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SEPTEMBER | PAGE 54 | 2015 Clockwise: Mark Rothko, circa 1952-53 The painter's Untitled (White, Blacks, Grays on Maroon), 1963 The artist and his son, Christopher, circa 1968 Mark Rothko's No. 10, 1958, realized nearly $82 million at Christie's May 13, 2015 (the artist's second highest auction record). What is the story about a carriage house and the Chapel skylights? My father rented a large carriage house on East 69th in NYC to make a mock-up of the Chapel. He painted all the Chapel works there and was able to spend a considerable amount of time on their exact proportions and arrangement, since he was creating a space. The central room of the studio was skylit, and he came to love the low, diffused light it gave to the room. It sparked his wish to have a skylight in the Chapel as well. So the studio was chosen to model the Chapel, which in turn was modeled on the studio. Current lighting changes planned for the Rothko Chapel: Will the baffles be removed? We want to get as close as we can to my father's ideal for the Chapel. It is an experiential place, and the light is a key element in how it is experienced. We will be working to improve the lighting and to create the more open feeling that comes from a skylit space, while also maintaining the diffuse light and the seasonal or daily changes that are a part of a naturally lit environment. Plans for the Chapel's approaching 50th anniversary in 2021 and beyond. We will be celebrating an important milestone, but more importantly, we will be celebrating the Chapel's continued relevance and modernity. And the Chapel thrives because it is a living institution that reaches people not only through the artwork, but also through a rich series of programs and outreach. The questions of human rights and interfaith dialogue that we raise are every bit as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. On how to read the Chapel canvases. The paintings provide only a suggestion, an invitation to look at bigger things. The actual direction — toward the inner, toward the beyond — must be taken by the viewer and will necessarily be personal and will change on every occasion. But the Chapel, as a work, remains insistent on the essentialness of that task, and more than perhaps any other place I have encountered, effectively gets out of the way of each person's journey. It is present enough to focus you but quiet enough not to distract. How does Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk sculpture, dedicated to Martin Luther King and in the Chapel courtyard, figure into the plan? Dominique de Menil spoke of the essential relationship between contemplation and action. The Broken Obelisk, although it invites contemplation as well, stands strong and resolute and seems to spark our motivation. There is something about sculpture that makes all those ideas concrete. Were your father and Newman friends? Very close for much of their careers although they fell out in the latter part. How many Rothko Chapel paintings were originally commissioned? Is it true that a few did not fit and are now in The Menil Collection? There are a number of "alternate" panels housed at The Menil Collection. These were part of a different, almost certainly earlier, conception of the Chapel. They were not intended to "fit" with the current installation — they were a different idea. A ROTHKO FALL "Mark Rothko: A Retrospective," at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 20, 2015 – January 24, 2016. Rothko Chapel, Houston, a permanent installation and sacred space, ongoing. Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out by Christopher Rothko, Yale University Press, publication date November 24, 2015. PHOTOGRAPHER HENRY ELKAN, COPYRIGHT © 2013 KATE ROTHKO PRIZEL AND CHRISTOPHER ROTHKO COLLECTION KUNSTHAUS ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND COURTESY CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2015