Hurricane-Damaged Rothko Chapel Reopens in Houston
134Dec. 17, 2024
Houston’sRothko Chapel, which houses fourteen site-specific black murals by American abstract painter Mark Rothko, reopened to the public today after beingforced to shutterthis past summer owing to the havoc wrought by Hurricane Beryl. The category 1 hurricane, which swept through Texas on July 8, damaged the nondenominational chapel’s ceiling, allowing water in and causing additional harm to several walls and four canvases. Though the on-site repairs have been completed, the canvases remain off-site, where they are in the care of art-conservation firm Whitten & Proctor Fine Art Conservation, which will return the panels after assessing and restoring them.
“Since the storm, our focus has been on the complete repair of the building, the restoration of the damaged panels, and on the reopening of the building so the public once again has access to this beloved space for contemplation and meditation,” the chapel’s executive director, David Leslie, said in astatement. “Getting to this point has been a true community effort involving an amazing team of art conservators, scientists, art handlers, volunteers, community partners, and chapel staff, and we are very excited to reopen in time for the holidays.”
Commissioned in 1964 by collectors John and Dominique de Menil, and opened to the public in 1971, the Rothko Chapel hosts Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk, 1963–69, a massive Cor-Ten steel sculpture dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr., in its plaza. The chapel draws about 110,00 visitors annually and since 2001 has occupied the National Register of Historic Places. Before the hurricane, it was in the middle of a campus redevelopment project set to be completed in 2026; chapel officials have not yet said whether the storm affected that timeline.