A New Campus for the Rothko Chapel: 2020 Best of Year Winner for Small Museum/Art Gallery
January 11, 2021
Photography by Elizabeth Felicella.
When Mark Rothko created 14 monumental paintings for this interfaith chapel, he intended they be viewed under natural light to reveal their tonal subtleties. A large skylight was therefore integral to the octagonal building’s design, the serial work of architects Eugene Aubry, Howard Barnstone, and Philip Johnson. When the chapel opened in 1971, however, it became clear the glaring Texas sun was not what the artist had in mind. The subsequent addition of scrims and baffles to modulate the fierce light never achieved the desired effect.