Link to Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-seed/art-meditation_b_1627635.html
John Seed writes about the trend toward "slow looking" he observed recently at the exhibition Richard Diebenkorn: Ocean Park at the Orange County Museum of Art and traces its roots to the Rothko Chapel commission.
Link to Post:
http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2009/06/rothkos_portlan.html
An extensive 2009 history of Mark Rothko's life and work in Portland, Oregon by Arcy Douglass; posted here on the occasion of the Mark Rothko Retrospective exhibition on view at the Portland Museum of Art, Oregon through May 17, 2012.
Douglass' reasearch examines "the time that Mark Rothko had spent in Portland and what implications, if any, it might have had on his mature work." The post includes a detailed account of Rothko's childhood and includes curiosities such as Doubon's Bride, a short story Rothko wrote at age 16.
Link to Post:
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2012/01/looking-at-people-looking-at-rothko/
Tess Thackara considers Sandra Lousada's extraordinary photographs of visitors to the 1961 Mark Rothko exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery.
Thackara writes: "Often compositionally beautiful, the black-and-white images reveal onlookers lingering before paintings, leaning against gallery walls and columns, lazing on benches and soaking up the environment of Rothko’s work. Many appear lost in solitary reverie, while others lean towards others to share thoughts."
Link to Post:
http://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/rothko-in-britain
Rebecca Wright reviews the exhibition Rothko in Britain at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, on view through February 26, 2012.
Wright notes that Abstract Expressionism holds a "pivotal position... in the canon of art history, as the turning point when 'art' migrated from Europe to America following the Second World War. By using a past exhibition as a case study (Rothko's first solo show held in 1961) Rothko in Britain manages to break down the 'Americanness' of Abstract Expressionism, revealing to us a fascinating dialogue established between artists on either side of the Atlantic."
Link to Post:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/photos/3453/33514/
Photoblog of images from the 1961 Mark Rothko exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery accompanying Coline Milliard's post Rothko's Little-Known British Connection Comes Into Focus at the Whitechapel Gallery.
Rothko in Britain is currently on view at the Whitechapel Gallery through February 26, 2012.
Link to Post:
http://canopycanopycanopy.com/13/matter_of_rothko
A must read article: David Levine revisits the scandal and trial surrounding the Mark Rothko estate from a moving, personal perspective. Levine's father, Morton Levine was a close friend of Rothko and an executor of the estate along with painter Theodoros Stamos and accountant Bernard Reis.
Levine writes: "Black-and-white photos of cocktail parties; that was their scene... There's Mom hanging out with Rothko and Stamos in the living room; there's Mom smoking a cigarette in Rothko's studio; there's Rothko sitting on the edge of his bed. I grew up in a house full of photos of Rothko, and not a single photo of my dad. He's always out of the picture. He's always the one taking the picture."
Link to Post:
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/06/art/painted-places-and-patronage
Transcript of painter David Novros' remarks at the Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas on February 12, 2011. Novros' discusses the scarcity of place-specific painting and the necessary (and uncommon) patronage that brings places of painting into being. "John and Dominique [de Menil] created the circumstances and Rothko invented a magnificent painted place... Rothko (and his contemporaries, Pollock, Newman, Still, and Kline) would have been muralists in a better time." Novros also offers a critique of the chapel.
Link to Post:
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/01/134160717/meditation-and-modern-art-meet-in-rothko-chapel
NPR's Pat Dowell looks at the Rothko Chapel and its 40 year history. In addition to the All Things Considered audio podcast, Dowell's web feature also offers podcast interviews with Rothko Chapel Executive Director Emilee Dawn Whitehurst, author Susan Barnes, and Christopher Rothko.
The Rothko Chapel is one of the few places where the work of a single artist defines the space. In his interview with NPR, Christopher Rothko, the artist's son, notes that Rothko was interested in expanding the expressive possibilities of painting through a controlled installation of related works:
"He really wanted to engage his view in something much, much deeper… so he was really pursuing this idea of rooms, of installations, then ultimately with the chapel where he could control almost all parameters to maximize that effect and really have that communication with the viewer, not simply have what I call the.. "drive by effect" in the museum where you see the painting, you sort of note it out of the corner of your eye and then you're on to the next thing."
The Menil Collection is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Rothko Chapel with an exhibition of the "alternate" chapel paintings.
Link to Post:
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/saltz/the-new-is-old-again11-17-10.asp
