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THE
MENIL COLLECTION RAISES NEARLY $3 MILLION AT
25th
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN BLUE GALA
ON
NOVEMBER 30
HOUSTON, TX, December 4, 2012 — Art-world celebrities and
patrons from Houston and around the world gathered at the
Menil Collection on Friday evening, November 30, for
Celebration in Blue, only the third gala the museum has
held since its opening in 1987. Dining and dancing amid a
décor inspired by the signature color of Yves Klein, with
paintings by the French artist prominently displayed, the
guests contributed more than $2.2 million in table and
ticket sales and approximately $600,000 in a silent art
auction to support the Menil Collection on its 25th
anniversary.
Menil
Director Josef Helfenstein welcomed distinguished
honorary chairs Almine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, as
well as the evening’s co-chairs Franci Crane, Sara
Dodd-Spickelmier, Isabel Lummis, Susan de Menil, and
Karen Pinson. Mr. Helfenstein also read greetings sent
by honorary event chairs François
Delattre,
Ambassador of France to the United States; Paal Kibsgaard,
CEO of Schlumberg Ltd.; and artist Jasper Johns.
Among
the guests toasting the Menil on its first quarter-century
were Lynn Wyatt, Janet and Paul Hobby,
Leslie Elkins Sasser and Shannon Sasser, Louisa Stude
Sarofim, Janie C. Lee and David Warren, Anne and
Peter Brown, Marilyn Oshman and Alvin Lubetkin, Marcy Taub
and Thomas Wessel, Melanie Gray and Mark Wawro,
Michael Zilkha, Joa Baldinger Friedrich and Heiner
Friedrich, Philippe Vergne, Mel Chin, Lyle Ashton Harris,
Emily Pulitzer, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Ashton Hawkins, Allison
Sarofim and Hamish Bowles.
Each of
the evening’s chairs was accompanied by her husband:
James Crane, Keith Spickelmier, Ransom Lummis, Francois de
Menil, and Harry Pinson. Other members of the de
Menil family were also in attendance. Lois and George de
Menil joined their son Benjamin for the
festivities, as did two of Susan and Francois’s children,
Sophie and Conrad. Also raising glasses to the museum
built by Dominique de Menil to house the collection she
started with her husband John were Adelaide de Menil
Carpenter, and Fariha Friedrich Karimnia (with
her daughter Duha Friedrich, and son Aziz,
with his wife Andee).
Guests
dined on a menu featuring brace of stuffed quail and
butternut squash purée, presented by Jackson and Company,
while sipping Domaine Pierre Labet Bourgogne 2009 white
burgundy or red burgundy and Piper Heidsieck Brut Champagne.
Dancing followed, to the music of Party on the Moon.
Throughout the evening, guests bid in a silent auction on
works donated for the occasion by renowned artists
associated with the Menil Collection, including Maurizio
Cattelan, Vija Celmins, Christo, Walter De Maria, Mark di
Suvero, Marlene Dumas, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Gober, Brice
Marden, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen,
Edward Ruscha, Richard Serra, and Luc Tuymans.
The weekend
celebrations continued with a Saturday-night dance, “Bleu
Électrique”, for Menil Contemporaries, the museum’s
burgeoning membership group for young-professionals, and a
free concert Sunday afternoon by the composer Philip Glass,
who concluded the program with a new étude, honoring the
Menil Collection’s 25th year. All anniversary
events took place in a great tent on the museum’s lawn.
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