1996
Rothko Chapel was founded and conceived by Dominique and John de Menil as an inter-confessional sanctuary that brings together art, architecture and spiritual art. There, Menil commissioned Rothko to fill the space designed by Philip Johnson with his paintings. He created 14 massive canvases in deep purple and black shades (Rothko argued that bright colours limit the vision of the canvas, and dark colours allow the viewer to look beyond the canvas into infinity). These canvases are housed in a windowless octagonal chapel and convey the sober, meditative atmosphere, thanks to which it became known. Outside, at the south entrance to the chapel, Barnett Newman’s steel sculpture, Broken Obelisk (1969), stands in the pool. The 25-foot tall, inverted obelisk has been interpreted by many as a universal monument to everything.
When the chapel was first opened in 1971 (Rothko never saw the finished work, he died in 1970), Dominique de Menil stressed that the Rothko chapel was not intended to be an intrusive, traditional religious space, but rather a space to return to oneself. “A place where one can find a common orientation – toward God, with or without him, an orientation toward the highest aspirations of man and the most intimate appeals of conscience.”