The Rothko Chapel Paintings: Origins, Structure, Meaning

by Sheldon Nodelman

The paintings executed in 1964-1967 by American artist Mark Rothko for the Rothko Chapel in Houston represent the fulfillment of the artist's lifelong ambition and a breakthrough in twentieth-century art. Unlike previous sets of paintings commissioned for the Seagram Building and Harvard University, the Chapel commission allowed Rothko to determine the architectural setting and lighting in which the paintings would appear. This proved to be the catalyst for a new mode of pictorial dynamics based on a kind of interaction of paintings, architecture, and light previously unknown. No painting in the set could be understood in isolation from the rest or apart from its place in the architectural setting. The Rothko Chapel Paintings explores this interdependence of paintings and place. As viewers move about the Chapel's octagonal enclosure, over whose walls the fourteen panels are continuously distributed, they discover systems of pictorial interactions which become the terms or characters of a cosmological drama in which the viewer is a necessary participant. In the act of vision, the embodied viewer is prompted not merely to witness but also to reenact that questioning of human destiny which has preoccupied the Western spiritual tradition.

Genres: Art

359 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Nefariousbig]

This is one of my favorite places on the planet. For me, it is an intense physical and emotional experience. To sit in such nothingness. The beauty of it sinking in. It is powerful and enlightening. It is the inside and the outside of everything I've ever known. It inspires me. It makes me breathe. It makes me. Believe. Everything.

_______________________

Today
I thought of you
Only once

The thought
Like an angel
Comforted me
Sweet tears of longing
Dried on my cheeks
Little voices
Whispering
Beautiful stories

The thought
Glowed bright
Touching it
Smooth
Warm
Damp
Its scent
Like sweet sunshine

I ran my finger along its edge
Felt electricity
It gave me joy
It took my sadness

The thought
Surrendered
Impossible love
Barely breathing
Souls buried

Precious time
Wasted
Lover’s dreams
Empty spaces
Hallowed halls
Eyes seeing
Unbelieving

Bitter
Reality
Awakened
Time
Passing

Blind
Honest
Unwound
Feelings
Tumbled out
Hope
On fire
Passionate chance

Out of order
Touching insides
Places unseen
Feelings unfelt
Back again

Precious gifts
Given
Received
Too much
Not enough
More than ever imagined

Today
I thought of you
Only once
Then again
For the rest of my life

[Tim Bradford]

I always loved the Rothko room at the original Tate but the Rothko Chapel is something else. It's a pretty amazing place and is set up in such a way that you find yourself getting quite emotional in response to the paintings. It is hard to put it into words - my feelings were along the lines of "we're all alone and we're going to die, there is nothing else and it's beautiful but incredibly sad". It was the first time I understood that rather than just intellectualizing it. Enlightenment in Texas.

I bought this book afterwards and it's a handy enough guide to/reminder of these amazing artworks and their background and origins.

[Matt McBride]

Definitely not for the casual Rothko fan. However, if you can fight through the dense underbrush made by his syntax, it's a brilliant look at the effect these paintings engender in viewers and how those effect are structured (along with the historical origins of the chapel as well).