Mark Rothko’s paintings are often described in poetic terms that include allusions to the transcendental, the sublime, the spiritual, and the tragic. Rarely considered is Rothko’s keen interest in modernist architecture and his lifelong desire to transform the nature and experience of an existing architectural space with his paintings. Art historian Eileen Costello, Ph.D., discusses the architectural nature of Rothko’s paintings and how the Rothko Chapel, the culmination of the artist’s career, represents his only fully realized architectural project. Dr. Costello has taught at Hunter College, City University of New York, and has lectured at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Menil Collection, Houston. She is the Project Director for The Catalogue Raisonné of the Drawings of Jasper Johns, to be published by the Menil Collection in 2016. She is also at work on a Tony Smith monograph, which will be the first in-depth study of the artist’s significant yet largely overlooked architectural oeuvre. A reception on the plaza follows the program. Video by Runaway Productions