Silence
July 27, 2012 - October 21, 2012
With paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, performances, and sound works, Silence considers the absence of sound as a subject and a medium in contemporary art. Whether a positive source of inspiration, an enigmatic force, or an unsettling limbo zone, silence is a powerful force in art and human experience. While signifying absence, it can also manifest presence and the passage of time; and it can inspire calming meditation or cause anxiety.
While not every piece in the exhibition will lack sound, all will investigate the experience, idea, and power of silence to inspire a range of physical and psychic states.
In Houston the architectural anchors of the exhibition will be the Rothko Chapel (1971), a world-renowned place of silent meditation as well as the Menil Collection building itself, conceived by the architect Renzo Piano and Dominique de Menil to be a quiet “place apart” for contemplating art (2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the museum