Exhibition of “Russian Jew with American citizenship” by Mark Rothko takes place in the Bois de Boulogne

These days, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is hosting an exhibition of the outstanding American artist of the 20th century, a representative of abstract expressionism, Mark Rothko. In a documentary that visitors can watch, he is described as a Russian Jew who received American citizenship. Born in the Russian Empire, he became a US citizen only in 1938, 25 years after immigrating.

This is the first retrospective of Mark Rothko in France after a long break. The previous exhibition took place twenty-five years ago – in 1999 at the Paris Museum of Modern Art.

Resembling a flying ship and at the same time an iceberg, the building of the Louis Vuitton Foundation was built in 2014 according to the design of the creator of the equally fantastic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Frank Gehry. Nearby is the Bois de Boulogne, which can be admired from open areas of an unusual structure. True, a Chinese entertainment center with attractions is getting closer and closer to it, so that in addition to the treetops, a panorama of an oriental garden with a typical Chinese gazebo and ponds opens up.

Visitors can get to the exhibition from the Arc de Triomphe on a special shuttle, which is very humane on the part of the foundation’s management. Despite some distance from the center and bad weather, many are willing to spend time on the road and stand in line in the rain, even with tickets. Our general audience practically does not know Mark Rothko, although his exhibitions were held in the Hermitage and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

Mark Rothko, and his real name is Markus Rotkovich, was born on September 25, 1903 in the former Russian Empire in Dvinsk – present-day Daugavpils (Latvia). He was the fourth child in a Jewish family, and ten years after his birth he emigrated to the United States with his mother (she was born in St. Petersburg) and sister. They left for Portland, where Marcus’s father and two brothers had gone three years earlier, fearing service in the Tsarist army on the eve of World War I and Jewish pogroms.

Judging by the biography of Rothko shown at the exhibition, he never returned to his homeland. His father died early, and the children had to earn their own living. Marcus, and later Mark, lived, studied, worked and died in the USA. He became an artist in New York, where he moved alone, without a family, without a specific goal or any prospects.

The exhibition is located on several floors. You can go up and down the stairs or the elevator, choosing rooms where there is no queue, going out onto open terraces. At the end of the journey, visitors can see an open-air staircase along which streams of water flow. It has nothing to do with the Rothko exhibition. This is one of the foundation’s attractions.

One of the curators of the exhibition was the artist’s son Christopher Rothko. Commenting on the peculiarities of the appearance of such a grandiose exhibition of his father, he noted that in our time only a few are capable of mastering such a thing, since it is an expensive pleasure. The cost of delivering work, especially from another continent, and their insurance reached fantastic figures.

A total of 115 paintings were exhibited. This is an impressive collection from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Tate Gallery in London, and private American collections, including those belonging to the artist’s family.

Marco Rothko’s works are presented in chronological order. They are like a journey through his life. Below are early figurative paintings, mostly from the 1930s, that can surprise even connoisseurs. These include scenes on the streets and subways of New York in the 1930s, a movie theater, a self-portrait of the artist from 1936, untitled portraits of naked women, and family scenes. It feels like the people in these cityscapes have grown into the architecture and interiors, merging with the columns and chairs.

Rothko is a master of color and light painting. His paintings seem to flicker in the semi-darkness of the halls. It seems that all the works of the early period were written by a completely different artist, who has a different attitude and style. And this is not at all the same person who is represented on the upper floors, where you can see his more famous black, gray, purple, red and yellow squares and rectangles. It contains abstract works written mainly after the Second World War. Rothko himself did not consider them abstract. Many definitions were born in the artistic environment in addition to its ideas and attitude.

The so-called “color fields” occupy most of the exposure. Many works are untitled. Mark Rothko often left them nameless. Only the number and year of creation are indicated. It is fundamentally. As a sign of freedom from restrictions.

Rothko’s color is thick, blurry, the texture is like velvet, especially in the works of recent years. Color is more important than geometry. He is out of form, on his own. In the semi-darkness of the halls, you can look at all these squares and rectangles for a long time, meditate, sitting on a bench, if there are no crowds of visitors in the hall at that moment who are endlessly taking pictures against the backdrop of the paintings.

Especially for the exhibition, composer Max Richter wrote music that can be downloaded using a QR code in order, according to the curators, to better understand the essence of the works presented. Not everyone needs such a diving tip. The artist’s photographs and manuscripts are also displayed in a small room with daylight.

A series of nine paintings was created for the interior of a restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York. However, she never went to her destination. Mark Rothko decided to have lunch at this restaurant, where he realized that people who were willing to pay crazy money for food would not look at his paintings. The artist sent all these works to the Tate Gallery in London.

The Black and Gray series from 1969, created for the Parisian bureau of UNESCO, sits next to a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, as it does outside the exhibition in normal times. The public is amused by this proximity because it is truly unusual.

The last room displays a 1967 painting from the collection of Yale University, where Rothko once studied before choosing a completely different profession. The exhibition ends with a panel in all shades of black, created for the Houston Chapel by order of collectors John and Dominique de Menil. Mark Rothko did not have a chance to see his creation in the interiors of the chapel, which was opened after his death. In 1970, the artist voluntarily died, having opened his veins. The cause of the tragedy is depression and illness.

His unfinished work (purple) was found in the artist’s studio after his suicide.

A monument to Mark Rothko was erected in Daugavpils in 2003, and a decade later an Art Center named after the artist was opened.