Rothko and Red

A 'Rothko- esque' image on the programme 

Well had the pleasure of  a belated 'treat' yesterday when my Brother took us to see 'Red' a rather deep 'two handed' fictional work  about the Art of Mark Rothko in particular his works commissioned  for the The Four Season's restaurant in The Seagram building.


There were several things impressive about the production, one of them was the staging but beyond that was the hard work by the Actors who were very much present for the complete non-interrupted 90 minutes (in fact  Alfred Molina was on stage nearly 10 minutes before the scheduled start).

As well as a drama it was a useful piece describing the place for Abstract Expressionism and 'Color Field' work in the development of 20th century western art.


Rothko first came to my notice via the excellent 20th Century Art introductory course from Nick Pearson held at OPEN Ealing a few years back.

Certainly Rothko's work developed and there is (it is more apparent to me now) a connection with Turner but he was labelled as 'angry'  - as well as Rothko I'm keen to find out more about  Jackson Pollock  (aka Jack the Dripper) one of Rothko's contemporaries who's style of  creation of his work  I fear gets more coverage  than the product.

[It feels now surprising to me that I didn't reference the play in my own year of red].

The play was not condescending nor did it talk down to its audience - I'm going to go back to Tate Modern to look more closely at The Seagram Rothkos very soon.

Amongst those entering the foyer with us was the BBC newscaster and journalist Clive Myrie -funnily enough also going to the play - we saw Mark Austin (then an ITN Journalist who is now with Sky News) when we saw the the Blue Man Group a few years back - who next?

Might be worth moving closer.

The Real Greek

Ahead of the play we had a very nice Greek(-ish)  meal at nearby (St Martin's Lane) The Real Greek, to me a cross between  a traditional Greek Restaurant and a Tapas eatery - with an added  fusion twist - many thanks Lee.