Rothko Chapel: Yahoo! Says To See It Before You Die. (That Way You'll Be Depressed Enough, At Least)

By John Nova Lomax Fri., Mar. 27 2009 at 9:35 AM

Categories: Art

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Photo courtesy Rothko Chapel

We're way late to the game on this - like four or five months - but way back in early December Yahoo Travel compiled a list of ten American places to see before you die. Our excuse for even mentioning this now is that we came across the list in recently-published propaganda organ of the Greater Houston Partnership Houston: World-Classiest City in the History of this Universe and All Others, And Yet Still, Somehow, Getting World-Classier. (Or something like that.)

Andrew Harper, the writer of the Yahoo piece, admitted that his list was free of obvious choices like the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, so take that for what you will. At any rate, ranking behind just between the Four Seasons restaurant in New York at number six and San Marino, California's Huntington Gardens is Houston's own Rothko Chapel at number seven.

The Rothko Chapel at number seven on a list of places to see before you die? We're thinking it should have been number ten. Might not the bleak ambience of Rothko's 14 black paintings cause a few travelers to follow Rothko into a suicide's grave, and thus miss out on the final three places on their bucket list?

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i am an artist and i love mark rothko paintings for the mere fact is when you paint you have to...and the peace that some get from his paintings is immeasurable. i personally can't leave a canvas as bare and calming as he did...that's the peace i enjoy when looking at his paintings they are calming whether he meant to totally abstract and difuse the sincerity of art or not, when i look at them i get it. i did a rothko style painting for my bedroom with three colors then with my wild and free personality i went jackson pollock on it and dripped the same colors on top and that is the most wanted painting i have in my house but i am not selling it. and i sell really well with my own stlye so that let's me know that not only me and my artist friends love rothko's work but so do first time buys and art collectors. it doesnt need a tag to explain it either you get it or you don't. as with anything art is subjective.
Lots of people have talked about what a happy place the Rothko Chapel is. I thought it was depressing as hell. And several of my friends did too. The first thought I had was "No wonder he shot himself. I'd be depressed too if I painted that dark stuff". I never got what concepts he was trying to put across. So it's dark and abstract. Gloomy. He should have put a tag next to it explaining what he was trying to tell people like me that do not understand. I think a lot of people are not making their own judgments about the place. They have been told it's a happy, spiritual place, and it was financed by big money (the Schlumberger fortune), and they have peacenik type events, memorials to MLK, Jr., so it must be what they say it is. My own gut tells me it's gloomy and depressing. And my gut never lies.
I've been to the Rothko Chapel...and while Rothko definitely isn't for everyone, his work in the chapel is among his best, and most thought provoking. My only comment to the naysayers is to say-- if you don't like it fine, but please respect others choice to enjoy the work, just as you would like your tastes to be respected.
I'm amazed at the pathetic responses that I read in the April 9 issue. Mark Rothko didn't paint landscapes, still lifes, or portraiture. He was an abstract artist. Get it? Dominique de Menil, patron of the chapel, remarked during her dedication speech, �We are cluttered with images and only abstract art can bring us to the threshold of the Divine.� That�s because the concept of God is too big to get our minds around. Obviously the people who responded, �Gee I don�t get the appeal of the Rothko Chapel� or �Mark Rothko was just bullshitting us� have a divine image of an old man on a throne and get upset when they have to think about something. Whiners! No wonder Mark Rothko committed suicide. He was right. When people don�t understand abstract art, they�re stupid and cruel.
I'm amazed at the pathetic responses that I read in the April 9 issue. Mark Rothko didn't paint landscapes, still lifes, or portraiture. He was an abstract artist. Get it? Dominique de Menil, patron of the chapel, remarked during her dedication speech, �We are cluttered with images and only abstract art can bring us to the threshold of the Divine.� That�s because the concept of God is too big to get our minds around. Obviously the people who responded, �Gee I don�t get the appeal of the Rothko Chapel� or �Mark Rothko was just bullshitting us� have a divine image of an old man on a throne and get upset when they have to think about something. Whiners! They couldn't see anything in the canvases. They even failed to see the variations in color that are there to an observant eye. No wonder Mark Rothko committed suicide. He was right. When people don�t understand abstract art, they�re stupid and cruel. These Press readers prove that in spades.
if only society could come together like some massive voltron and use a singular subjective conscience to sort through the wasteland that is "art" so we could sit back and throw around our own pointless critiques of art with self-satisfaction.
if only society could come together like some massive voltron and use a singular subjective conscience to sort through the wasteland that is "art" so we could sit back and throw around our own pointless critiques of art with self-satisfaction.
I've always found Rothko to be *hugely* depressing, and for good reason. I'd prefer . . . "And then you get an artist, Says he doesn't want to paint *at all* --- So he takes an empty canvas, An' sticks it on the wall . . ." Mark Knopfler, "In the Gallery" (Dire Straits, first album, I think) That'd be superior to Rothko, any day!
Don't they already have a Thomas Kinkade Chapel in Dallas?
Lighten up on Rothko and his fans, peeps, or I'll accuse you all of being Thomas Kinkade fans. Now that's an idea... A Thomas Kinkade chapel. Gotta go. I just threw up on my laptop.
Emperor, !clothes.
You have to realize: Rothko's real artistry was not in the paint on his canvasses. Rothko's true art was the art of bullshit. He had the entire art community convinced that these monochromatic, meaningless squares were expressions of emotion and creativity of the highest order. People CRIED looking at these things because of the way he spun it! One of the best bullshit artists of all time.
Philistines of H-Town, unite!
I'll never forget my husband's story of visiting the Rothko Chapel some years ago and complaining to the docent that the art had been removed from the walls. No, that is the art was the reply. He was incredulous and somewhat embarrased at the same time! I had a similar reaction to some of Rothko's "work" at London's Tate Modern during a recent visit across the pond. This is just nonsense.
Probably should have put the in my post, but here is what he had to say: "This small, non-denominational chapel located just off the Menil gallery in Houston's Museum District seems unassuming at first, but spend some time surrounded by the 14 mysterious paintings by Mark Rothko, and it may start sinking into your skin." More like creeping into your pores like the Black Death
Call me a Philistine, but even as a native Houstonian I've never seen the appeal of the Rothko Chapel. What exactly about the chapel placed it in the list? The pervasive and oppressive silence inside? The black-upon-death-upon-doom paintings that make me want to run screaming back out into the sunshine? The annoying throngs of college kids who think they're the first people on earth to discover this monument to post-modern bohemian ideals? Feh. Also, get off my lawn.