Mark Rothko: The Seagram Murals (1958 – 1959)

Rothko’s early works, signed as Marcus Rothkowitz, were figurative and took their subject matter from Ancient Greek and Christian mythologies. He was later to veer away from these fairly derivative techniques and explore colour fields and their emotional effects.

Typically, his major works featured large, soft edged rectangles of colour stacked one above the other, horizontally dividing the canvas. During his mid-career, these large paintings were usually bright in tone, sometimes utilising complementary colours. The intended effect of the size was to allow the viewer to approach close enough so that the edges were no longer in the field of view, hence losing any sense of scale and creating an illusion of absorbing, infinite depth.

In the latter years of his career, Rothko’s palette became somber and consisted mainly of blacks, purples and dark reds. He experimented with his preferred medium of oil paint and tried adding various substances to the pigments as well as, or instead of, oil content. He experimented with egg, which had been commonly used in tempera paintings before oil paints found favour in the Renaissance. He also added paint thinners in varying concentrations which altered the properties of the paints. At a certain point, the amount of thinners prevents the oils from bonding and the result is a softer, granular appearance, more like oil pastels than oil paints. As with chalks and pastels, the result is powdery and would require the application of a fixative to prevent this powder from gradually falling away. Rothko did not fix his later works as this treatment affected the texture of the colour. Unless they are very carefully conserved in controlled conditions, these works will eventually fade away, back to the canvas.

This dark and almost transient style reached its conclusion with the Seagram Murals. This set of large paintings, which consist of dark, soft rectangles within rectangles, predominantly in black, reds and maroon, started out as a commission for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York’s Seagram building. This was a very prestigious job for any Abstract Expressionist to be given and the financial motivation would have been considerable. Rothko began work in good faith and had a space constructed within his studio to match the dimensions of the room where the paintings were intended to hang. However, as he worked on them, their character developed into something much more contemplative and almost spiritual.

Rothko had found inspiration in a vestibule of the Laurentian library of Florence. The vestibule was designed to house an overly grand staircase and to be the hallway from the library to the attached church. This part of the building was designed by Michelangelo. It is an oppressive work with architectural detailing that imply windows, but are ‘blind’ bricked-up recesses. Rothko had visited this space in 1950 and the experience stayed with him and deeply affected him. He revisited Florence to see Michelangelo’s vestibule again as he was completing the Seagram Murals in 1959. During that visit he also looked around the site of ancient Pompeii where he was impressed by the bold decoration of the interiors in black and red. In his mind, there were strong correlations with the claustrophobic architecture of Michelangelo’s vestibule, its blank windows, the unearthed city of the long dead Pompeians, and the large paintings he was working on for Seagram. Shortly after his return to New York, he withdrew from the Four Seasons commission and returned all funds.

As he had worked on this series of paintings, they had changed and so too had his motivations. He wanted the paintings to be contemplated in a quiet and enclosed space with low lighting. He seemed to have produced a set of works that demanded serious engagement and demanded profound responses, no longer suitable for a posh Park Avenue restaurant. He continued to work on these pieces and kept them until 1970, when after negotiations with London’s Tate Gallery, he donated the works with the proviso that they be displayed in a particular way. They were to be shown in subdued light and have a room of their own.

After making these arrangements, Rothko ended his own life. His suicide coincided with the arrival of the Seagram Murals at the Tate. In this context, the chapel-like atmosphere of the works is enhanced and they are imbued with even more gravitas. Their velvety darkness evokes the void, an eternity, the last glowing embers amongst the ashes...

The Seagram Murals are generally held to be a masterpiece and are one of the few great works of American Abstract Expressionism that can be seen in a gallery outside the USA. The Rothko room, in Tate Modern, is a truly affecting space. It is meditative and absorbing. I feel a similar effect from these huge works as I get from the simple Suprematism of Malevich. Their simplicity, geometric structure, and Rothko’s belief in art transcendent aligns them with the approach of the Suprematists, and Rothko’s referencing of Renaissance sensibilities and mythic inspiration also places them in the broader camp of Romanticism. Without knowledge of the artist’s suicide, the room would be peaceful and calm, it would speak of the great void from which all creativity is born… but when placed in context with an act of such decisive destruction, the church-like atmosphere and sense of doom become invasive.

One of the main conceptual influences on Rothko’s pursuit of the abstraction on the grand scale that he became famous for were the writings of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, combined with the harrowing reportage of the Holocaust. Nietzsche had commented that the primal violence and murderous themes found in Greek mythology, along with the heroic triumphs, were accurate indicators of the potential for human damnation and redemption, as much today as they were when first told. Of course, Nietzsche was a huge influence upon the Nazi intelligentsia and the ‘Final Solution’ that included their plans for mass genocide that resulted in the Holocaust.

There is a quote from Nietzsche that I feel captures the essence of the Seagram Murals: “Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

MORE:

The Seagram Murals at The Tate and their Mark Rothko resources

Click on the image above for the Tate's Rothko Book...

Click on the image below for a DVD documetary about the Rothko Rooms