The Mark Rothko Chapel in Houston: the Structure of Meaning Or the Meaning of Structure?

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THE MARK ROTHKO CHAPEL IN HOUSTON: THE STRUCTURE OF MEANING OR THE MEANING OF STRUCTURE?

CLAUDE CERNUSCHI Boston College

Nodelman, Sheldon. The Rothko Chapel Paintings: Origins, Structure,Meaning. Houston and Austin TX: The Menil Collection and University of Texas Press, 1997. Pp. 359 + 117 illustrations. $34.95 cloth.

February 27, 1971, an architectural chapel open for prayer and med- 0itation, n and built with the express purpose of housing fourteen canvases by Mark Rothko, was dedicated in Houston, Texas. A key member of the Abstract Expressionist movement, Rothko was renowned for his mon- umental paintings of atmospheric rectangular areas of color weightlessly floating before undefined, abstract fields. His elemental pictorial vocabulary, characterized by a reductive economy of means and brilliant manipulation of color, made him (along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning) one of the most original but also controversial figures of the New York School. For example, although Rothko was committed to the idea of abstract art, he was (like many of his contemporaries) equally committed to the compatibility of meaning and abstraction. When the majority of critics construed his works as an attempt to achieve a state of pure form or as a celebration of the idea of art for art's sake, he contradicted them by insist- ing that the most important aspect of his canvases was their ability to express and communicate meaning. To the dismay of even his greatest admirers, he denied being a colorist or being concerned with relationships of form or composition. "The subject matter," he asserted, "is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless" (Gottlieb and Rothko 9). For Rothko, the decoration of a religious structure (such as the one dedicated to him in Houston) must have seemed a particularly appro- priate task: he once told a perplexed viewer: "The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience that I had when I painted them." (Rodman 93-94). When the chapel opened in 1971, however, the artist was not present; he had committed suicide almost exactly a year before. Since his death, the chapel has been the subject of three books or exhi- bition catalogues. One, a critical study by Susan J. Barnes, appeared in 1989. More recently, the Menil Foundation itself has sponsored the publication of David Anfam and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro's brief but informative and well-illustrated catalogue for the general public; and Sheldon Nodelman's substantial The Rothko Chapel Paintings, which comprises the most complete and ambitious study to date of the chapel's program, structural organization, and meaning. The book is organized in three parts, each devoted, in turn, to the origins, the structure, and, lastly, the meaning of the installation.

first part of Nodelman's volume outlines the details and circum- Thestances of the chapel project from its inception to its installation and dedication. The project originated when John and Dominique de Menil approached Rothko in 1964 to explore the possibility of commissioning works for a functioning Catholic chapel at the University of St. Thomas, a Catholic institution run by the Basilian Order. As benefactors of the University and important patrons of modem art, the de Menils conceived a chapel that would integrate art, architecture, and religion in both an aesthetic and practical man- ner. To this end, their primary inspiration came from the movement spear- headed by Father Pierre Alain Couturier, a French Dominican priest famous for combining the most advanced manifestations of art and architecture with- in religious contexts. Among the movement's most renowned accomplish- ments were Fernand L6ger's windows at Audincourt, Matisse's Chapel of the Rosary at Vence, and Le Corbusier's church at Ronchamp. To build an architectural structure in keeping with the character of Rothko's paintings, and on a par with the kind of precedents set by Couturier, the de Menils also sought the participation of Philip Johnson, a disciple of Mies van der Rohe and an important practitioner of the International Style of modern architecture. The point was obvious: to bring together two of the most important and influential figures in their respective fields. Rothko, having worked with Johnson previously (albeit on a failed project), accepted immediately. The original ambitions for the project, however, failed to materialize. The difficulties inherent in organizing a working chapel in whose space the rituals of the Catholic faith would be practiced, the irreconcilable differ- ences between Rothko and Johnson over the interior design and external configuration of the building, conflicts over the final placement and func- tion of the chapel itself, and the Basilians' eventual loss of interest in the

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