To mark the 50th Anniversary of the dedication of The Rothko Chapel, the Estate of Jack Tworkov revisits a never before published journal entry by Jack Tworkov.

Tworkov’s friendship with Mark Rothko began in the 1930s during the early years of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Later, both became associated with the New York School and both became leading artists among the generation of painters associated with Abstract Expressionism in America. 

While Chair of the Art and Architecture Department at Yale University, Tworkov was called upon by the office of the secretary to the President of Yale University (Kingman Brewster, Jr.) on February 25, 1969. Tworkov's assistance was requested in preparing a citation for Mark Rothko who was to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Yale University later that year.  Below are the notes Tworkov prepared for the draft of the citation. Exactly one year later, on February 25, 1970, Rothko committed suicide.

The following are Tworkov’s notes which were transcribed into Brewster’s final citation:

Rothko

Color and light

reaching the height of spiritual grandeur that overlays a sense of tragedy even despair.  His work has nourished young painters of this decade thru out the free world.  He has made an enduring place for himself in the Art of this Century.

Among the very small number of artists that can be counted as a founder of the New American painting that began in the early forties and that has had world wide influence that established the American school as the world leader in the visual arts.

[Rothko’s work] reaches a physical and spiritual grandeur that is not inconsistent with a classic sense of the tragic.

Tworkov was one of the last people to see Rothko alive. Describing that day, Tworkov told Gerald Silk for the Archives of American Art [1]:

“Well, it's a very strange thing. I went to visit my doctor on 69th Street. I went for a check-up. And I was coming out of his office and met Rothko on 69th and Second Avenue or Third Avenue, I forget—Third Avenue. And I told him I was just coming from my doctor, and he said well he was just coming from his doctor. And he looked terribly down, downcast. And he asked me to stop at his studio and I wasn't able to. Wanted to go on downtown. And we talked for a few minutes and I said goodbye, and I came home and thought that he was terribly downcast. And that was the day that he committed suicide.”

On the occasion of the dedication of the Rothko Chapel, Tworkov was among the few artists invited to attend. The ceremony also included the dedication of Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk to the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Rothko Chapel was dedicated on February 27, 1971. And at the time, it was one of the most important ecumenical houses of worship. Rothko devoted three of the last years of his life to the series of fourteen paintings that hang in the simple octagonal sky-lighted structure designed by Houston architects Howard Barnstone and Eugene Aubry.

During his return flight to New York, Tworkov recorded his thoughts:

Journal entry: March 1, 1971. Eastern Airlines Flight 52, Houston to New York

[…] The occasion was the dedication of the Rothko Chapel by the Institute of religion and Human Development attached to the medial center. About 200 people were invited. Churchmen of all denominations, Cardinal from Rome, Islamic and Christian clerics from Lebanon, art historians, critics, and practically no artists. Whether the latter were invited but did not accept I don't know. The official guest list carried the names of Stamos, Dan Rice, and myself. Paul Jenkins showed up although he was not on the list. Why I was invited, I am not sure except it was my friendship with Simone Swann. All our expenses were met by the Institute, which means, I think, the de Menils.

x x x

We left New York, Saturday (2.27) and arrived in time for lunch. Wally and I visited the Houston Museum. We rested and then changed for the evening and went to the dedication. Among those I remember were Rothko’s brothers, the wife of his nephew, Mrs. Rubin and Kate. Kate wore a rather beautiful patterned white dress. She was very pale and looked beautiful […]

x x x

I tried to look at the paintings in the chapel but Emily Genauer kept breaking in trying to start a conversation. I tried to avoid her. [2]

x x x

My memory plays me false. The Genauer Incident was the next day, Sunday, when I visited about one o’clock to see the paintings in daylight.

x x x

The dedication ceremony Saturday night began about six o’clock. Opposite the entrance, erected over a reflecting pool was Barney Newman’s Broken Obelisk. In the evening, lighted on all sides and reflecting in the pool, the orange rusty image was quite impressive.[3]

x x x

There was organ music and the audience was seated on very plain wooden benches along the octagonal sides of the chapel. Just before the service began, Simone came in looking for somebody and spotted me. I made room for her near me—but she didn’t look for a seat. She motioned me to follow her outside and introduced me to Eleanor Holmes, a reporter for the [Houston] Chronicle. They asked me whether I’d pose for a photograph. I murmured something about ‘wasn’t it awkward right now as the ceremony was just about to begin’—but they answered me ‘it wouldn’t begin until the photographer was through.’ They then looked for and called out Kate. Then we were taken to a side room where all the clerics who were to participate in the service were lined up in a double line. We went and were introduced to John de Menil. Then they called to Cardinal [Willebrands].[4] We were introduced to him and then Kate, de Menil, the Cardinal and myself were lined up and photographed. Kate and I went back to our seats a few minutes later the service began.

x x x

I was quite moved by the service. Religious services are, after all another kind of language—like art, that says special things other forms cannot say.

x x x

My being singled out for the photograph, which appeared in the Sunday Chronicle, must have raised questions by those especially like [Theodoros] Stamos and The Rices, who have sort of tied themselves to the Rothko legend (which is now beginning to grow). Because everyone knows that I had no special relationship to Rothko, except for 1968 and the manner we spent in Provincetown, we had not been especially intimate.[5]

x x x

After the dedication limousines lined up again to take us to the Rice University faculty dinning room. We had cocktails and then dinner. I drew table 13 and sat with Adelaide de Menil and Eleanor Holmes. Adelaide was very cordial. Mrs. de Menil (Dominique) came over towards the end of the dinner to chat at my table. She asked to come to open house at her house the next day.

x x x

Sunday, Wally and I went to Rice Art Gallery. Henry Hope and his wife went with us. […] The subject was the history of the Black in the U.S. also a project of de Menils.[6] After lunch we went to visit the chapel by daylight and stayed for the dedication of the Newman sculpture as a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr.

x x x

After the dedication, Morton Feldman and I were taken by Helen Winkler [assistant to de Menil] to the de Menil house. Helen gave me a tour—I was most impressed with their African and New Guinea sculpture. I was glad to see that an especially erotic New Guinea sculpture was in Mrs. de Menils bedroom.

Just before we left the de Menils arrived. We talked for a few minutes then Helen Winkler drove us back to the hotel.

END OF JOURNAL ENTRY

In 1976, Tworkov would join the Mark Rothko Foundation as Trustee with Donald Blinken as President.  Click here to learn more information on the 50th Anniversary of The Rothko Chapel.

ENDNOTES
[1] This excerpt is from an interview conducted by Gerald Silk for the Archives of American Art on May 22, 1982. This interview was part of the Archives of American Art's Mark Rothko and His Times oral history project, with funding provided by the Mark Rothko Foundation. Full interview available here.

[2] Emily Genauer (1911-2002) was a modern art critic and columnist working in new York from 1932 until well into the 1980s. In 1974, she won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished art criticism. Rothko came to despise her calling her “the idiot Emily Genauer.”

[3] The 26-foot high corten-steel obelisk created by Barnett Newman was unveiled and dedicated as a memorial to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The obelisk was to have been placed in Houston’s City Hall Plaza, but on August 26, 1969, the de Menils announced a decision to give it to the Institute of Religion. The city council originally accepted the de Menil offer but cautiously backed away after leaning the obelisk was to carry the inscription “Forgive Them for They Know Not What They Do,” a thinly veiled reference to King’s assassination.” (Sunday, February 28, 1971, 10A)

[4] Johannes Cardinal Willebrands (1909-2006) was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity of the Catholic Church at the Vatican from 1969 to 1989.

[5] Letter to Janice Biala, February 23, 1971: “The summer when I got to see him a lot (1968, I think) there was a constant sparring between us. On my part to see if we could have a friendship free from any professional taint (I was really interested in him as a person-I saw the edges of a tragic obsession sticking out of him and it stirred my compassion and respect). On his part I suppose he was trying to find out what I could bring to his friendship. I think he became fond of me without knowing really much about me and I imagine he cared nothing for my work, and I believe he hardly knew it, especially the recent work.”

[6] The exhibition Tworkov references was Some American History, marketed as “a bold and hugely important exhibition conceived by Larry Rivers.” It was a large multi-media installation commissioned by the Menil Foundation and supplemented with contributions by Ellsworth Ausby, Peter Bradley, Frank Bowling, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Joe Overstreet, and William T. Williams.