In the mid-twentieth century, American painter Mark Rothko unveiled what would become his signature style: vertical stacks of rectangular shapes that seem to float mysteriously on a field of colour. The sublime, captured on canvas. With their velvety textures, diffused contours, and radiant inner light, Rothko’s paintings elude reproduction in photographs; they demand to be seen in person, up close. The artist originally intended for them to be displayed without frames or protective glass, encouraging viewers to stand as near as possible, to lose themselves in the work. This intimacy, however, comes at a cost, leaving the delicate surfaces especially prone to damage.

Compounding the issue, Rothko’s complex painting technique also defies conventional restoration methods. The artist was famously secretive about his process, layering multiple thin coats of paint that fused into one another, often employing a wide range of media. As a result, his work has been studied in greater detail by painting conservators, using increasingly sophisticated techniques over the years. Only through a deeper understanding of the artist’s methods can conservation efforts be both effective and successful.   

This summer, the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, was critically impacted by a severe storm, which caused water to leak through the roof and damage three of the fourteen paintings housed within. Ironically, the skylight—designed to provide ideal lighting in keeping with Rothko’s vision—became the very entry point for the water that compromised the works it was intended to illuminate. 

Before the Chapel's 50th anniversary, another Rothko painting from the Menil Collection was marred by water damage, leaving a drip mark across the two-meter-high canvas. The impact was intensified by Rothko’s choice not to use protective varnish, leaving the delicate paint layers exposed, coupled with his use of water-sensitive media to build his complex surfaces. Paintings Conservator Anne Schmid, then a Mellon Fellow in Painting Conservation at the Menil Collection, restored the artwork in 2020 after an extensive period of research, examination, and testing. In her observations for the American Institute of Conservation’s 50th Annual Meeting in 2022, she noted that each section of the painting—the fields of different colour and materiality—had responded differently to the damage, requiring a bespoke approach for each one. As a result, the painstaking process successfully returned the painting to a condition suitable for display.  

While the full extent of the recent damage to the chapel's panels remains unclear, it is evident that the climate crisis is putting artworks at risk. According to  Ithaka S+R’s 2022 Art Museum Director Survey Report, which included about 180 U.S. participants, thirty-five percent said their museums had suffered damage due to climate change, while only half had taken steps to prepare for such risks.  

Over a decade ago, the British institution endured a severe act of vandalism when a painting was tagged with ink in its bottom right-hand corner, the ink seeping through to the canvas. It took nearly twenty months to “eradicate all visible evidence of the ink under normal gallery conditions.”  

But more unconventional techniques were employed in an effort to restore—at least to some degree—the lost vibrancy of Rothko’s compromised paintings. The Harvard Murals, one of three ensembles commissioned to Rothko alongside the chapel and the Seagram Murals, had mysteriously shifted from red to blue. Hidden away in storage for nearly thirty years, the five panels were reintroduced to the public with a novel approach: projecting coloured light onto them. This digital reconstruction, painstakingly assembled pixel by pixel, aimed to create the illusion of the original. One might question how this differs from immersive art experiences that project paintings onto walls. Yet, it involves far more: it meticulously considers factors such as reflectance, ambient light blending with the projector’s beam, and various other variables. Meanwhile, the materiality of the paint persists, creating a compelling interplay between the physical and the digital.  

Regardless of the nature of the damage, Rothko rooms are particularly vulnerable. Designed as cohesive units, these ensembles are compromised the moment even a single canvas is affected. Conservators have gone to extraordinary lengths, sometimes employing groundbreaking techniques, to preserve these invaluable works and ensure the artist’s vision remains intact for the public.