Comment: I had never heard of this chapel and I was immediately attracted to the picture of the internal design. The chapel was designed as an universal, meditative place of worship, not specific to any one denomination or religion.
In the midst of a pandemic, with people around the world sheltering in place, the unveiling of an altneu space for reflection might not seem so significant. With life and health hanging in the balance for so many, it would be perverse to present paintings as some sort of panacea. Besides, America already has enough miracle cures being hocked by our snake oil salesman-in-chief. Instead, the Rothko Chapel waits patiently for a time when the crisis has subsided, like a biblical deluge, and we start looking again for places to contemplate what has transpired, and what kind of world we want to build. Not only will we crave open, peaceful places where we might come together (while remaining a safe distance apart); we will need spaces that are spiritually and aesthetically gracious enough to receive our diverging emotions – grief, anger, purposelessness – and refocus them like a prism.
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