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Location: Discovery Green

Monument Au Fantome, the large free-form red-white-blue sculpture on Avenida de las Americas is the park’s most well-known artwork and one of Houston’s great treasures. Its title means “Monument to the Phantom” or imaginary city in French. There are seven individual forms that represent different features of this city, including a church, hedge, chimney, dog, phantom, tree and mast.

It is by Jean Dubuffet, an internationally-known 20th century French sculptor who passed away in 1985 (two years after the sculpture was completed).  It is painted fiberglass over steel frames, and the tallest piece is 33 feet. The sculpture is part of his Hourloupe series, which has companion sculptures in New York, Chicago and Europe.Monument Au Fantome was donated to Discovery Green by the Dan Duncan family.

Synchronicity of Color, or the “art boxes,” are iconic art pieces at Discovery Green. They were commissioned by Discovery Green and implemented by the Houston Arts Alliance and the City, which owns the largest two of the four-piece ensemble because they clad the city’s two underground garage stair structures. Margo Sawyer, a professor of art at the University of Texas at Austin, conceived and fabricated the metal boxes while she was participating in the master planning for the park. Their paint is used on drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The major pieces are “blue” and “red.”
Styling by Beth Muecke
Model: Amanda Wallace