artsmarttalk.com
Share ArtSmart
  • Home
  • ArtSmartTravel
    • ParisArts&Pleasures >
      • Details: Costs and Activities
    • ParisCathedralsTour >
      • Details: Costs and Activities
    • BurgundyWinesTreasures
    • SpainAndalusiaTour
    • What to expect from an AST tour
    • Travel Art Talks >
      • Paris: Art and History
      • Art and Spirit: The Cathedrals of Europe
      • The Loire: Wine and Chateaux
      • Burgundy: Wine, History, Elegance
      • Bordeaux: Wine, City, Villages
  • MacGregorArt
  • Blog/Contact/About
    • About Marilyn MacGregor
    • Contact Me

RED, red, and Rothko

10/27/2011

4 Comments

 
Picture
Mark Rothko, as presented in the play RED, is irascible, self-centered and selfish, in love with his own opinions, domineering .... the justification for such a personality looms over audience and players, the large RED painting meant to represent Rothko's actual work. When I saw RED (the play) recently, I found it to be meaningful but not as compelling as I had expected, partly because I thought the actor playing Rothko didn't have enough gravitas for the role. I'd like to see it again, with another actor, to see what it would be like. (the photo is from the NY production with Al Molina, which got rave reviews - not the one I saw)

Picture
But that's ART, whether on the stage or on canvas. Rothko did miraculous things with the color red, but the same color is scrawled across handmade valentine cards and schmaltzy paintings of sunsets. The difference (noted in the play) is significance. One artist picks up a brush, a pencil, a piece of paper or cloth, adds a few bits of color and creates an object that stirs deep in the soul and moves you to reverie or to tears; another makes a painting that goes well with the sofa. The glory and the frustration of being an artist is striving for significance and always fearing you'll just end up over the sofa.

Picture
RED features a series of paintings - a 'mural' that was commissioned from Rothko by Philip Johnson, architect of the iconic Seagram's Building on Park Avenue in New York, to be placed in the high-style Four Seasons Restaurant. Rothko was paid a great deal of money and set to work, but somewhere along the line he apparently became to fear the 'sofa' problem (the play centers his doubts in a studio assistant who challenges his motives but the true reason is unknown) - he returned the money and refused the commission. The 30 paintings he did for the commission, however, remain to testify. (Some are at the Tate Modern, some in Japan and elsewhere)

Picture
Rothko was known for his 'pickiness' - his insistence on proper lighting (very dim) and placement, and when 'he' explains on stage that he can't allow his work to be trivialized as a backdrop for the clank of silverware and the empty prattle of rich diners, it rings true.  There is a spirituality about Rothko's work that resonates deep and long with profound significance - it's no surprise that one of the most successful installations of his work is in a specially built Chapel in Houston.

Picture
Red, of course, was not his only color, but it spoke a language that he understand like few others. The great painting Red Studio by Matisse, a supreme master of color,   is mentioned in the play - another monumental use of this rich complex color. There is also word play with a litany of red shades and hues that is one of the delights for any painter - "cadmium, vermillion, alizarin...." Red has a myriad of variations, some deadly in pigment form.

Picture
10 years after we see him in the play, in February 1970, Rothko killed himself in his studio. His life and work, and then death, were defined by color - the colorful reds had gradually disappeared over that decade, replaced finally by dark, heavy blacks, mud browns, and greys.

If you're interested in color you'll like this blog, full of information about colors, pigments, history, and uses http://artists-pigments-index.blogspot.com/


What does color mean to you? What color defines YOUR life?






4 Comments

    Share ArtSmartTalk

    Follow @MarilynArtsmart

      ArtSmartTalk by email

    Submit
    Picture


    MacGregor-Art.com
    Cards and art gifts with a Fine Sense of Fun
    Also at http://www.etsy.com/shop/MacGregorArt

    ArtSmart Consulting
    BETTER CONTENT for your art site
    http://www.artsmarttalk.com/artcontent.html _

    TRY A FREE SAMPLE!
    Postcard Art History
    Easy, fun way to learn about ART - a great gift! http://www.postcardarthistory.com/

    NetworkedBlogs
    Blog:
    ArtSmartTalk
    Topics:
    Art History, Design, Art
     
    Follow my blog

    Accredited Online Colleges

    Categories

    All
    19th C Art4a3f8ec7db
    20th C59300e1f29
    African Art
    Almutanabbi Streetbb1c3786e2
    American Art
    Ann Hamilton
    Apple
    Apple Computers
    Arabic Poetry
    Architecture
    Art
    Art And Nature
    Art And Technology
    Art As Collective Memory
    Art Auctions
    Art Books
    Art Forgery
    Art Galleries
    Art History
    Art In Gardens
    Art Installation
    Art Installations
    Art Licensing
    Art Of Spain
    Art Prints
    Art Technology
    Baghdad Books
    Barnes Collection
    Biennial
    Book Project
    Books
    Brooklyn Museum
    California Design
    Chelsea Galleries
    Chess
    Color
    Constable
    Contemporary Architecture
    Contemporary Art
    Contemporary Design
    Design
    Detroit Institute Of Arts
    Drawing
    E H Shepard
    El Anatsui
    Etching
    European Art
    Expressionism
    Fabric Design
    Flags
    Folk Art
    French Art
    French History
    French Portraits
    Galleries
    George Bellows
    Goya
    Goya Black Paintings
    Goya Portrait
    Hand-made Books
    Historical Art
    Hokusai
    Ho Tanner
    Illustration
    Installation Art
    Iraq
    Jean Clouet
    Lacma
    Lewis Chessmen
    London
    Los Angeles
    Mac Computers
    Mary Cassatt
    Matisse
    Met Museum
    Metropolitan Museum
    Metropolitan Museum Of Art
    Modern Art
    Modern British Painting
    Moma
    Moma Ps1
    Moons
    Museums
    Napoleon
    National Gallery
    Nature
    New Architecture
    New Art
    New Design
    New Goya Painting
    New York
    New York Art
    Norse Art
    Novels About Art
    Old City Philadelphia
    Online Art Sites
    Outdoor Art
    Outsider Art
    Painting
    Paris
    Pat Steir
    Performance Art
    Philadelphia
    Philadelphia Art
    Philadelphia Museum
    Photography
    Plein Air
    Portraits
    Product Design
    Red
    Religious Art
    Rembrandt
    Rome
    Rothko
    Royal Portraits
    Sarah Sze
    Scottish Art
    Self-portraits
    Significance Of Art
    Sketching
    Southern California
    Soutine
    Spanish Art
    Spanish History
    Steve Jobs
    Technology
    Thanksgiving
    The Importance Of Art
    Turner
    Van Gogh
    Velasquez
    Venice Biennale
    Whitney Museum
    Words And Art
    Young Artists

    Archives

    August 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Full Archives at
    http://artsmarttalk.blogspot.com

    RSS Feed

    BLOG ROLL
    http://www.donartnews.com/
    http://joanmikkelsenphotography.blogspot.com/
    http://newcityart.blogspot.com/
    http://experimentstation.wordpress.com/
    http://www.dailyartfixx.com/
    http://venetianred.net/
    http://blog.art21.org/
    http://ahuskofmeaning.com/
    http://eye-likey.blogspot.com/
    http://underthegables.blogspot.com/
    http://www.imaginarymuseum.net/
    _http://www.midcenturyfolio.com/