I'm not an abstract artist, I'm not interested in the
relationship of colour or form or anything else. I'm interested only in
expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on…The people
who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience as I had
when I painted them.
Mark Rothko
Rothko's Rooms
Filmed on both sides of the Atlantic, Rothko’s work constantly fills the
screen, interspersed with penetrating contributions from his daughter, Kate,
his son, Christopher, and insightful comments from a wide range of friends,
artists, art historians, collectors and curators. The focus of the documentary
is on Rothko’s demands for the perfect setting for the showing of his work, an
ideal he pursued throughout his creative life. This is typified by the
controversial story of his iconic Seagram Murals. One of the murals’
commissioners, architect Philip Johnson, is among those who explain why Rothko
refused to allow these works to hang in their intended venue, the exclusive
Four Seasons restaurant in Seagram building on New York’s Park Avenue.
Rothko's rooms, BBC, 2000, 60 minutes
Rothko: An Abstract
Humanist
Watch this film as it reveals a rare examination of the life and work of Mark
Rothko. Rothko gave abstraction the emotional power of music and poetry. He
painted ideas rather than objects and, in the process, created a deeply
original pictorial language. One of the most important artists of his
generation, Rothko is perhaps best known for his work in the style of the New
York School and was a peer of many other illustrious abstract artists: Jackson
Pollock, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell, to
name only five.
Rothko: An Abstract Humanist, BBC, 2003, 52 minutes
Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J.
Clark
Join us, as we screen this important
interview between two of the most influential players in art history and
criticism of modern times. Thirty years after the heyday of Abstract
Expressionism, one of its principal champions sat down with historian T. J.
Clark to discuss the evolution of art criticism and issues surrounding
modernist painting. This program documents their conversation, spotlighting
Clement Greenberg’s reflections on his career and its place in the wider arenas
of art theory, art journalism, and the philosophy of aesthetics. While he
frequently deflates the seriousness of many of his earlier pronouncements,
Greenberg shares a number of insights on the relationship between art and
history, the nature of value judgments in criticism, and what he calls
America’s post-WWII “culture boom.”
Greenberg on Art Criticism: An Interview by T. J. Clark, (25 minutes)
Produced by the Open University, 2002
The Power of Art: Rothko
Life, death, heroism, tragedy— all subjects that, until the latter half of the
20th century, propelled the canon of Western art. How do the abstractions of
Mark Rothko figure in that tradition? Are they, in a sense, its swan song? This
program depicts Rothko’s engagement with timeless themes that dominated his
thinking long after the mythic grandeur of Abstract Expressionism had yielded
to the calculated banality of Pop. Host Simon Schama presents an impassioned
study of Black on Maroon as well as compelling discussions of Rothko’s subway
paintings, The Green Stripe, numerous untitled works, the images enshrined at
the Rothko Chapel, and other selections from the Seagram’s project.
The Power of Art: Rothko, BBC, 2006, 53 minutes
