Comments (0) Best Museum - 2006
The Menil Collection
Picking Houston's best museum wasn't easy: Lawndale Art Center is the herald of the local scene. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston thinks outside the box, bringing in Colombian artifacts and quilts from Alabama. Even the Orange Show has an underdog charm. But, in the end, we had to give it up for the Menil Collection. Yes, it's uncool to toast the leisure activity of two rich old white people, but Dominique and John de Menil brought to Houston works by true greats of the 20th century, including Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol, as well as artifacts from ancient Africa, early Mediterranean civilizations and the Byzantine empire. The Menil Collection is the one most likely to house something from your art history textbook. It's more than a great local art institution -- it's a world-class museum.
