#Rothko Chapel

[dailyrothko]

News!

From the Rothko Chapel

We are pleased to announce that the Rothko Chapel, which has been closed since hurricane Beryl hit Houston last July, will reopen to the public on December 17. The Chapel will be open during the following holiday hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tuesday through Sunday, December 17-22, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. December 24-January 5 (except on December 25 and January 1, when hours will be 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.).

Hurricane Beryl brought exceptionally heavy rain and gale-force winds that resulted in leakage through the Chapel's roof. Part of the ceiling and several walls sustained water damage, and four of Mark Rothko's panels were also affected to varying degrees.

Immediately after the storm, the Chapel engaged Whitten & Proctor Fine Art Conservation, one of the country's premier art-conservation firms, to lead the conservation analysis and assessment. The affected panels are now undergoing careful restoration at an off-site facility and will be returned to the Chapel once the work is complete, with additional information on them forthcoming. The water-streaked walls and ceiling have also been repaired and repainted.

"Since the storm, our focus has been on the complete repair of the building, the restoration of the damaged panels, and on the reopening of the building so the public once again has access to this beloved space for contemplation and meditation; said Executive Director David Leslie. "Getting to this point has been a true community effort involving an amazing team of art conservators, scientists, art handlers, volunteers, community partners, and Chapel staff, and we are very excited to reopen in time for the holidays.

The Chapel resumed its program season this fall at off-site locations and will host its first program in the Chapel - its annual MLK Observance, "Sick of War: Discussing Health Impacts of US Militarism" - on January 15, 2025. The Suzanne Deal Booth Welcome House, located at 1410 Sul Ross Street, remains open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday to provide information and hospitality to those who visit.

[fhuzee]

The Rothko Chapel by Philip Johnson

[lilacsinthedooryard]

Mark Rothko ( 1903-1970)

Central triptych of the Rothko Chapel, 1966

 oil on canvas

[eternal--returned]

Seven months or so after Rothko concluded his second European sojourn, which included four weeks in Rome, the Houston-based art patrons John and Dominique de Menil paid Rothko the first of what would be many visits. In February 1960, the couple met him at his Bowery studio to see the paintings he had intended for the Four Seasons restaurant in the newly completed Seagram building, an edifice designed by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson to present high modernist architecture in terms of maximally luxurious effects. Within weeks of returning from Europe, Rothko had withdrawn his paintings from their originally intended destination in that environment of princely splendor and conspicuous consumption. This act of principled renunciation impressed the de Menils, who were also captivated by the Seagram canvases themselves; later, Dominique de Menil would remember, 'They made for an extraordinary mystical environment, a mix of intimacy and transcendence that can be found in certain churches, certain mosques'. Two days after their first visit, the de Menils returned to Rothko's studio to propose acquiring the canvases for a future Catholic chapel to be built on the campus of the University of St Thomas in Houston, an institution they served as prime benefactors. But both the artist and his prospective patrons agreed that the significance of the undertaking would require freshly conceived art. And there the idea rested for another four years.

Thomas Crow ֍ "Illuminations Past and Present in the Painting of Mark Rothko." Toward Clarity (2019)

Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas

[gregdotorg]

Now that the power's back on, and most of the trees are cleared, and the conservation team has been assembled, we can worry less about the damage Hurricane Beryl did to the Rothko Chapel, and more about why tf Artforum called the paintings inside it "black murals."

photo: paul hester for houston public media in 2020, taken on the occasion of the renovation of the skylight and the removal of the weird octagonal lampshade that no one did anything about through forty years and two renovations

[mysticplaces]

Broken Pillar at Rothko Chapel | Houston, TX

[conformi]

Mark Rothko, Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas, USA, 1971 VS Roman Opałka, installation view at “Icônes”| Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy, 2023 ph. Matteo De Fina

[lost-teeth]

[2amdifferentimezone]

Outside the Rothko Chapel feeling the air away from home

[philosohappy]

Great works of art in all cultures succeed in capturing within the constraints of their form both the pathos of anguish and a vision of its resolution. Take, for example, the languorous sentences of Proust or the haiku of Basho, the late quartets and sonatas of Beethoven, the tragicomic brushwork of Sengai or the daunting canvases of Rothko, the luminous self-portraits of Rembrandt and Hakuin. Such works achieve their resolution not through consoling or romantic images whereby anguish is transcended. They accept anguish without being overwhelmed by it. They reveal anguish as that which gives beauty its dignity and depth.

Excerpt from Buddhism Without Beliefs, by Stephen Batchelor

Photo of the Rothko Chapel, a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas, founded by John and Dominique de Menil

[cheminer-poesie-cressant]

 le désir est un sommet caché où d'impossibles fleurs s'épanouissent ; formant colline sur le plat de nos vies, nous le gravissons sans cesse pensant par là pourvoir cueillir leur réponse par le seul fait d’y croire ; sans ce relief pour nous guider sur l’informe des jours nous n’existerions pas pour le monde ; tantôt montant, tantôt descendant, ballotés par un effet grandiose d’illusion, nous contournons sans cesse cette plaie béante qui finit par nous guider pour éviter l’effroi du surplace

© Pierre Cressant

(mercredi 7 juin 2006 - dimanche 16 avril 2023)

[dailyrothko]

[alesbrazdil]

Rothko chapel/4x 150x 100cm/oiloncanvas

[eternal--returned]

The reticence of the architectural envelope, so freighted with the aura of primitive Christianity, gave undisputed priority to the artists suite of paintings.

Thomas Crow ֍ "Illuminations Past and Present in the Painting of Mark Rothko." Toward Clarity (2019)

Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas

[gregdotorg]

Untitled (Rothko Streetview), 2024

Not sure why the Rothko Chapel is blurred on Google Streetview, but I can work with it.