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The Garden History
 1968-1969  The Brown Foundation, Inc., provides the funds to purchase close to two city blocks of property across the street from the museum on Bissonnet Street and Montrose Boulevard. The land makes it feasible for the MFAH to begins plans for a formal sculpture garden.  1970 Alice Pratt Brown, a museum trustee and benefactor, visits The Billy Rose Sculpture Garden at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and is impressed by Isamu Noguchi's design for the five-acre urban space. Alice Pratt Brown at the groundbreaking of what would later be named the Brown Pavilion, December 5, 1971.  1976 Isamu Noguchi makes his initial visit the site to begin negotiations. He comes during a torrential rainstorm. Houston's notorious weather causes him to consider an island or a sunken garden, similar to his garden design at Bienecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. S.I. Morris Associates, Model of the Glassell School of Art, 1977 1977 FEBRUARY: From his Long Island City studio, Noguchi begins to sculpt a preliminary model of the garden. Conceiving the garden as a walled-in sculptural entity, he writes to museum director William Agee that "cozy nooks of bamboo without a sufficient barrier would be meaningless." 1978 MARCH 14: In motion number 78-986, The Houston City Council honors the museum's request to designate the garden as The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, in recognition of the Houston couple's benevolent contributions to the city's art and medical communities.  1979 FEBRUARY: Noguchi brings a maquette of the Cullen Sculpture Garden to Houston. Displayed at the museum, it elicits diverse responses from the community. Some Houston architects, as well as the Museum Area Municipal Association, call for a less introverted and more accessible design. Many claim the high walls connote elitism and will pose a barrier to visitors. Despite the controversy, the plan is approved and the Houston Chronicle reports that "it's full steam ahead on a major addition to Houston's culture." Isamu Noguchi, First Formal Model of the Cullen Sculpture Garden, 1979  1983 APRIL 4: Shoji Sadao of Noguchi's studio presents revised plans to the MFAH board of trustees. Noguchi has modified the wall heights to create "a more inviting atmosphere" and he's added additional greenery (vines and grassy embankments) and a northwest entrance. Isamu Noguchi and Shoji Sadao, Second Model for the Sculpture Garden, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, c. 1983 1984 FEBRUARY 6: Construction of the Cullen Sculpture Garden begins.  1985 APRIL 13: Isamu Noguchi, Houston Mayor Kathryn J. Whitmire, and museum trustees Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Arnold, Jr., lead a groundbreaking ceremony for the Cullen Sculpture Garden. Houston Mayor Kathryn J. Whitmire(left), Isamu Noguchi, and Antonette and Isaac Arnold, Jr., break ground for the Cullen Sculpture Garden, April 13, 1985.  1986 APRIL 5: The Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden opens to the public and becomes Noguchi's first U.S. sculpture garden created to house the work of other artists. 6, 500 visitors attend the opening ceremonies, which includes avant-garde composer John Cage's world-premiere performance of his composition Ryoanji. In Artforum, Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom discuss the performance as "a moment when the garden revealed its potential to move and breathe. Opening Day of the Cullen Sculpture Garden, 1986 1987 JANUARY 13: Ellsworth Kelly comes to the Cullen Sculpture Garden to install Houston Triptych, 1986, a formal response to Henri Matisse's Backs and to Noguchi's design. The triptych is placed on the west wall of the garden as the first work commissioned for the space. JUNE: The Washington Post reports that at the garden's one-year anniversary, as the plants and trees are maturing, "it is possible to predict that the Cullen Sculpture Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts here will become a preeminently restful urban island, a civilized respite wherein a precious few of the western world's better bronzes (or 'steels,' or 'aluminums') can be viewed at leisure. 1996 To celebrate the ten-year anniversary, the museum publishes a catalogue on the Cullen Sculpture Garden. 2006 The MFAH celebrates the Cullen Sculpture Garden's twenty year anniversary and publishes a new book about the garden, Isamu Noguchi: A Sculpture for Sculpture. |
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The Cullen Sculpture Garden is located at the corner of Montrose Boulevard and Bissonnet Street. Open Daily from 9:00 am - 10:00 pm. Admission to the Garden is free at all times. Visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Web site for additional information. © 2010, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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