A Conversation about Barnett Newman with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro

Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, co-author of the 2004 Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné, will address issues pertaining to the history, presence, and preservation of Newman’s Broken Obelisk.  Installed on the plaza of the Rothko Chapel in 1970, the sculpture embraces the ethos of the Chapel while embodying the cultural development of Houston.

Barnett Newman (1905-1970), best known as a painter, is indelibly linked with the Rothko Chapel as the sculptor of the monumental Broken Obelisk, which stands in a reflecting pool just south of the Chapel's main entrance.  Chapel co-founders Dominique and John de Menil were so taken with Newman's concept that they determined to bring the sculpture to Houston in honor of the slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  In 1969, the artist, in a visit to Houston, helped to select the site for the sculpture and took part in designing the reflecting pool in which he wanted it placed.

Carol Mancusi-Ungaro directed the conservation of the Rothko Chapel paintings and has overseen restoration of works by Barnett Newman.  She is a former chief conservator of The Menil Collection, is currently the director of conservation at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and is founding director of the Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art at the Harvard University Museums.