VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Menil Collection presents a Lecture & Booksigning: Some of My Lives - An Evening with Rosamond Bernier, Monday, October 24, 2011, at 7:00 p.m.

American-born Rosamond Bernier lived for three decades in Paris, where she founded the esteemed French art review L’Oeil (The Eye), and came to know the leading artists and composers of her time. When she returned to the United States in 1970, Bernier discovered an art world eager to hear her recollections of those years.

Her lectures on artists like Braque, Matisse, Picasso and Ernst, or composers Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, were virtuoso performances. Splendidly dressed, speaking without notes, Bernier left audiences mesmerized. Her talks at the Metropolitan Museum sold out months in advance. Dominique and John de Menil brought her to Houston four times.

In a delightful and engaging new memoir called Some of My Lives, Rosamond Bernier tells her own story. The de Menils are given a chapter in her book. In a special appearance at the Menil Collection, Bernier will speak about her extended visits to the de Menils’ Houston home. Their friendship was inevitable. Bernier’s life, like the de Menils’, was informed and surrounded by art.

Seating for this program is limited. A book signing will follow.