The exhibition, with 115 works, retraces the entire creative process of the master
There are paths in the lives of some artists that mature from their youth, and then break into a precise moment and determine the theme and language that will represent them forever. This is the case of Mark Rothko (1903-1970), a Latvian artist, who arrived in the United States as a child and naturalized American, who profoundly marked post-war abstract research.
ON DISPLAY ALSO THE WORKS OF THE FIGURATIVE BEGINNINGS IN THE 1930S
The Louis Vuitton Fondation reconstructs the poetics, from October 18th to April 2nd 2024, in a large exhibition curated by Suzanne Pagé, François Michaud and Christopher Rothko, son of the artist, through 115 works from the largest public and private international institutions. Developed on the entirety of the spaces of the foundation, the exhibition traces the entire career of the artist from the first figurative representations up to the abstraction for which he is known. The path opens on the intimate scenes and urban landscapes of the 1930s, such as the famous New York subways, before moving, during the war, to the repertoire of ancient myths and surrealist forms, denouncing the tragic dimension of the human condition.
AFTER THE WAR, THAT MAKES HIM DO A CRUCIAL TABULA RASA, HE TAKES THE STEP TOWARDS ABSTRACTION
Since 1946, after the war has matured in the artist’s consciousness the idea of a tabula rasa, Rothko takes a decisive step towards abstraction, through the series of Multiforms, in which the chromatic masses are suspended in balance. In the 1950s the composition evolved towards a classicism in which rectangular shapes overlapped, according to a binary or ternary rhythm, dominated by yellow, ocher, orange, blue and white tones.
IN 1971, A YEAR AFTER HIS DEATH, THE ROTHKO CHAPEL IN HOUSTON WAS OPENED IN HIS HONOR
In 1958, Rothko was commissioned to paint the murals of the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe in New York: a monumental ensemble characterized by a deep red. But Rothko decides not to hand over the works. In 1969 the artist donated nine of these paintings to the Tate Modern, which will be a room dedicated to them in the museum’s collections; this set is presented for the occasion at the Vuitton Foundation. Rothko’s colors darken with time: the bright colors give way to gray and black, deep blue, bichrome, monochrome, as in the famous series of Black and Grey of 1969-1970, or in the chapel commissioned by Jean and Dominique de Menil in Houston. It was opened in 1971 under the name Rothko Chapel, in honour of the artist who committed suicide in 1970.
Rothko’s quest for infinity, which seems to have consumed him, ends in a sacred building. But it is not a spiritual fact, it is an artistic need. “I became a painter because I wanted to elevate painting to the same level of emotion as music and poetry,” Rothko said. And this vibrant emotion is felt in every work of the artist.
