The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

In 1970, John de Menil wrote to German classical archeologist Dr. Werner Fuchs (1927–2016) seeking to identify the subject of a Roman male torso in his collection. Forty-nine years later, Francesca Fuchs’s discovery of black-and-white photographs depicting the marble torso in her father’s personal effects in Oxford, England, led the Houston-based painter to find the original letter in the museum archives.

This exhibition is the artist’s response to the unanswered letter and unexpected familial connection. Featuring new work by Fuchs and selections from the museum’s collection and archives, the exhibition explores the affective power and relational histories of objects in domestic settings, especially those of the de Menil house in Houston, Texas.

The Space Between Looking and Loving: Francesca Fuchs and the de Menil House is curated by Paul R. Davis, Curator of Collections, The Menil Collection.

Born in London and raised in Münster, Germany, Francesca Fuchs moved to Houston in 1996 as a fellow for the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. During her thirty-year career in Houston and internationally, Fuchs’s work has been a process of honing extended reflections on the nature of everyday objects and illuminating their fundamental truths. Her portraits of objects are re-paintings of paintings, prints, photographs that resist and reconsider their accepted signals of cultural importance, particularly as they relate to the intimacies of life. Fuchs’s work has been included in exhibitions organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, London; The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Suburban, Oak Park, Illinois. In 2018, Art League Houston recognized Fuchs as Texas Artist of the Year.

Major funding for this exhibition is generously provided by Cecily E. Horton. Additional support comes from Franci Neely; Jacquelyn Barish; Mary and Marcel Barone; Hilda Curran; Jessica and Brian Leeke; Fan and Peter Morris; Scott and Judy Nyquist; Beverly and Howard Robinson; Karlsson and Brian Salek; Bill Stewart and Johanna Brassert; Wawro-Gray Family Foundation; Nina and Michael Zilkha; John Zipprich; and the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.