It was the fin de siecle, a few years of intense immersion in art; before 9/11 and study of Islam which gave way, with a new girlfriend, to many years of deep focus on China.
I had been back to the apartment of the fin de siecle girlfriend, the art girlfriend, after first seeing the purple walls. I went through every goddamned art magazine in her rack looking for the photograph but we broke up shortly thereafter and I never found it. That is when I began googling and emailing museums in Texas. To no further avail.
I am not sure now how I connected the "museum purple walls" to Rothko's field paintings mounted against walls (nearly as large) in the chapel in Houston. I think I excised "walls" and substituted "paintings" in my searches. I was familiar with field paintings and with Rothko's field paintings but few of either of those were monochromes; Rothko's signature field paintings were two color rectangles with indefinited borders and which seemed to pulsate and to change color and shape as you looked at them. I had never seen a monochrome Rothko of such size but I think I must have discovered the chapel paintings by googling "field painting purple," perhaps "Rothko field paintings purple." When I made the discovery I read everything I could find on the Rothko Chapel.
I read that the paintings had been commissioned for a non-ecumenical chapel in Houston by a wealthy art patroness. They had been completed shortly before Rothko's suicide in 1969 and not delivered to Houston until after his death.
I read the dedicatory remarks of the patroness. She had never seen monochromatic Rothko field paintings of such size before either and she was a little disappointed, a little apologetic in her dedicatory remarks. The purple chapel paintings are a dark purple; others on the side walls are more blue but a dark blue/purple also. They do not throb as Rothko's lighter bi-color field paintings do. They do pulsate a little and they do change appearance a little. The chapel paintings are "cold"; the Seagram's paintings "hot."
I discovered the Rothko Chapel paintings in 2002 or 2003.
I had been back to the apartment of the fin de siecle girlfriend, the art girlfriend, after first seeing the purple walls. I went through every goddamned art magazine in her rack looking for the photograph but we broke up shortly thereafter and I never found it. That is when I began googling and emailing museums in Texas. To no further avail.
I am not sure now how I connected the "museum purple walls" to Rothko's field paintings mounted against walls (nearly as large) in the chapel in Houston. I think I excised "walls" and substituted "paintings" in my searches. I was familiar with field paintings and with Rothko's field paintings but few of either of those were monochromes; Rothko's signature field paintings were two color rectangles with indefinited borders and which seemed to pulsate and to change color and shape as you looked at them. I had never seen a monochrome Rothko of such size but I think I must have discovered the chapel paintings by googling "field painting purple," perhaps "Rothko field paintings purple." When I made the discovery I read everything I could find on the Rothko Chapel.
I read that the paintings had been commissioned for a non-ecumenical chapel in Houston by a wealthy art patroness. They had been completed shortly before Rothko's suicide in 1969 and not delivered to Houston until after his death.
I read the dedicatory remarks of the patroness. She had never seen monochromatic Rothko field paintings of such size before either and she was a little disappointed, a little apologetic in her dedicatory remarks. The purple chapel paintings are a dark purple; others on the side walls are more blue but a dark blue/purple also. They do not throb as Rothko's lighter bi-color field paintings do. They do pulsate a little and they do change appearance a little. The chapel paintings are "cold"; the Seagram's paintings "hot."
I discovered the Rothko Chapel paintings in 2002 or 2003.
