Visiting the Rothko
Chapel, Houston
Allan Bell
Rothko Chapel; all photos courtesy of author.
The Revd Allan Bell shared life at the Rothko Chapel, Houston, during the period 3rd – 12th November
2013. His story explores the sacred space of a remarkable site, where art and spirituality meet.
Photos courtesy of the author.
T
he Rothko Chapel was founded by Jean (John) and Dominique de Menil, who
were born in France at the beginning of the 20th century and ended up in
Houston, Texas, in the early 1940s. They believed that modernity had become overly
rationalistic and materialistic, a state which leaves the human spirit impoverished.
They longed for a recovery of the sense of the sacred, the transcendent dimension
in life. In their search, they were drawn to the Russian-born American painter Mark
Rothko, whose philosophical and religious struggles were reflected in his art forms.
The Revd Allan Bell is an Anglican priest and Director of the Centre for Silence, based in London. He is
dedicated to exploring spirituality in the heart of the city, an exploration which includes the creative arts,
relationships, and the practice of contemplative silence. Allan can be contacted at [email protected].
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The Chapel was dedicated in 1971
as an intimate sanctuary for people of
every belief. It is a tranquil meditative
environment dominated by Rothko’s
fourteen monumental canvases. With
over 60,000 visitors each year, people of
every faith and from all parts of the world
come on pilgrimage to experience the
transformative power of art and silence.
As an institution, the Rothko
Chapel functions ambitiously as chapel,
museum and forum. It is a place where
spirituality, art, architecture, hospitality
and the voice of human rights intermingle. For over forty years the Chapel
has provided diverse programmes to
engage audiences intellectually, artistically and spiritually. Dominique de
Menil describes it this way:
It is a place where a great artist turned towards the Absolute,
had the courage to paint almost
nothing – and did it masterfully.
It is a place blessed by the many
people who gather there to meditate, to find themselves, and to
go beyond themselves.
The Rothko Chapel is celebrated
for its peaceful environment and offers
a space of contemplative silence unlike
any other I have ever encountered. It is
experienced as an intimate yet universal
sanctuary where time stands still. This
space has inspired creativity, moved people to good works and changed people’s
lives. My own first reaction was of one of
complete awe, not just of the paintings,
but of the depth of the silence. It reflects
T. S. Eliot’s words: ‘You are here to kneel
where prayer has been valid.’
In the first morning of experiencing
the space, an experience that would be
repeated many times over during the
week, I staggered outside into the bright
Texan sunlight to recover, and sat by the
rectangular reflecting pool overlooking
the chapel. There I was able to view
the American artist Barnett Newman’s
colossal Broken Obelisk sculpture, a gift
from the de Menils in honour of the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Newman suggested the reflecting
pool and selected the location for the
sculpture which is on an axis of alignment with the entry to the Chapel.
Sadly neither Mark Rothko nor Barnett
Newman lived to see their art installed
at the Chapel.
Jean and Dominique de Menil
began collecting art intensively in the
1940s, ultimately amassing more than
16,000 paintings, sculptures, decorative
objects, prints, photographs and rare
books. The diverse artefacts represent
many world cultures and thousands of
years of human creativity, from prehistoric times to the present. As Dominique
wrote in 1987:
The gifted artists are the great
benefactors of the world. Life
flows from their souls, and from
their hearts ... they invites us to
celebrate life and to meditate on
the mystery of the world. They
bring us back to the essentials.
It was to this wonderful Collection,
located in a quiet residential neighbourhood next to the Rothko Chapel, that I
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Insight | 69
Sacred Spaces
Allan Bell
Visiting the Rothko Chapel, Houston
was invited on my first day in the city
to have lunch with Joseph Newland,
Director of Publishing at the de Menil
Collection. Joseph took me out locally
to encounter a ‘TexMex’ meal – which
was an experience in itself! Over scrumptious food, which was a combination
of American and Mexican cuisine, we
talked about art and spirituality and I
learned more about the vision of the de
Menils. I was to meet Joseph again later
in the week when he led a wonderful
lunchtime Sufi meditation in the chapel.
At sunset I sat by the pool again
and waited until the darkness engulfed
me before catching the bus back to my
host’s home. Everyone seemed amazed
that I was using the bus to get around, as
in Houston it is often only the old, the
poor, or ethnic minorities who use this
kind of transport. Over the week I had
some of my best conversations on the
bus, as passengers seemed intrigued by
this British visitor being among them.
Also, taking the bus grounded me, after
climbing the dizzy heights of being at
the Rothko Chapel!
Tuesday morning allowed me to do
some private research and reading in
the archive/library, and in the afternoon
I engaged in general discussions with
members of the team. After meditating
in the stillness of the chapel in the early
evening, I later had dinner with some
young Americans who are living in a
local community house for a year and
working with the homeless in the centre
of Houston as part of a church project.
Shimon Peres, the President of Israel,
wrote in a recent Sunday Times article
in Britain:
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[We] have to do the peace process
under new conditions – not so
much between States as generations. Today if you want to do
something you must turn to the
young.
Generally I think this is true for all
Western countries not just for Israel,
as so many talented young people face
unemployment, lack of opportunity and
a sense of no hope. Pope Francis has
also spoken out about this situation, so
it seemed important for me as a priest
to listen to the younger generation too.
Over dinner I was deeply moved by their
conversation, insights and willingness to
align themselves with the dispossessed
and poor, and I returned on the bus with
much food for thought, and a challenge
to my general perception of comfortable
American life styles.
Reflection has always played a large
part in my life so it was really good
to have the time to sit by the pool or
contemplate in the quiet of the Chapel.
It was interesting to observe how the
Chapel staff protected the silence by
gently but skilfully reminding visitors
to respect this sacred silent space by not
talking, drinking or eating, using mobile
phones and cameras, or getting too near
to the Rothko paintings. I found this
practice deeply moving and reassuring.
Once a month, at midday on
Wednesdays, there is a spiritual practice
programme based on the various world
religions. Joseph Newland, whom I mentioned previously, has been a long-time
meditator, has sat with many groups and
Allan Bell
is a student of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
and a representative of the Sufi Order
International. Joseph is a lover of light,
a believer in the unity of religious Ideals,
and especially fond of the epiphany of
the everyday. Participants used breathe
practices, new frontiers of cosmology,
the art of light, and light on art to enter
into the meditation. I ‘returned’ to the
chapel experiencing the universe in a
completely new dimension – seeing its
wonderful beauty and its vastness!
Two Vocations
T
he Rothko Chapel has two vocations: contemplation and action.
It is a place alive with ceremonies from
all faiths and where the experience
and understanding of all traditions are
encouraged and made available. Action
takes the form of supporting human
rights, and thus the Chapel has become
a rallying place for all people concerned
with peace, freedom and social justice throughout the world. Events at
the Rothko Chapel have brought leaders, heroes, artists, musicians, scientists
and scholars from all over the world
such as Jonas Salk, Nelson Mandela,
the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter and
many others to share their knowledge,
experience, talents and stories with the
Houston community.
So in the evening it was a real honour
to be able to join a packed Chapel to hear
Elisa Massimino from the Human Right
First organisation based in Washington,
talk about women’s rights throughout
the world. She gave examples of women
activists in Cairo, Afghanistan and in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, and
“Broken Obelisk,” Barnett Newman; all photos courtesy of author.
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Insight | 71
showed how women are both uniquely
vulnerable – and uniquely powerful –
in the struggle for human rights. As an
International lawyer for Human Rights,
she opened my eyes, as a man, to how
women suffer at the hand of my own
gender. This was a very challenging realisation for a male.
We who enjoy freedom cannot
accept that millions of people awake
daily to suffering, to hopelessness, to
deadly fear.
Later on in the twilight, I watched
Tai Chi being practiced on the Plaza in
front of the Chapel which I found most
relaxing after a very busy day.
On my last day at the Chapel I
spent the morning talking with Suna
Umari who is the Chapel’s archivist and
historian as well as having been a close
friend to the de Menils. A lunch for
invited guests followed by a talk enabled
me to share my own ideas and vision for
the Centre for Silence here in London.
For the rest of my stay in Houston I
was able to see a wonderful performance
of Aida at the Opera House; hear great
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jazz at a club near the Rothko Chapel;
experience James Turrell’s Skyspace at
Rice University viewed at dusk; speak to
staff at the Jung Centre, and view great
contemporary art at a city museum.
It only seems right that I end this
account by quoting Rothko himself, and
this certainly reflects my own experience:
I‘m not interested in relationships of colour or form or anything else ... I’m interested only
in expressing basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom,
and so on – and the fact that
lots of people break down and
cry when confronted with my
pictures shows that I communicate these basic human emotions
… The people who weep before
my pictures are having the same
religious experience I had when
I painted them, and if you, as
you say, are moved only by their
colour relationships, then the you
miss the point.