The Fondation Louis Vuitton presents a major retrospective of the work of Mark Rothko from October 18, 2023. This is the first exhibition dedicated to the artist since the 1999 retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The exhibition brings together around 115 works, on loan from important international institutions – the National Gallery of Washington, the Phillips Collection, the Tate… – and from private collectors, including the artist's family. Displayed chronologically in the Foundation's galleries across four floors, the exhibition traces the artist's entire career, from his earliest figurative paintings to the abstract works for which he is best known today.
The exhibition opens with intimate scenes and urban landscapes – such as views of the New York subway – that dominate Rothko's output in the 1930s, before his transition to a repertoire inspired by ancient myths and the surrealism that Rothko uses to express his tragic dimension of the human condition during war.
From 1946 onwards, Rothko made an important shift towards abstract expressionism. The first phase of this change is Multiforms, where the chromatic masses are suspended in a kind of balance on the screen. Gradually, these decrease in number, and the spatial organization of his painting quickly evolves towards Rothko's “classical” works from the 1950s, where rectangular shapes overlap according to a binary or ternary rhythm, characterized by tones of yellow, red, ochre. , orange, but also blue, white…
Although Rothko has favored darker tones and soft contrasts since the late 1950s, the artist never completely abandons his bright color palette, as evidenced by several paintings from 1967 and the last red painting left unfinished in his studio. Even in the case of the 1969-1970 series Black and Gray, it is best to avoid a simplistic interpretation of the work, associating gray and black with depression and suicide.
The exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton also presents the series that Rothko produced in 1958 at the request of the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, and which the artist never delivered, later donating part of the paintings to the Tate in 1969.
Rothko's works are displayed in the highest room of the Frank Gehry building, alongside Alberto Giacometti's large sculptural figures, creating an environment close to what Rothko had in mind for a UNESCO commission that was never realized.
The permanence of Rothko's questioning, his desire for a wordless dialogue with the viewer and his refusal to be seen as a “colorist” are elements that allow for a new interpretation of his multifaceted work in this exhibition – in all its true plurality. .
The exposure 'Mark Rothko' can be visited until April 2, 2024.
SOURCE: Fondation Louis Vuitton