Mark Rothko

Jacob Needleman

Nelson Mandela

The Dalai Lama

Dominique de Menil with 
Dom Helder Camara

"But just when I was feeling my most wild and unbalanced in Houston, we ended up at the Rothko Chapel. A small ecumenical sanctuary designed by the great abstract painter Mark Rothko, it is a deeply sacred space. It is preternaturally quiet, like being inside the mind of someone whose eyes are closed while he or she is praying."

Annie Lamott
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Anchor Books, 1999

"The magnitude, on every level of experience and meaning, of the task in which you have involved me, exceeds all my preconceptions. And it is teaching me to extend myself beyond what I thought was possible for me. For this I thank you."

Mark Rothko
Excerpt from a letter to Dominique and John de Menil, 
Jan 1, 1966

"There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing...the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is timeless and tragic."

Mark Rothko
 

"Visual silence."

Jacob Needleman
 

"Our common humanity transcends the oceans and all national
boundaries. It binds us together to unite in a common cause
against tyranny, to act together in defense of our very humanity.
Let it never be asked of any one of us - what did we do when we knew that the other was oppressed?"

Nelson Mandela
Keynote Address, The Rothko Chapel
1991

"The Buddha said 'Monks and scholars should not accept my
work just out of respect for me, but should analyze as a goldsmith
analyzes gold."

The Dalai Lama
Rothko Chapel 1979

"Our world would fall into the cold and into death, if, one day, Utopia and dreams should leave Humanity. The great dreams and the real Utopias of today are the first rays of the dawn tomorrow."

Dom Helder Camara
Rothko Chapel Colloquia II

"We see that we face today a world more violent, 
and where the value of truth is more perverted. And we are more 
aware today than five years ago that violence does not come only
from the dispossessed, the desperate, but to a greater extent
from the powerful."

Dominique de Menil
1986

"What should move us to action is human dignity: the inalienable dignity of the oppressed, but also the dignity of each of us. We lose dignity if we tolerate the intolerable."

Dominique de Menil

"Simply put, the chapel is a place apart. It calls for a different form of  attention, a more hypnotic gaze than we are accustomed to exert."

David Anfam
The Chapel Commission, 1996

"Many people from many different religions came here and everybody came as human beings. We shared a sacred moment. I think it is very important for all of us to construct these bridges across faiths and across hearts to create spaces of peace and understanding." 

Guru Debsingh, a Sikh speaking at  
remembrance services following the attacks of September 11th 

"We forget that a tree should be judged by its fruit and we keep looking at labels."

Dominique de Menil
Speech for Rothko Chapel Oscar Romero Award, 1993
Vienna, Austria

(c) 2004 Rothko Chapel. All Rights Reserved.