After 12 years as director of the Menil Collection in Houston, Josef Helfenstein will step down at the end of this year to become director of the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland.
“It’s a very hard decision for me to leave the Menil – I love this institution enormously,” Mr. Helfenstein said in a telephone interview. “I think we have accomplished a lot, so it was kind of a natural moment.”
Mr. Helfenstein is leaving just as the Menil has broken ground on its new $40-million Menil Drawing Institute, designed by the Los Angeles firm Johnston Marklee. The Menil describes it as the first free-standing building in the United States designed for the exhibition and study of modern and contemporary drawings. Its construction was funded by a philanthropic drive, the Campaign for the Menil, which has raised 80 percent of its goal of $110 million.
The board plans to begin an international search for the next director.
Under Mr. Helfenstein, the Menil doubled its annual attendance, increased its endowment by almost 54 percent, and added more than 1,000 works to the collection, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra and Kara Walker.