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Rothko and Byzantine
By Sarah | March 10, 2009
A bit more on my lovely Houston afternoon….the Rothko Chapel and Byzantine Fresco Chapel . Both are part of the Menil Collection and both couldn’t be more stark in contrast. Or maybe they’re really not all that different. Maybe its just representations of a different spiritual time for a different culture. Either way, both spaces were so impressive. Walking between the two chapels immediately after one another was the perfect way to experience them.
Rothko is…well, hes Rothko. It was sombering to sit with a kind of reverence in front his large scale color fields of the deepest black and violet.
Just across the street is the Byzantine Chapel which was built to house the relics of frescoes taken from a Chapel in Cyprus. The frescoes themselves were historically interesting. But what really moved me was the space itself. Inside this dimly lit room is a glass chapel built around the frescoes. To see the frescoes imagined in their intended space was cool. But the chapel structure itself, the architecture and glass construction was just beautiful. It was so soft and so strong. See more pics here.
Topics: Texas our Texas, all things ART |