This virtual is a multi-cache in style. I want you to tour one of my favorite places in Houston, which many people often overlook. Hopefully, you will have enough interest to stop inside and see what it is I love so much. Plus, it’s free and air-conditioned in the heat of Houston’s summer weather (after walking to find the answers to this virtual cache of course).
The Menil Collection opened in 1987 to preserve and exhibit the art collection of John and Dominique de Menil. Considered one of the most important privately assembled collections of the twentieth century, The Menil Collection houses approximately 17,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books. Masterpieces from antiquity, the Byzantine and medieval worlds the tribal cultures of Africa, Oceania, the American Pacific Northwest, and the twentieth century are particularly well represented. Among the highlights of the museum are its Surrealist holdings, widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost collections of its kind. The Menil Collection displays selections from its permanent collection and regularly offers special exhibitions and programs to the public. Stage 1 and the posted coordinates bring you to the original building for the Menil Collection. It also brings you to one of the many outdoor sculptures.
For Question 1, whose name is found on the right side, third line down? Stage 2 is found across the street from the main museum building. The eponymous Cy Twombly Gallery houses a body of work that is at once baroque and spare, ancient and modern. A collaboration between the Menil, the Dia Foundation, and the artist himself, the Cy Twombly Gallery that opened in 1995 reflects this institution’s commitment to individual artists and to a standard of presentation that honors the creator’s intent as it immerses visitors in a carefully created environment.
For Question 2, who is the 10th name from the left? Stage 3 is a short walk from the Cy Twombly Gallery and a new addition to the Menil Collection.
For Question 3, where are you? Stage 4 and the final location for this tour is at the Rothko Chapel and Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk sculpture. A broken obelisk was a potent emotional way to see America after Martin Luther King Jr's death: the promise denied, the hope shattered, the republic's very rationality snapped in two. For the Menils to see this in Newman's work was visionary, and it was true as well to Newman who always claimed his abstract art was about politics, about meaning. Houston wasn't having it. The city rejected the proposal - not out of hostility to modern art, but because of its dedication to King. So it stands instead in the grounds of the Menil collection, at a site chosen by the artist himself. A monument to all that is broken.
For Question 4, what material is used here?
To claim this virtual cache, message/email me the answer to all 4 questions as found in the text above. I’d love to hear about your favorite building or work of art if you go inside and tour this grand grey gem hidden in a neighborhood. Logs that have not separately sent answers are not qualified and WILL be DELETED.
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020 This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.