Dominique de Menil asked for a museum that would feel small on the outside and large on the inside, and Renzo Piano delivered in 1987. The low building, clad in gray cypress to match the "Menil gray" houses around it, hides 30,000 square feet of galleries lit by daylight filtered through hundreds of curved ferro-cement "leaves" in the roof. Only a small share of the collection is out at any time, so it rotates, but the Surrealist rooms are the heart of it: the Menil holds more than 1,000 works by Max Ernst, alongside René Magritte and many others. The campus spreads over several blocks. Piano's Cy Twombly Gallery (1995) glows under linen sailcloth, Richmond Hall glows with Dan Flavin's colored fluorescent light installation, and the Menil Drawing Institute (2018) arranges its galleries around three courtyards. The Rothko Chapel sits a short walk away. Everything here is always free.
What to expect
- No photos inside the galleries; casual photos are fine in entryways and hallways.
- Free coat check takes large backpacks and luggage.
- No food or drinks in the buildings; keep snacks for the lawn.
- Leashed dogs are welcome on the lawns, but pets can't go inside the buildings.
- Pencils and sketchbooks are welcome; ink, easels and paint are not.
What to do
- Spend time in the main building's Surrealist galleries, strong in Max Ernst and René Magritte
- Walk to the Cy Twombly Gallery, lit through linen sailcloth under a glass ceiling
- See the Dan Flavin installation in Richmond Hall on Richmond Avenue
- June 1987Opened
- 30,000 sq ft, daylitGalleries
- 291 ferro-cement units (RPBW)Roof leaves
- Always freeAdmission