The Menil Collection

Among the Menil Collection's holdings from the ancient Mediterranean is a temple wall panel with a sunken relief depicting the Egyptian falcon-headed sky god Horus.

Representations of gods in ancient Egypt typically combined in human-animal forms. In the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BCE), the pharaoh was considered the living embodiment of Horus. In this relief, he holds an ankh and was-scepter, symbols of religious and political power.

The Menil's holdings of more than 600 Ancient Mediterranean objects span 20,000 years of artistic achievement, from the Upper Paleolithic era to the end of the Roman Empire. Explore the rotating display of figures, vessels, and other objects in the main building.

The Menil Collection's main building, completed in 1987, was Renzo Piano's first project in the United States. The architect, whose birthday is today, was selected by Dominique de Menil for the project.

“Light was a fixed idea for her. You could call it an obsession, and since I’m a bit of an obsessive myself, we got on well on the subject," Piano said.

Suspended by slim trusses are 300 ceiling "leaves," which allow diffused natural light into the galleries.

See the unveiling of Jitish Kallat's wall drawing at the Menil Collection's Drawing Institute this Thursday, September 10. Join the Artist Talk at 7 p.m., followed by a public reception.

Kallat, a leading figure in contemporary Indian art, was commissioned for the eighth installment of the Drawing Institute's ephemeral "Wall Drawing Series." His work often probes the intersections of the intimate and the immense, weaving together references to history, science, philosophy, and the cosmic scale of time.

Explore "John Akomfrah: The Hour Of The Dog," now in its final weeks at the Menil Collection.

The six-channel video and sound installation explores the history of youth-led Civil Rights-era activism in the American South from 1954 to 1963. To create the immersive work, the Ghanaian-born British artist combined black-and-white documentation of pivotal historical moments with quiet and surreal cinematic shots recorded on a stage set. For the artist, the montage technique is both a method and a philosophy as the juxtaposition of disparate fragments provides new ways of seeing.

"I'm interested in the afterlives of activism—the way resistance lingers in the body, in the landscape, in the archive. Activism is not confined to what happens in the streets; it's bound up with who and how we remember, who and how we mourn, and how we dream forward. The dreams and despairs of 1960s activists still pulse through our contemporary condition, waiting for new forms, new utterances."

Visit the Menil Collection's Cy Twombly Gallery, the only permanent retrospective of the artist's work. The nine-room gallery holds five decades of Twombly's paintings and sculptures.

On display in the center gallery is a group of works known as the "blackboards" due to their visual relationship to rhythmic white chalk scribbles on slate. With an oil stick, the artist drew horizontal registers of looping lines in fluid motions. Inspired by the swirling water patterns in Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci's deluge drawings, Twombly's gestures also resemble cursive handwriting—yet the lines do not spell out anything. As in so many of the painter's works, he played with the idea of language but withheld information.

The Menil's art buildings are open Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Admission is always free.

Join us at the Menil Collection and enjoy upcoming programs in September.

📸 Member Noontime Talk: X-rays Don't Lie: Uncovering the Secrets of Art with Cory Rogge and James Craven, Fri., Sept. 4, 12–12:30 p.m.
🖼️ Artist Talk: Jitish Kallat, Thurs., Sept. 10, 7–8 p.m.
🎤 Minnijean Brown Trickey: Activism Is a Way of Life, Thurs., Sept. 17, 7–8 p.m.
🎉 Member Opening: "Terry Winters: Vitalized Geometry," Thurs., Sept. 24, 7–8:30 p.m.
🖌️ Member Noontime Talk: Southern Outsider Artists with Natalie Dupêcher, Fri., Sept. 25, 12–12:30 p.m.
🎤 Curator Talk: Kelly Montana on "Fragility", Sun., Sept. 27, 3–3:30 p.m.
📜 Papermaking Workshop with Yvette Grutter, Sat., Oct. 3, 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

The Menil's public programs are always free and open to all. To attend special member events, join at menil.org/membership.

In the Grassfields region of Cameroon, there are more than 100 sovereign Bamileke kingdoms. This headdress, called tsesah or tsemabu, is closely associated with the authority and prestige of a kingdom’s ruler, known as fon or fo. A masquerade tradition dating to the early 18th century according to oral histories, the performance of the tsesah was limited to enthronement ceremonies, funerals for high-ranking officials, and other displays of royal authority.

Paul Tahbou, a sculptor and high-ranking official in the kingdom of Bandjoun during the mid-20th century, described the tsesah as the head of a hippopotamus, the most dangerous animal on the African continent. With its attentive eyes and flared nostrils surfacing above the waterline, the tsesah perfectly embodies the stately power of the fon.

See this mask and other objects in the Menil Collection's galleries.

John Akomfrah selected four artworks from the Menil Collection's holdings for display in the exhibition "John Akomfrah: The Hour Of The Dog," each chosen for its connection with his six-channel video and sound installation.

Visit the exhibition in the main building through October 11. "The Hour Of The Dog" begins every hour on the hour. The final screening each day starts at 6 p.m.