The first building to be added to the Menil Campus in more than 20 years, it joins four other structures: the main museum building, designed by Renzo Piano; the Cy Twombly Gallery (also designed by Piano); Richmond Hall, which houses a site-specific Dan Flavin installation; and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, designed by François de Menil. The Menil Collection’s main building opened to the public in 1987 and has since become a major destination for art study and tourism.
Their inaugural exhibition showcases the Menil’s impressive collection of Jasper Johns drawings, an exhibition and accompanying catalogue raisonné a decade in the making. The Condition of Being Here: Drawings by Jasper Johns spans the artist’s career, with 41 works in a variety of media. The Menil is one of the world’s largest repositories of drawings by Johns, and amongst these works audiences will recognize many of Johns familiar subjects, styles, and motifs.