Mark Morris Critiques Houston's Menil Collection

Before famed choreographer Mark Morris watched his dance group take the stage at the Society for the Performing Arts in Houston, he toured the city’s Menil Collection, leading a crowd of 50 patrons. From the building’s space itself to Egyptian art to the museum’s monumental Nootka painting to a Henri Rousseau, Morris dropped enough names to assure his guests that he was more a visual art expert than he modestly claimed to be. “I’m drawn to very tiny things,” he told his unsuspecting VIP tour group, pointing out a 5300 B.C. sculpture of a heavyset woman reclining from behind. Morris also noted an Yves Klein painting that used people as brushes, which he said reminded him of “a ballet of girls on a white canvas.” After a series of naughtier observations that shant be recalled, Morris sat down with Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch to enlighten a larger audience of over 200 people on his works.