(Q15436822)
Statements
4 January 1904Gregorian
3 references
1 June 1973
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2 references
GROWING UP IN HOUSTON, ADELAIDE DE MENIL was embarrassed to bring her friends to the art-filled home of her parents, Dominique and John de Menil. Adelaide wished that the starkly modern house, designed by the then-Mies-disciple Philip Johnson, could be like everyone else's. ''But there were all these weird paintings hanging on the walls,'' she says. ''For instance, there was a big purple and yellow canvas by Leger, and I hated to take my friends through the hall where they could see it. And I loathed the black-tiled floor. I wanted a wooden one.''As it turned out, her parents, thanks to their holdings in Schlumberger, the giant multinational oil-field services company, were en route to developing one of the world's largest private art collections, noted today for its examples of Cubism, Surrealism, African sculpture, Mediterranean antiquities and contemporary works. (English)
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Dominique de Menil appears regularly in Forbes magazine's annual listing of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated worth of ''at least'' $200 million in Schlumberger stock and art alone. But one family member suggests that the figure ''could easily be twice that amount.'' (Box, page 38.) Millionaires are different from us, as everyone knows, but as a clan the de Menils are different even from their fellow millionaires, most noticeably in the unconventional ways in which they spend their money. Unlike the normal superwealthy, their pursuits do not run to clubs, yachts or horseracing. 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. They have also come to the aid of liberal-left politicians and Islamic religious groups, avant-garde music and counterculture films, archeological digs and art education, Long Island fishermen and anti-Vietnam activists. Their associates tend not to be other superrichlings, but artists, film makers, poets, anthropologists, activists, professors, priests and - in the case of Philippa, who is involved with Sufism, an Islamic philosophy - sheiks and whirling dervishes. (English)
Identifiers
1 reference
Jean John Marie Joseph de Menil (Menu de Ménil) (4 Jan 1904 - certain 1 Jun 1973)
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Sitelinks
Wikipedia(2 entries)
- arzwiki جون دى مينيل
- enwiki John de Menil