The Whole World was Watching from the Menil

Beginning in the 1940’s the Menil’s began to see the importance and spiritual connection between ancient art and the art of indigenous cultures, and with great pride began to collect art that could tell a story with no words.

The Menils recognized the connection between contemporary works of art and the art of ancient and indigenous cultures. The couple had begun to explore the idea of building a museum to house their collection. Even after John’s death in 1973 , Dominique de Menil is pursuing their dream.

With over 17,000 works of art and still collecting the museum features different rooms and spaces that hold diverse representations of human creativity from the ancient past to the present.

The Whole World Was Watching is a room filled with images of the civil rights era and features the work of many photographers including Bob Adelman , Danny Lyon, and Gene Roberts. Images held here show the reality of what was happening during the peak of the civil rights movement.

“Photographers saw the importance of these photographs for racial politics” said Michelle White, the Menil tour guide . “There are 36 photo’s here , so I had to really select which pieces would tell the story correctly and had the most visual impact.”

In contrast to other museums the Menil focuses on just the images without giving much insight into the background. Against plain white walls and just the photographers name next to the photo, the Menil allows the mind to choose how you see and interpret the image.

Danny Lyon , a contributing photographer was a student at the University of Chicago, a member of the SNCC(student nonviolent coordinating committee)and worked as a photographer for a news paper. Lyon new that the rest of the world needed to know how racially divided the south still was.

“ He knew that these were critical images would be dispersed through newspaper and people in the North could see that the South was still severely segregated area and how Blacks were mistreated by Whites” said Michelle White.

The Whole World Was Watching is filled with images from different points in civil rights, including the March on Washington , police brutality , and the rise of women. Even though there are no words with the photos , you can understand the emotion given in the image.

George Wallace was a contributor to the vivid images of the room. As a photo journalist Wallace would approach people explaining to them how he wanted to white perspective on what was happening in the civil rights movement.

“ He was placed in horrible situations but he played it cool and got some images that supported the liberal biases of the North” White said.

At times photographers were just as active, marching alongside protestors and snapping pictures.

According to Dominique de Menil , the idea of a museum slowly took shape, and she never dreamed of preserving some of the intimacy she enjoyed with the works of art. She knew with the right strategy, the public would have the rare joy of sitting in front of a painting and contemplating it.