Francesca Fuchs’ Paintings of the de Menils’ Paintings

A few weeks ago Francesca Fuchs talked with Tyler Green about her show at and about the Menil Collection and the de Menils, John & Dominique, and their house. The Space Between Looking and Loving: Francesca Fuchs and the de Menil House grew out of Fuchs’ archival research into a letter John de Menil had sent to her archaeologist father about a Roman sculpture the de Menils owned. It expanded into a multi-layered engagement with the house, the art in the house, the collectors, and the works she discovered in the Menil archives.

Fuchs makes paintings of photos, and paintings of photos of paintings, so ofc, I am already onboard. But two pieces of the exhibit really resonate:

the entrance through a pair of white doors to a francesca fuchs exhibit at the menil, is dominated by white walls and the museum's dark stained wood floor. through the doors is part of a wall-sized painting of wood paneling, in pale tan and caramel colors, that imitates an imitation wood paneling in the de menil's house, painted by their decorator charles james.
Francesca Fuchs, Fuchs Faux Bois, 2025, installation view at the Menil, photo: Paul Hester

The de Menils’ house was designed by Philip Johnson, but decorated by couturier Charles James; it’s the only interior James designed, and it remains intact. At the entrance of her show Fuchs made a version of a faux bois wall treatment James painted, I think in the living room or the library. It’s a modernist wall that looks like pale, teak veneer paneling, but it’s not. So kind of weird, and Fuchs clearly makes hers a painting of a paint treatment.

a white wall at the menil collection in houston has several artworks related to matisse cutouts of a palm frond. from left, a black on green original matisse in a white frame; two snapshots of a red matisse cutout in the de menils' kitchen; a green matisse copy made for dominique by william steen under a desaturated red painting of a matisse cutout by francesca fuchs, and next to that, a larger painting by fuchs of what looks like two archival black and white photos of the matisse installed in the de menils' house, stacked on top of each other. very meta, via the menil
[L to R] Matisse Matisse, archival photos, Steen Matisse, Fuchs Matisse, Fuchs Matisse photos, at Menil

The other thing to highlight is the Matisse cutout hanging in the Menils’ kitchen, which everyone knew was green, because it’s in the Museum, and Dominique had the longtime framer at the Menil, artist William Steen, make a copy of it to rotate in and out.

Then Fuchs found an early color photo under all the black & white documentation, and it turns out the Matisse was red. So Fuchs and the Menil curator had to piece together the history of two Matisses [SPOILER: John & Dominique gave the red one to a kid for a wedding present, and @thelegendaryhitchhiker just posted it on tumblr. Turns out the kid and/or spouse sold it at Sotheby’s in 2007.] And to the Matisse original and Steen’s copy, Fuchs added her own copy of the red Matisse, or an archival photo of it, anyway, and other archival photos of it in the house.

It all makes sense as Fuchs and Green discuss it. And there is an entire panel discussion on the de Menil House on September 11th, #neverforget.