For about a year, between 2019 and 2020, the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, was closed to the public for a major restoration project on the paintings that Mark Rothko (Dvinks 1903 – New York, 1970) created there in the Sixties, shortly before taking his own life. Reopened in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its inauguration, which dates back to the end of February 1971, the non-denominational chapel founded by the couple and collectors John and Dominique de Menil to be a spiritual space open to all religions – a place of meeting and dialogue, as well as of reflection – it is now forced to close its doors again.
Hurricane Beryl Damage to Houston’s Rothko Chapel
Even the building designed by architects Philip Johnson, Howard Barnstone and Eugene Aubry, today one of the most visited attractions in Houston, was in fact seriously hit by the fury of theHurricane Berylwhich last July 8, arriving from the Caribbean Sea, hit Texas, causing the death of three people (of the more than sixty victims left along its path) and numerous displaced people, flooding streets and interrupting the electricity supply.
In the Chapel, Beryl’s passage caused several structural damages, due to the infiltration of water from the roof of the building, hit by torrential rains and strong gusts of wind. The water, permeated the ceiling and on several walls, caused variable damages also three of the fourteen mural paintings of the cycle created by Rothko, who in 1964, contacted by the de Menil couple, produced for the building one of the most intense tests of Color Field Painting.
The article continues below
Rothko Chapel, HoustonMark Rothko’s Color Field Painting for Houston Chapel
Barnett Newman, Broken Obelisk, Rothko Chapel, HoustonRothko Chapel Closed to Public Indefinitely
The $30 million restoration, completed in 2020 under the supervision of the Architecture Research Office of New York and George Sexton Associates, focused on analyzing the structural conditions of the building, as well as modernizing the security systems and the lighting system of the paintings. But the damage caused by the hurricane makes a new intervention necessary, the costs of which have not yet been estimated (Whitten & Proctor Fine Art Conservation is working to determine them), and which forces the indefinite closure of the building to speed up “and carry out in the most effective and complete way” the repair and restoration operations. Speaking is David Lesliedirector of the site, who reassures us about the priority given “to the restoration of the Chapel and the safety of Rothko’s paintings”. Just a few months ago, the nonprofit that manages the Rothko Chapel received a $1 million donation for additional expansion and preservation projects that will complete the plan. Opening Spaces – started with the 2020 restoration, will cost another 42 million dollars and will see the creation of an archive and a meditation garden – by 2026: funds that now prove providential for the emergency intervention. In the meantime, the autumn program of events and activities promoted by the institution will be rethought in other spaces of the city.
Livia Montagnoli
Artribune is also on Whatsapp. It is enough click here to subscribe to the channel and always be updated