The institution, which houses 14 of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Mural paintings in Houston, Texas, found itself in the Category 1 (down from Category 5) storm’s warpath. Three of the murals were damaged, along with parts of the chapel’s ceiling and several of its walls.

Beryl killed 64 people in late June and early July. The Houston area accounted for almost half of the death toll.

“The chapel’s continued stewardship of this beloved cultural and sacred site, renowned for its Mark Rothko panels, remains our highest priority, and the closure will ensure the necessary repairs and restoration can be made as effectively and completely as required,” the chapel’s chief executive director, David Leslie, said in a statement. “Our focus now is on the restoration of the building and panels, and on continuing our mission of both contemplation and action at the intersection of art, spirituality, and human rights.”

It’s not yet known how much the repairs will cost the Rothko Chapel, nor when it will reopen.

The Art Newspaper reported that Beryl is estimated to have caused “between $28 billion and $32 billion in damage in the United States alone, with insurers in the Houston area expected to pay out between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion in claims because of the storm.”

Houston collectors Dominique and John de Menil built the chapel as a space for contemplation. It opened in 1971 and operates as a non-profit entity.

Over the next two years, the site will see construction of an administration and archives building, a new program center, a guest bungalow for visiting speakers and fellows, a plaza for events, as well as a meditation garden named after Kathleen and Chuck Mullenweg. Work onsite began April 17.

These additions, expected to be completed by 2026, follow a $30 million renovation completed in 2021.

“The Chapel has never had the room that we need to fulfill our dual mission,” executive director David Leslie said in a statement. “The Opening Spaces project is not only about creating spaces that enable us to welcome more visitors, but also facilitating more enriching experiences of the art, deeper contemplation, and the social justice-focused community engagement embedded in our founders’ vision, which brings people together in dialogue and reflection across the many boundaries that separate us.”

Collectors John and Dominique de Menil commissioned Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko for the project in 1964. The original construction on the site and the laborious process to create the 14 large murals took seven years, “a procession of architects,” and a large crane to lower the momentous murals into the building. Rothko did not live to see his vision completed on February 26, 1971; he committed suicide in his Manhattan studio almost exactly one year prior.

More than 50 years later, Rothko’s vision remains a strong draw for art fans, the chapel’s website reporting that more than 100,000 people visit each year.

News

The Smithsonian has joined forces with Berlin’s museums to create “an international network of provenance researchers” that will focus on Asian art. [The Art Newspaper]

William and Lavina Lim, a noted collecting couple in Hong Kong, have made a substantial donation of 90 works to their hometown’s forthcoming M+ museum. [South China Morning Post]

Avant-garde composer Harold Budd has died of Covid-19 at age 84. [Artforum]

Two French politicians are lobbying to have the Musée d’Orsay renamed to include Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former president who helped establish the institution. [The Art Newspaper]

In other Musée d’Orsay–related news, here’s a look at Rosa Bonheur’s work, which will be shown at the Paris institution in 2022. [Smithsonian Magazine]

Art & Artists

Michael J. Lewis reviews the newly reopened Rothko Chapel in Houston after its $30 million restoration. He writes, “The physical fabric of a building is normally the focus of a restoration, but here it was something intangible—the total sensory immersion that Rothko intended.” [The Wall Street Journal]

For an essay reflecting on 2020, critic Salamishah Tillet writes, “Black artists didn’t wait around for institutional change. They are making it happen.” [The New York Times]

Meet Harumichi Shibasaki, who has become a social media sensation and has drawn comparisons to Bob Ross. [CNN]

Critic Sebastian Smee’s latest column is titled “This is the painting I’d take home, if I could,” about Berthe Morisot’s Young Woman Watering a Shrub (1876). [The Washington Post]

Art Market

The Andy Warhol Foundation is selling the artist’s holiday-themed artwork on eBay for charity. [Architectural Digest]

The last known work by French baroque painter Georges de la Tour in private hands set a record when it sold for $5.2 million in Germany this week. [Art Market Monitor]

Sellers of Old Master works talk about their pivot to online sales as a result of the pandemic. [The Art Newspaper]

Earlier this year, ARTnews looked at why the Old Masters category is on the rise with collectors. [ARTnews]

Misc.

Curbed bids adieu to New York institutions that have closed as a result of the pandemic, including gallery Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and art world hangout Lucky Strike. [Curbed]

Columnist Carolina A. Miranda has a list of five things that are more interesting than the monolith. [Los Angeles Times]

In case you missed it, here’s an essay by Kyle Chayka that looks at the monolith mania and how it became an Instagram trap. [ARTnews]

News

The estate of Dadaist Sophie Taeuber-Arp is headed to Hauser & Wirth. [ARTnews]

Amid accusations of censorship, the Polish government has withdrawn two fines issued to a group of artists who were demonstrating ahead of the country’s ghost election. [The Art Newspaper]

More than 1,500 artists and art workers in Hong Kong released a petition expressing their “shock, worry and anger” at the newly passed legislative proposal that will give mainland China the power to suppress protests in the territory. [Hyperallergic]

Artists

Jason Farago explains his recent obsession with Thomas Eakins’s macabre depiction of early surgery, The Gross Clinic. [The New York Times]

Today, Houston’s Rothko Chapel is a beloved cultural landmark, but the path to create it was long and arduous. [ARTnews]

What can a century’s worth of landscape painting reveal about climate change?Art historians are starting to explore the revelations the genre offers. [BBC]

One year after opening the Shed in New York, architect Elizabeth Diller is adapting to the “new normal” of a largely remote workforce.  [The New York Times]

Market

Sotheby’s has secured a major collection of Latin American artworks, including pieces by Frida Kahlo and Fernando Botero, that will hit the auction block this June in New York. [Art Market Monitor]

For Your Perusal

MoMA curators celebrate the legacy of three influential African musicians—Aurlus Mabele, Manu Dibango, and Tony Allen—with a playlist featuring their songs. [MoMA Magazine]

Artist Moyra Davey dives into the story of the extraordinary women of Mary Wollstonecraft’s family, known as “Les Goddesses.” [The Paris Review]

By his daughter’s telling, Rothko was not a religious man, which may have made the Abstract Expressionist a strange pick for the Menils’ chapel. But it’s clear that the Menils found transcendence in his work, and Rothko even spoke about his process in terms that recall a religious struggle. In a 1966 letter to the Menils, Rothko wrote that the chapel commission “is teaching me to extend myself beyond what I thought was possible for me.” What resulted was one of Rothko’s greatest works. Now termed the Rothko Chapel, the structure has become a major art destination for people from Texas and far beyond it. After a closure lasting more than a year, the chapel will reopen following a $30 million renovation this September.

The path to creating such a masterpiece was a long time coming, however. In 1972, Dominique described her planned chapel as a haven “of people who are not just going to debate and discuss theological problems, but who are going to meet because they want to find contact with other people.” The idea for a spiritual center came from seeing religious spaces filled with art abroad—the Menils had been very taken with the Matisse Chapel in Vence and Le Corbusier’s Notre-Dame du Haut in Ronchamp. “We saw what a master could do for a religious building when he is given a free hand,” Dominique said. When the couple came up with the idea to create a nondenominational spiritual space during the ’60s, they knew they wanted an artist to fill the space with work—which they felt was an appropriate way to honor the death of Dr. Jermayne “Jerry” MacAgy, an influential curator and museum director in Houston and frequently collaborator with the Menils.

By then, the Menils, known as the “Medicis of Modern Art,” had established themselves as scions of the Texas art scene. Under their tutelage, the Menils helped foster a contemporary art scene in Houston, which would later become home to a Renzo Piano–designed museum that now houses their rich holdings. Every project the Menils undertook was informed by their signature aesthetic: airy modernism with a classical finish. 

The Menils had been ardent admirers of Rothko since purchasing two of his paintings in 1957. His abstractions, often filled with expansive color fields, appealed to the collectors for their introspective quality. After approaching Rothko in 1964, they financed his New York apartment. On one visit, Dominique arrived to find it bare, barring one monochromatic plum painting, his equipment, and a small bed. Rothko didn’t say a word to his patron when she arrived. Instead, he simply placed an empty chair about 20 feet from from the canvas and bade Dominique to sit. Of the experience, she wrote, “He just looked at me. I felt instantly that not one muscle of my face should betray a surprise. I had expected bright colors! So, I just looked. Oh miracle, peace invaded me. I felt embraced, and free. Nothing was stopping my gaze. There was a beyond.” 

There was nothing nearly so sublime about the chapel’s construction, however. It took seven years and a procession of architects to complete the site—a process Dominique described as “a long succession of deaths and failures and disasters.” Rothko oversaw every facet of the windowless interior, from its octagonal shape to the width of the doors, even the floor, which was inspired by the paving in Central Park. Rothko insisted the skylight mimic the light of his New York studio, but architect Philip Johnson, who was brought on to oversee the structure, was concerned by the aging effects of strong, direct daylight on the paintings. (And rightly so—curators have since worried about the effects of light and humidity on the canvases.) To accommodate Rothko’s request, he proposed a broad chapel topped with a white 80-foot-tall, spire-like concrete roof. Just about everyone involved abhorred the decision, however, and by 1967, architects Howard Barnstone and then with Eugene Aubry were brought in to complete the construction. The location was also changed from St. Thomas University’s campus to a suburban neighborhood southwest of the city’s downtown area.

Rothko didn’t live to see his painting installed in 1971; he committed suicide in his Manhattan studio in February 1970. It was a devastating loss, but the chapel would still open as planned, and his massive canvases—the largest measures 15 feet wide—were transported to Houston in a temperature-controlled truck. Because of their size, they had to be lowered into the chapel via a crane through its skylight. The day was windy, and the paintings flapped dangerously like sails. Many feared for the works’ safety.

In the end, the paintings survived, and the chapel became a space for powerful contemplation. As it exists now, three of the gray, stucco walls display triptychs, while the other five display a single painting. Wooden benches face each mural. Nearby the chapel, there’s Barnett Newman’s sculpture Broken Obelisk.

Almost immediately, the Rothko Chapel was perceived as a major artwork. On February 26, 1971, the day of its opening, dealers, artists, and institutional figures such as Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, arrived for the commencement. A song composed for the occasion by Morton Feldman played over the crowd. Rothko, who died almost exactly one year before, was not present, but Dominique made sure his voice was heard. At one point, she took the mic and quoted Rothko: “A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token.” 

She followed with her own assessment of their long realized dream: “Rothko wanted to bring his paintings to the greatest poignancy they were capable of.  He wanted them to be intimate and timeless. Indeed, they are intimate and timeless.”

Barnett Newman, Broken Obelisk, 1963–67, in front of the Rothko Chapel.

SHUTTERSTOCK/PSAWHYNEY

The Rothko Chapel in Houston has received a $2 million grant from the Houston Endowment, which will go toward funding the chapel’s master plan for renovation. Thus far, the space, which displays 14 paintings by Mark Rothko, has raised $12.5 million for the first phase of its plan. To support the renovation, titled “Opening Spaces,” the chapel has launched a $30 million capital campaign.

Long Chu, the program officer of the Houston Endowment, said of the organization’s decision to give the chapel a grant, “Houston Endowment envisions Houston as a vibrant community where all people have the opportunity to thrive, and a vibrant community needs a strong arts ecosystem. Fulfillment of the master plan will elevate Rothko Chapel’s role as one of Houston’s significant cultural institutions and expand its ability to contribute to Houston’s vibrancy.”

The nondenominational chapel was originally built in 1971, and was founded by collectors Dominique and John de Menil. Its renovation will allow the chapel to reconfigure its skylights, lighting design, and entryway, and enhance its visitor experience. Other donations to the campaign have come from the Brown Foundation, Inc., the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Cullen Foundation, among others.

Davis Leslie, Rothko Chapel executive director, said, “We are so grateful for the support of Houston Endowment, which will help us tremendously in our efforts to restore the sense of spirituality and contemplation to the Chapel itself, and to build a better space for community leaders and members of the public to come together and wrestle with the questions of social justice and human rights.”

Solange in 2018.

LEXIE MORELAND/WWD/SHUTTERSTOCK

Well, this is quite a Friday night surprise. Solange just released a 33-minute music video to accompany her new album, When I Get Home, and it is a full-on contemporary-art feast.

The dramatically shot piece opens and—spoiler alert—closes inside the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and, in between, includes majestic animated portraits by Robert Pruitt (who was born in Houston, like Solange) and delirious computer-generated dance scenes by Jacolby Satterwhite, who’s a contributing director on the project.

Solange edited and directed the work, and was joined by three more contributing directors, Alan Ferguson (her husband), Terence Nance, and Ray Tintori. Autumn Knight, the New York–based artist who was just tapped for the 2019 Whitney Biennial, also contributed to the project.

Last year, the singer told T: The New York Times Style Magazine, that, growing up in Houston, the Menil Collection “was one of the first art spaces I had access to. I would go into the Rothko Chapel,” which is located next door to the museum’s main space, “and sit in there for hours.”

The Rothko Chapel was conceived by the storied collectors and philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil, with the idea of having Mark Rothko create paintings for a space that would be designed by Philip Johnson. But the artist and architect disagreed about aspects of the building, and Howard Barnstone and then Eugene Aubry went on to work its design.

Rothko ended his life in 1970, at the age of 66. The non-denominational chapel opened a year later, and has become a treasured site in Houston, hosting interfaith religious meetings, musical performances, and a variety of other gatherings. A pool out front frames Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (1963–67), which was dedicated by the Menils to Martin Luther King, Jr. When they proposed giving the work to the city in the honor of the murdered civil-rights leader, their gift was rejected.

(An important note for those wanting to visit the remarkable site: After this weekend, the Rothko Chapel is shuttering for renovations that will keep it closed for eight months, so if you are eager to visit, move quickly.)

Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk (1963–67) outside the Rothko Chapel in Houston.

ANDREW RUSSETH

Johnson, as it happens, also figures elsewhere in the When I Get Home video. The Fort Worth Water Gardens, which he designed with John Burgee, and which were built in 1974 in that Texas city, make an appearance, with a large group of performers on its steps amid flowing water.

Those seeking more shots of dancing outside divisive examples of 1970s architecture are in luck: some of the video’s most striking scenes take place at night outside Dallas’s I.M. Pei–designed city hall, which opened in 1978.

The video also goes through stretches that suggest the retro-futurism of a Nam June Paik or Trisha Baga, and it includes sumptuous shots of the American landscape, nodding to the Land Art movement of the 1960s and ’70s. Other scenes follow black men, women, and children as they ride horses through those environs, recalling photographs by Deana Lawson, Brad Trent, and others that have appeared in, among other exhibitions, the Studio Museum in Harlem’s 2016–17 show “Black Cowboy,” which Solange’s video provides a nice excuse to revisit.

This is far from the first foray that Solange has made into contemporary art. In recent years she has also orchestrated performances at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

She has also been critical of the culture of the art industry, telling an audience at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2017, “The art world definitely has its own set of issues, and in my opinion there is a tonality in certain of the spaces and institutions that as a black artist you should just be happy to be here. I’m not interested in that conversation.”

Saudi Arabia–born Sarah Abu Abdallah is among the participating artists.

COURTESY THE ARTIST.

At the core of this endeavor, titled “Culturunners,” is a pickup truck and trailer kitted out with broadcast equipment, prototype gadgets, and conceptual works by the artists, who will live and work aboard the “mobile studio.” Each stop on the tour will include a presentation and new collaborations with local communities and institutions, accompanied by rigorous documentation of Edge of Arabia’s journey-as-artistic-process.

One participant is Palestinian-born, Abraaj Capital Art Prize–winning artist Taysir Batniji, who perceives making art on the road as the ultimate expression of freedom. “I think travel and movement, voluntary or involuntary, is a guarantee of emancipation, despite difficulties that uprooting sometimes inflicts,” he says. “Displacement and cross-cultural exchange allow new horizons to open before us, provided that any movement is unhindered by physical and mental borders.”

Taysir Batniji, “Watchtower” series, 2008, black and white photographs, digital prints.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND EDGE OF ARABIA.

“Culturunners” will launch at the Rothko Chapel in Houston on September 21, to coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Peace. The event will feature contributions by Batniji; Saudi artist and Edge of Arabia cofounder Ahmed Mater, currently included in the New Museum’s survey of contemporary art from the Middle East, “Here and Elsewhere”; and 24-year-old rising star Sarah Abu Abdallah, whose video work was shown at last year’s Venice Biennale.

Other scheduled stops for “Culturunners” include Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York. In addition, Edge of Arabia is sponsoring an ongoing residency for Middle Eastern artists at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn. Both projects have financial backing from Art Jameel, a philanthropic branch of the Abdul Latif Jameel Group, which is the sole distributor of Toyota and Lexus automobiles in Saudi Arabia.

Foundland, Friday Table, detail, 2013–14, table, digital print, video projection.

JULIE JAMORA.

“‘Culturunners’ reverses the way art is traditionally made and shown,” says Edge of Arabia cofounder Stephen Stapleton, a British national who has spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia. “The borders created by the artist’s studio and art gallery completely dissolve, and in their place work is made on the road—available online to be seen by anyone, at any time, potentially forever.”