The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas that serves as a work of modern art: its walls are covered with fourteen mostly-black color field paintings by Mark Rothko, and the chapel itself was largely designed by the artist.
Rothko was commissioned by John and Dominique de Menil (founders of the nearby Menil Collection) to create a meditative space filled with his paintings; he was to paint them specifically for the chapel, and also to be given control over the chapel's shape and nature. He completed fourteen canvasses, and worked closely with the architect Philip Johnson on the plans for the chapel. The plans went through several revisions and changes of architects; Rothko continued to work first with Howard Barnstone and then with Eugene Aubry , but did not live to see the chapel's completion by Aubry in 1971, a year after his death.
A distinctive sculpture by Barnett Newman, Broken Obelisk, faces the front of the chapel.
One of Morton Feldman's best known pieces of music was inspired by and written to be performed in the chapel - it too is called Rothko Chapel (1971).
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Last updated: 10-12-2005 14:51:29
