Rothko Chapel Closes for Renovation

With more than 100,000 visitors a year and about to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022, the Rothko Chapel will close for a few months next year to undergo a profound and much-needed renovation

Photo: Interior of the Rothko Chapel. From Rothkochapel.org

With more than 100,000 visitors a year and about to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022, Rothko Chapel (the Rothko Chapel, located in Houston, Texas) will close for a few months next year to undergo a profound and much-needed renovation. A total of 30 million dollars has been allocated to the first phase of the works, which have stirred the surprise and the wariness of some of the area’s residents. The renovation will begin on 4 March 2019; the chapel will remain closed for most of the year in order to install a new and larger skylight and to remodel the entrance. The process does not end with this phase: over the following two years more buildings, and even a spiritual garden, will be added to the world-famous complex, one of the most important artistic enclaves in the world. The grounds will also include a meditation garden designed by the landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz.

Photo: The chapel grounds with the traffic cones marking the works. From Houstonchronicle.com.

Some of the bungalows located near the chapel, all of them owned by the artist’s family, will be moved to other areas to improve their lighting. The interior of the chapel houses a total of fourteen monumental paintings by the artist, which after the renovation will receive more natural light (just as Rothko himself wished). In fact, the skylight has already been reworked on four occasions to regulate the amount of light entering the space. The new design will feature a system of fixed louvers that capture natural light and diffuse it evenly throughout the space, preserving the original purpose of the place. In the words of his son Christopher: “My father used to say that art does not recount an experience; it is an experience in itself. No place conveys that feeling like the Rothko Chapel”.

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