A burst of genius
April 2012
When American painter Mark Rothko committed suicide in 1970, he may have left this Earth a tortured soul – but he spent his life fighting for artistic integrity, even if it meant dividing opinions in the process.
In John Logan’s production Red, Rothko is assigned to paint a set of murals for the New York Seagram Building only to find himself overwhelmed by dilemma – is he creating art or merely selling out? Melbourne-based filmmaker Alkinos Tsilimidos makes his stage directorial debut with Red, providing insight into both the emotional and intellectual side of the artist.
“Rothko was an enigma. He painted with such veracity and such wild emotion, creating work that really placed him at odds with early American exhibitors and gallery owners. However, over the years, Rothko’s work started to develop and he continued to fight his way to be recognised. Ultimately, he had this great intellect that was as powerful as the extreme emotion in his work, so even though his work is completely an emotional experience, he had the intellect of a much more traditional artist. Rothko was definitely a strange one and often his work divides people. In Red, you’re spending 90 minutes with the artist, understanding how important his art is to him.”
So much so that, despite taking on a commission to paint a series of murals for the Seagram Corporation’s Four Seasons Hotel in New York, Rothko eventually changes his mind fearing he is compromising his integrity.
“It was a massive commission. It was huge. Today, it would be something like $2 million – but art wins out for Rothko. The Seagram Corporation was building a massive high-rise building and at the bottom was going to be the Four Seasons restaurant. At that point, Rothko was an established modern American painter so Seagram decided to commission him to paint a series of murals for decoration of this restaurant. Rothko takes on this commission but he starts grappling with this fear that he is selling out. By the end of the play, he realises the crude nature of this restaurant and he decides to give back the commission and just keep his paintings instead!”
Red also portrays the humorous and sometimes odd nature of the artist, channelled through actor Colin Friels, but towards the end it becomes increasingly clear that Rothko is a man disturbed with many demons to tackle. Ten years later, he takes his own life.
“You really can see towards the end of the play just how tortured his soul was,” Tsilimidos explains. “These murals, at first glance they’re all high-end reds and browns, they just look like gateways or portals… But they demand that you view them as much more than that, and that’s what Rothko was aware of. These pieces demand attention and once you view them, you start to see through them and it’s an entire experience in itself – particularly these Seagram pieces. Rothko was very particular about the way he was going to display them and the amount of light that ought to hit them, the whole experience was very important to him. That’s what he was hoping to create for the restaurant. He wanted to create a temple where people could come in and sit and be within this art but then he realised that people just wanted to eat expensive food and talk rubbish. He realised nobody would even notice his paintings.”
Award-winning American playwright and screenwriter John Logan did, though many years later and quite by accident. According to Tsilimidos, it was while working on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street in London that Logan happened to stumble upon Rothko’s murals on display at the Tate Gallery. Taken aback by the pieces, Logan was inspired to write Red and, in a sense, return to the purity of his own artistic expression – writing.
“Logan is more known as a Hollywood screenwriter but he did cut his teeth in off Broadway stuff prior to that,” Tsilimidos says. “He did well for himself, he became Martin Scorsese’s favourite writer, he wrote The Aviator and Scorsese’s new film, Hugo. When he was in London doing some re-writes he wandered into a room at the Tate which displayed the Seagram murals which Rothko never sold. At first, Logan thought, ‘What a depressing room!’ but then he began to see there was so much more to the murals. I suppose for him it inspired a return to writing because he wrote Red, he was returning to what he understood was important to him, where he began. Logan himself experienced the high-end of Hollywood and how easily you can get swallowed up by fame and money.
“Writing Red was his way back to the purity of himself as writer, which is the purity of theatre.”
Red shows at The MTC Theatre, Sumner, until May 5
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