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42 BY CATHERINE D. ANSPON. PHOTOGRAPHY JENNY ANTILL CLIFTON AND DANIEL ORTIZ. I t was an evening that happens once every 20 years. The last time The Menil Collection opened a new building, it was 1997, with the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum. More than two decades later, art- world eyes were on Houston as the eagerly anticipated evening arrived for the big reveal of the Menil Drawing Institute. Illustrious members of the national and international art community joined with Houston patrons to view and celebrate the new $40 million 30,000-square-foot center — the only one in America devoted solely to the medium of drawing. The trio of the night were Menil director Rebecca Rabinow and architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of Johnston Marklee in from L.A. The occasion unfolded in three acts, beginning with viewing of the serene architecture, including courtyards exquisitely landscaped by Michael Van Valkenburgh. The new institute would official open to the public two days later, and this seated black-tie dinner for 325 by Jackson and Company marked a fitting prelude to the unveiling of a building that has been praised as understated, graceful, important, and ready to take its position amidst the storied Menil campus. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: Menil family members in from New York, the founders' chil- dren Adelaide de Menil and architect François de Menil with wife Susan, as well as Andee and Aziz Friedrich also of New York, and Swiss-based Bérengère Primat and Garance Primat; museum notables such as Kimbell Art Museum di- rector Eric Lee, MOMA's Christophe Cherix, the Whitney's David Breslin (formerly of the Menil), director of NYC's Drawing Center Laura Hoptman, president of the American Academy in Rome Mark Robbins, and from MOCA Chicago MAKING A MARK MENIL DRAWING INSTITUTE OPENING NIGHT (continued on page 47) Janie C. Lee & David Warren Sharon Johnston & Mark Lee Edouard Kopp Bernice Rose Elsian Cozens, Adelaide de Menil, Steve McConathy David McGee, Nancy Douthey Suzanne Deal Booth, LeMel Humes Ann Wolf, Rebecca Rabinow, Sara Dodd Janet & Paul Hobby Alison Leland, Greg Campbell