The Upper East Side
I only met Christophe de Menil once. We were seated next to each other at a birthday dinner in an apartment on Park Avenue. It was a real New York moment, rich with a kind of aura that only exists on the Upper East Side. Champagne, cocktails and dessert spilled over into an impromptu recital with a retired opera singer crooning “Danny Boy” over live piano.
We ate dinner and spoke briefly. When I told Ms. de Menil that my parents had sent me to the same militaristic correctional boarding school as her late grandson, Dash Snow, she became emotional. She recalled the rift it had created in her family when Dash was sent away and the lengths she went to try to bring him home. She had the unique compassion of someone who understood.
By the time we met, the school had shuttered after admissions tanked. A series of lawsuits accused the school of accepting students with known histories of violence and psychopathic behavior. Parents signed away their rights when they enrolled their children, but this was considered a violation of the school’s commitment to protect students. The case settled out of court for $400,000.
The art we love is a reflection of our values
Having grown up in Houston, Texas, I had known Ms. de Menil’s reputation for most of my life. Her family’s museum, the Menil Collection, and its satellite exhibition spaces are some of the most incredible places to look at art. My grandparents gifted me Art and Activism: Projects of John and Dominique de Menil one Christmas after I had gone away for college.
I’ve probably visited the Cy Twombly Gallery more than any other museum, and a field trip to the Collection when I was a student at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is the reason I decided I wanted to work with artists.
A private collection is a portrait of its owner. It encapsulates how a collector thinks about art and what they value in human creativity. The Menil Collection is a masterful celebration of the intersection of art and the sacred, the mythological, the divine. It’s a testament to the raw power of art to energize the human spirit through difficult times. Times like the present.
“If I had one thing to say to young artists, it would be to close your eyes. Meaning, you know, open your whole body.”
