#the rothko chapel

[gregdotorg]

seeing photos of Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk being installed reminded me of this 1980 photo I bought and then never posted, because it just seemed like fuel on the fire, but the fire's been stoked plenty without it, and it feels dishonest to not point out that there were white supremacist nazis in Houston in 1979, and that no one, probably including the deMenils who commissioned him, knew Philip Johnson was a nazi too.

[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.

[baravaggio]

i’m serious i need to go to the museum and stand 18 inches from a rothko…..

[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

[iknowwhereyousleepatnight]

every time u reblog those paintings of coloured squares and rectangles I get so happy

“yay yippee” <- me

omg i’m SO glad u like them i love rothkos sm they make me so happy i’m so glad you like them too!!!

[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

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

anyway! the children are safely on the plane and i am finally safely home. feel a little bit dead. very glad i have tomorrow and monday off to recover

[anythingbyadriannelenker]

one insane thing that i keep forgetting happened was when my mom took me to the menil collection for the first time when i was 10 and she took me into the rothko chapel (because she gets it) and i jus fucking. sat there. and stared. overcome with some indescribable feeling. anyways shoutout to my mom

[gregdotorg]

Carol Mancusi-Ungaro X Ben Fino-Radin

An extra amazing episode of the Art & Obsolescence podcast, a conversation with conservator Carol Mancusi-Ungaro about Rothko, Cy Twombly, the Menil, Barnett Newman, Replication, and on and on.

https://www.artandobsolescence.com/episodes/063-carol-mancusi-ungaro

[dailyrothko]

[2amdifferentimezone]

Outside the Rothko Chapel feeling the air away from home

[lost-teeth]

[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