Menil Drawings

Houston art collectors donate 110 important works to new Menil Drawing Institute

Jasper Johns, Flag on an Orange Field drawing

Among the important works of art promised to the Menil Drawing Institute are a drawing of Jasper Johns' Flag on Orange Field, 1957.

The new Menil Drawing Institute, scheduled to open next year, suddenly got a treasure trove of important artwork to add to its already impressive collection.

Menil Collection trustees Louisa Stude Sarofim and Janie C. Lee have promised the new institute 110 important modern and contemporary drawings from their collections, the museum announced late Thursday. Both avid art collectors, each plans to donate 55 drawings from a range of noted artists.

The impressive cache, which will be bequeathed to the Menil at the donors' deaths, includes 15 drawings by Jasper Johns, dating from 1954 to 2012 and representing every decade of his career. The museum currently has one drawing acquired by John and Dominique de Menil, and 17 given by David Hay Whitney in 2005. The Menil Drawing Institute plans to publish a catalogue of Johns drawings next year.

The 110 promised gifts represent the work of 41 artists, who range chronologically from Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas in the late 19th century to Piet Mondrian, Balthus, and Georgia O’Keeffe in the mid-20th century to Robert Gober and Terry Winters in the present, the museum detailed in a press release.

Among the highlights are:

4 drawings by Willem de Kooning from the crucial period between 1945 and 1953, when the Woman series of paintings was being developed
9 Jackson Pollock drawings (the earliest from 1939 and the latest from 1951) that trace his development from Surrealism into what would become Abstract Expressionism
8 drawings by Brice Marden, representing every decade in the production of an artist who cites his 1972 visit to the Rothko Chapel—an initiative of John and Dominique de Menil—as formative to his development
3 important drawings by Richard Serra (from 1971, 1980, and 1993) that demonstrate how integral the medium has been to his practice, and that build on major acquisitions of Serra drawings made by the Menil in 2011 and 2012
4 drawings by Eva Hesse (from 1964, 1966, and 1967) that complement a 1960 Hesse given in 2011 by Sally and Wynn Kramarsky in honor of Bernice Rose
a suite of 24 drawings by Bruce Nauman made in or around 1965, at the beginning of his mature artistic practice, which would generate some of his most consequential sculptures
5 major unique works on paper by Robert Rauschenberg, including a collage and a Black Painting on paper from 1952, which add to a stellar collection of early Rauschenberg
4 Agnes Martin drawings, which will join another two (both from 1977) already in the Menil’s holdings.

The museum established the Menil Drawing Institute (MDI) in 2008. Among its current holding are important drawings by Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly.

Sarofim, Menil board chair and life trustee, previously donated such works as "Tablet (1948-73)" by Ellsworth Kelly, and a suite of 188 framed works on paper to the museum. Lee, a former Houston art gallery owner and curator, told the New York Times she began collecting drawings because that was what she could afford but soon realized they were a crucial part of many artists' work. Over the years, she amassed her impressive collection.

These works will be housed in a free-standing $40 million building designed by the Los Angeles firm Johnston Marklee, currently under construction just behind the Cy Twombly Gallery.

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A Roman Holiday (Season)

All roads lead to Houston museum's blockbuster exhibit of Imperial Rome

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

Houston's holiday season will have a distinctly Roman feeling this year, as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is bringing the glory of the Gladiator era to Texas. On November 2, 2025 through January 25, 2026 the MFAH presents the monumental new exhibition “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times.”

Featuring 160 objects of antiquity, including marble sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, delicate glass vessels, and exquisite bronze artifacts, the exhibition will transport visitors back in time to the Roman Empire during a flowering of art and architecture. The MFAH partnered with the Saint Louis Art Museum to organize the exhibition, which will showcase many pieces that have never been on view in the U.S.

While Emperor Trajan might not be the most famous — or in some cases, most infamous — of the Roman emperors, he ruled between 98 and 117 C.E. during the empire’s height and was the second of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. He was also the first emperor born outside of present-day Italy, in what is now Andalusia, Spain. During his reign, he granted citizenship and rights to some peoples from conquered lands. The exhibition will explore how this time period expanded what it meant to be a Roman and how art reflected Rome’s power and promoted the empire’s values and ideals.

$\u200bThe Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times"$

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

From statues of prominent men and women of the era, including Trajan, to vivid frescoes and furnishing from the villas of Pompeii, the objects in the exhibition will tell fascinating cultural and political stories of life in imperial Rome. To add context to the artworks and objects of antiquity, the MFAH will recreate a section of Trajan’s Column, which was a towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze, one of the few monumental sculptures to have survived the fall of Rome.

“Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” brings such a wealth of objects to Houston thanks to unprecedented loans from the renowned antiquities collections of Italian museums including Museo Nazionale Romano, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Parco Archeologico di Ostia, and the Musei Vaticani. It would would likely take months of travel across Italy to see this much art.

“This is truly a rare opportunity for U.S. audiences to experience spectacular objects from this glorious era of the Roman Empire,” said Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, in a statement. “We are enormously grateful to our colleagues in Rome, Naples, and Vatican City for lending these treasures to us and broadening the appreciation of Italy’s cultural heritage.”

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