil to Germany. Dominique, who from childhood had an impulse toward collecting, acquiring such objects as ''shells, cut-out images, exotic seeds,'' attributes her interest in art -late-blooming as it was - to her mother, who would have collected, save for her husband's disapproval. Then you can see how a Communist lives.'' Actually, her children venerate Dominique almost to the point of copying her.'' Though designed by one of the architects of the flamboyant Pompidou Center in Paris, which wears its plumbing on its facade, it bears no resemblance to that outrageous folly. Ibish, Yusuf, and Peter Lamborn Wilson, eds. ''John's feeling for the underdog really started in his childhood,'' says Dominique. They maintained residences in New York and France but settled in Houston, where John would eventually become president of Schlumberger Overseas (Middle and Far East) and Schlumberger Surenco (Latin America), two branches of the Houston-based oilfield services corporation. He later realized who had delivered the manuscript and wrote her a note.'' 1584-1586 - Franoise du Chtelet. ''Wasn't I there?'' The conflict, as is the case with most de Menil disagreements, actually reveals the strength of the family's ties, according to Ted Carpenter: ''It's like an Italian family arguing over the pasta. Helped by Citizens for Good Schools, a progressive organization supported by de Menil money, Everett won his seat, along with the other three candidates supported by the citizens group. The building, primly sheathed in what one Houstonian calls ''Protestant gray clapboard'' (probably a first for a museum in this country), has on the ground floor exhibition spaces set in a landscaped garden. Schlumberger Ltd. - tHE Source of the de Menil family's fortune - was established in 1934 by Conrad Schlumberger, Dominique de Menil's father, and Marcel Schlumberger, her uncle. ''Life had been tough for him, and he saw how hard it was for some others.''. A big show of the family's art collections was held at the Grand Palais in Paris two years ago. Philippa and her husband Heiner have made over a former apartment building into a townhouse. Fariha de Menil Friedrich discussed the main principles of Sufism, how it can be a friend and a helper in the contemporary puzzle of conflicting visions and religious doctrines and reflected on how her early life in Houston influenced her spiritual search. Each is not only glamorously housed in Manhattan, most of them on the Upper East Side, but also has one or two lavish residences elsewhere -Paris, Texas, the Hamptons. The most conservative of the children, and the most involved with family tradition, he uses - in France - his title, Baron, bestowed on the de Menil family by Napoleon. '', See the article in its original context from. When they arrived there from Paris in the early 1940's, they were not yet as wealthy as they would become, but they were almost too interesting. 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