Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:03,686 --> 00:00:12,028
♪ Somber music ♪
2
00:00:14,113 --> 00:00:15,738
This is Christopher Rothko.
3
00:00:15,781 --> 00:00:17,614
I'm Mark Rothko's son.
4
00:00:17,658 --> 00:00:20,242
And I have been told by many people
5
00:00:20,286 --> 00:00:21,368
who've known both of us
6
00:00:21,412 --> 00:00:23,871
that we had similar voices.
7
00:00:23,914 --> 00:00:24,540
♪
8
00:00:30,171 --> 00:00:32,963
Born Dvinsk, Latvia 1903.
9
00:00:33,007 --> 00:00:36,967
Migrated to Portland, Oregon 1913.
10
00:00:37,011 --> 00:00:45,353
♪ Somber music ♪
11
00:00:47,146 --> 00:00:47,895
"You don't know what it is
12
00:00:47,939 --> 00:00:50,564
to be a Jewish kid dressed in a suit
13
00:00:50,608 --> 00:00:51,690
from Dvinsk,
14
00:00:51,734 --> 00:00:53,692
not an American suit,
15
00:00:53,736 --> 00:00:56,028
traveling across America and not able
16
00:00:56,072 --> 00:00:58,072
"to speak English."
17
00:00:58,115 --> 00:01:02,242
♪
18
00:01:02,286 --> 00:01:06,246
"I was never able to forgive this transplantation
19
00:01:06,290 --> 00:01:08,874
to a land where I never felt
20
00:01:08,918 --> 00:01:10,709
entirely at home."
21
00:01:10,753 --> 00:01:19,095
♪ somber music ♪
22
00:02:07,977 --> 00:02:15,151
(clackety-clack of train)
23
00:02:33,711 --> 00:02:37,173
Like, she... she, like, realizes...
24
00:02:43,763 --> 00:02:46,349
(vehicles passing)
25
00:02:49,310 --> 00:02:51,352
Do you know this building?
26
00:02:51,395 --> 00:02:53,187
I know it's a landmark.
27
00:02:53,230 --> 00:02:54,646
(chuckles)
28
00:02:54,690 --> 00:02:56,440
Do you know that Mark Rothko
29
00:02:56,484 --> 00:02:57,649
was living here?
30
00:02:57,693 --> 00:02:58,567
No, I didn't.
31
00:02:58,611 --> 00:03:00,277
Do you know his name?
32
00:03:00,321 --> 00:03:01,737
No.
33
00:03:01,781 --> 00:03:02,905
I just know the people
34
00:03:02,949 --> 00:03:04,575
who live in there.
35
00:03:05,952 --> 00:03:08,118
They are kind of your friends or...
36
00:03:08,162 --> 00:03:09,995
Yeah, they look out for me.
37
00:03:10,039 --> 00:03:13,209
You know, they always look out for me.
38
00:03:33,271 --> 00:03:34,605
(horn honks)
39
00:03:43,197 --> 00:03:45,614
"When I was a younger man,
40
00:03:45,658 --> 00:03:47,366
art was a lonely thing.
41
00:03:47,410 --> 00:03:50,244
No galleries, no collectors,
42
00:03:50,288 --> 00:03:51,704
no critics...
43
00:03:51,747 --> 00:03:53,288
no money.
44
00:03:53,332 --> 00:03:55,124
Yet, it was a golden time,
45
00:03:55,167 --> 00:03:57,501
for then, we had nothing to lose,
46
00:03:57,545 --> 00:04:00,337
and a vision to gain.
47
00:04:00,381 --> 00:04:03,549
Today, it is not quite the same.
48
00:04:03,592 --> 00:04:06,427
It is a time of tons of verbiage,
49
00:04:06,470 --> 00:04:09,513
activity and consumption.
50
00:04:09,557 --> 00:04:10,764
Which condition is better for
51
00:04:10,808 --> 00:04:12,224
the world at large?
52
00:04:12,268 --> 00:04:15,269
I will not venture to discuss.
53
00:04:15,313 --> 00:04:16,020
But I do know
54
00:04:16,063 --> 00:04:18,147
that many who are driven to this life
55
00:04:18,190 --> 00:04:22,192
are desperately searching
for those pockets of silence
56
00:04:22,236 --> 00:04:24,778
"where they can root and grow."
57
00:04:24,822 --> 00:04:29,700
♪
58
00:04:29,744 --> 00:04:33,370
Everything about Rothko is about...
59
00:04:33,414 --> 00:04:35,914
changes, about voyages,
60
00:04:35,958 --> 00:04:36,957
about travels.
61
00:04:37,001 --> 00:04:38,250
You know, first of all,
62
00:04:38,294 --> 00:04:41,086
the geographical travels.
63
00:04:41,130 --> 00:04:44,548
He was born in Russia in 1907
64
00:04:44,592 --> 00:04:45,966
in the Russian Empire,
65
00:04:46,010 --> 00:04:47,426
in a city called Dvinsk,
66
00:04:47,470 --> 00:04:50,846
now Daugavpils now in Latvia.
67
00:04:50,890 --> 00:04:52,473
And at the age of 10,
68
00:04:52,516 --> 00:04:55,601
his family moved to the United States.
69
00:04:55,645 --> 00:04:58,729
Then he moved all over the United States,
70
00:04:58,773 --> 00:05:02,149
and he came back many times to Europe.
71
00:05:02,193 --> 00:05:06,028
So, basically, all those geographical
72
00:05:06,072 --> 00:05:08,739
travels...
73
00:05:08,783 --> 00:05:11,575
I mean, made him what he was.
74
00:05:11,619 --> 00:05:16,791
♪ Somber music ♪
75
00:05:37,228 --> 00:05:39,186
"I became a painter because I wanted
76
00:05:39,230 --> 00:05:40,729
to raise painting to the level
77
00:05:40,773 --> 00:05:43,818
of poignancy of music and poetry."
78
00:05:53,077 --> 00:05:55,828
"The struggle is beyond painting,
79
00:05:55,871 --> 00:05:57,871
not with painting."
80
00:05:57,915 --> 00:06:04,130
♪ piano music ♪
81
00:06:14,098 --> 00:06:16,390
(inaudible chatter)
82
00:06:16,434 --> 00:06:21,856
(train screeching)
83
00:06:30,531 --> 00:06:33,618
This is 77th Street.
84
00:06:35,745 --> 00:06:41,250
♪ Drone music ♪
85
00:06:56,724 --> 00:07:00,726
"Myths are the symbols of man's primitive fears
86
00:07:00,770 --> 00:07:02,519
and motivations,
87
00:07:02,563 --> 00:07:06,023
no matter in which land or what time,
88
00:07:06,067 --> 00:07:07,983
changing only in detail
89
00:07:08,027 --> 00:07:10,235
"never in substance."
90
00:07:10,279 --> 00:07:15,785
♪ drone music ♪
91
00:07:55,283 --> 00:07:57,366
"I sense a deep affinity.
92
00:07:57,410 --> 00:07:58,492
The same feeling,
93
00:07:58,536 --> 00:08:01,745
the same broad expanses of somber color."
94
00:08:01,789 --> 00:08:02,415
♪
95
00:08:12,550 --> 00:08:15,467
So, there is, in himself,
96
00:08:15,511 --> 00:08:16,197
you know, a tension,
97
00:08:16,241 --> 00:08:20,013
a tension between, uh, the new world
98
00:08:20,057 --> 00:08:22,224
in which he lives,
99
00:08:22,268 --> 00:08:23,600
the abstraction,
100
00:08:23,644 --> 00:08:25,686
the abstract art that he's going
101
00:08:25,730 --> 00:08:27,187
to be part of...
102
00:08:27,231 --> 00:08:32,192
but also these original myths
103
00:08:32,236 --> 00:08:35,904
from Europe that he originates from.
104
00:08:35,948 --> 00:08:39,700
And when he goes back to the Greeks
105
00:08:39,744 --> 00:08:40,534
and the Greek myths,
106
00:08:40,578 --> 00:08:44,747
and he starts painting again
107
00:08:44,790 --> 00:08:47,082
mythological.
108
00:08:47,126 --> 00:08:51,253
So, that's a way of grounding
109
00:08:51,297 --> 00:08:52,921
his own art in the...
110
00:08:52,965 --> 00:08:56,675
in the b... in the basics
111
00:08:56,719 --> 00:08:59,303
of European culture
112
00:08:59,347 --> 00:09:01,680
and European history.
113
00:09:01,724 --> 00:09:04,975
Uh, from then on, he's going to be able
114
00:09:05,019 --> 00:09:08,979
to evolve and find his own language.
115
00:09:09,023 --> 00:09:15,154
♪ Drone music ♪
116
00:09:53,109 --> 00:09:56,568
He's such an articulate
117
00:09:56,612 --> 00:09:57,486
intellectual,
118
00:09:57,530 --> 00:10:02,074
such an articulate scholar that, uh,
119
00:10:02,118 --> 00:10:04,785
it's not this, you know,
120
00:10:04,829 --> 00:10:08,455
there's no wonder that today
121
00:10:08,499 --> 00:10:09,581
Rothko is talking to us
122
00:10:09,625 --> 00:10:12,503
much better than anybody else.
123
00:10:25,683 --> 00:10:28,269
(hammering)
124
00:10:40,823 --> 00:10:43,576
(inaudible chatter)
125
00:10:46,950 --> 00:10:48,644
I don't know if it's this one.
126
00:10:48,775 --> 00:10:54,378
I have to check the room number: 43264.
127
00:10:57,985 --> 00:11:00,592
43264.
128
00:11:22,239 --> 00:11:24,575
(drilling)
129
00:11:32,090 --> 00:11:35,914
I've arranged the exhibition in two ways.
130
00:11:36,044 --> 00:11:41,909
The reason is that during the preparations
I often came across people saying:
131
00:11:42,039 --> 00:11:44,777
"Rothko? That's emotion."
132
00:11:44,907 --> 00:11:48,990
That is not my usual approach.
133
00:11:49,122 --> 00:11:55,204
My initial approach is always that
I want to understand something.
134
00:11:55,769 --> 00:12:01,112
And that does not exclude emotion. On the contrary.
135
00:12:01,242 --> 00:12:06,673
I think that art is where those two connect.
136
00:12:06,804 --> 00:12:13,234
Most people think the two are incompatible
and cannot be brought together.
137
00:12:13,365 --> 00:12:20,838
But precisely in art they come together.
I've tried to show that in the exhibition.
138
00:12:20,923 --> 00:12:27,528
By saying bluntly: If you walk straight
on, you will understand something.
139
00:12:27,658 --> 00:12:32,003
If you prefer an emotional experience, turn left.
140
00:12:32,852 --> 00:12:38,816
♪ somber music ♪
141
00:12:49,869 --> 00:12:51,952
"Art is an adventure
142
00:12:51,996 --> 00:12:53,662
into an unknown world,
143
00:12:53,706 --> 00:12:56,957
which can be explored only by those willing
144
00:12:57,001 --> 00:12:58,753
to take the risks."
145
00:13:09,889 --> 00:13:11,847
"I'm not an abstractionist,
146
00:13:11,891 --> 00:13:13,932
I'm not interested in the relationship
147
00:13:13,976 --> 00:13:17,686
of color or form or anything else.
148
00:13:17,730 --> 00:13:20,606
I'm interested only in expressing
149
00:13:20,650 --> 00:13:22,608
basic human emotions;
150
00:13:22,652 --> 00:13:25,152
tragedy, ecstasy,
151
00:13:25,196 --> 00:13:27,112
doom, and so on.
152
00:13:27,156 --> 00:13:28,614
And the fact that lots of people
153
00:13:28,658 --> 00:13:30,783
break down and cry when confronted
154
00:13:30,826 --> 00:13:33,452
with my pictures shows that I can
155
00:13:33,496 --> 00:13:37,039
communicate those basic human emotions.
156
00:13:37,083 --> 00:13:39,583
The people who weep before my pictures
157
00:13:39,627 --> 00:13:43,420
are having the same religious experience I had
158
00:13:43,464 --> 00:13:45,089
when I painted them.
159
00:13:45,132 --> 00:13:48,425
And if you are moved only by their color,
160
00:13:48,469 --> 00:13:50,302
"then you miss the point."
161
00:13:50,346 --> 00:13:58,688
♪ somber music ♪
162
00:14:13,077 --> 00:14:13,703
♪
163
00:14:56,412 --> 00:14:59,329
"I quarrel with surrealist and abstract art
164
00:14:59,373 --> 00:15:02,666
only as one quarrels with his father and mother,
165
00:15:02,710 --> 00:15:05,210
recognizing the inevitability
166
00:15:05,254 --> 00:15:06,879
and functions of my roots,
167
00:15:06,922 --> 00:15:10,591
but insistent upon my dissensions.
168
00:15:10,635 --> 00:15:13,302
I am both them and a new integral
169
00:15:13,346 --> 00:15:16,013
"completely independent of them."
170
00:15:16,057 --> 00:15:16,682
♪
171
00:15:24,570 --> 00:15:25,743
These three paintings here...
172
00:15:29,046 --> 00:15:35,085
...off the top of my head 1946, 1948, 1949...
173
00:15:36,823 --> 00:15:43,079
...you see an enormously chaotic colour mixture...
174
00:15:43,208 --> 00:15:46,598
...you can't recognize:
175
00:15:46,728 --> 00:15:50,465
It's not abstract, it's not
expressionist or geometric...
176
00:15:50,552 --> 00:15:53,810
What is it? Clouds? Indeterminate.
177
00:15:53,940 --> 00:15:57,634
But it crystallizes in this direction.
178
00:15:57,764 --> 00:16:00,934
Until there you arrive at something...
179
00:16:02,369 --> 00:16:06,106
...that is a reduction of the
imagery to make it more clear.
180
00:16:06,192 --> 00:16:08,233
He wants direct communication.
181
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:12,362
That's too complex for communication. This is clear.
182
00:16:12,571 --> 00:16:13,572
♪ drone music ♪
183
00:16:34,302 --> 00:16:36,260
"I'm not a mystic.
184
00:16:36,304 --> 00:16:37,511
A prophet, perhaps.
185
00:16:37,555 --> 00:16:40,472
But I don't prophesy woes to come.
186
00:16:40,516 --> 00:16:43,561
I just paint the woes already here."
187
00:17:20,598 --> 00:17:22,181
The height is wonderful, isn't it?
188
00:17:22,224 --> 00:17:24,892
He must've loved that.
189
00:17:24,936 --> 00:17:26,604
Hmm.
190
00:17:29,523 --> 00:17:34,737
We are wondering if this is Mark Rothko's paint?
191
00:17:39,033 --> 00:17:41,033
I don't know, it's hard to say, isn't it?
192
00:17:41,077 --> 00:17:42,451
I mean, you can't say definitively.
193
00:17:42,495 --> 00:17:45,120
I'm sure there have been other painters in here.
194
00:17:45,164 --> 00:17:46,914
This certainly has a feel of it,
195
00:17:46,958 --> 00:17:49,750
but it seems like a lot of it right there.
196
00:17:49,794 --> 00:17:52,046
It doesn't seem...
197
00:18:00,346 --> 00:18:01,804
I think there's no reason to think
198
00:18:01,847 --> 00:18:03,597
there isn't some of Rothko's paint,
199
00:18:03,641 --> 00:18:05,516
but one can't say with any...
200
00:18:05,559 --> 00:18:06,288
Any surety.
201
00:18:06,332 --> 00:18:08,477
I don't even know what it tells us that much, really.
202
00:18:08,521 --> 00:18:10,854
I mean, we know he had the paintings on pulleys,
203
00:18:10,898 --> 00:18:12,940
we know they were on the... stretched,
204
00:18:12,984 --> 00:18:15,484
we know that they were on the wall.
205
00:18:15,528 --> 00:18:17,488
Um...
206
00:18:21,784 --> 00:18:22,866
There's a lot of white.
207
00:18:22,910 --> 00:18:23,992
I don't think that...
208
00:18:24,036 --> 00:18:25,786
(laughs)
209
00:18:25,830 --> 00:18:27,871
-Too much white. -Yeah.
210
00:18:27,915 --> 00:18:30,207
I don't know, a floor is a history.
211
00:18:30,251 --> 00:18:31,458
I mean, it's...
212
00:18:31,502 --> 00:18:33,168
it tells so much about what's happened
213
00:18:33,212 --> 00:18:34,503
in this space as opposed
214
00:18:34,547 --> 00:18:36,338
to who necessarily was in the space.
215
00:18:36,382 --> 00:18:38,882
It was more about the space, I think,
216
00:18:38,926 --> 00:18:41,301
than the painter.
217
00:18:41,345 --> 00:18:43,973
In that regard, it's kind of wonderful.
218
00:18:48,060 --> 00:18:50,352
Yeah, hm.
219
00:18:50,396 --> 00:18:56,152
♪ Drone music ♪
220
00:20:11,018 --> 00:20:15,314
(cars passing)
221
00:20:16,232 --> 00:20:18,273
What is the sadness of life, sir?
222
00:20:18,317 --> 00:20:19,024
Excuse me?
223
00:20:19,068 --> 00:20:21,570
What is the sadness of life?
224
00:20:23,614 --> 00:20:25,574
Not having a mother.
225
00:20:26,826 --> 00:20:27,783
You know?
226
00:20:27,827 --> 00:20:29,118
Mom left me when I was two,
227
00:20:29,161 --> 00:20:33,789
my father left me when I was 12, you know?
228
00:20:33,833 --> 00:20:37,000
That's what hurts, you know?
229
00:20:37,044 --> 00:20:39,253
When I see family, you know,
230
00:20:39,297 --> 00:20:41,630
sometimes I cry because...
231
00:20:41,674 --> 00:20:45,761
I wish that was me, you know?
232
00:20:48,764 --> 00:20:51,348
It hurts real bad.
233
00:20:51,392 --> 00:20:53,058
You know?
234
00:20:53,102 --> 00:20:56,937
But that's life, you know?
235
00:20:56,981 --> 00:21:01,191
In America you have accidental babies,
236
00:21:01,235 --> 00:21:05,070
you have trick babies, sex offender babies,
237
00:21:05,114 --> 00:21:06,822
abused babies, adopted babies,
238
00:21:06,866 --> 00:21:09,575
mommy's babies, and daddy's maybes.
239
00:21:09,619 --> 00:21:10,576
You know?
240
00:21:10,620 --> 00:21:13,662
I don't know what ground I'm on.
241
00:21:13,706 --> 00:21:15,247
You know?
242
00:21:15,291 --> 00:21:20,630
♪ Drone music ♪
243
00:21:47,637 --> 00:21:51,459
What does this one cost? - I don't know by heart.
244
00:21:52,327 --> 00:21:57,412
This is from a period...
245
00:21:58,499 --> 00:22:03,450
...a transitional period to his
classical period. The last step.
246
00:22:03,712 --> 00:22:05,536
1949.
247
00:22:05,666 --> 00:22:10,619
And they are usually in the order of...
248
00:22:10,749 --> 00:22:13,097
...eight or nine million.
249
00:22:13,182 --> 00:22:17,319
But there is one with yet another zero.
250
00:22:17,415 --> 00:22:19,835
(laughs)
251
00:22:19,878 --> 00:22:23,529
Which one? - It's not yet unpacked.
252
00:22:40,471 --> 00:22:42,515
If you look at the back...
253
00:22:42,644 --> 00:22:44,817
...how...
254
00:22:45,556 --> 00:22:48,206
...the canvas was stapled on...
255
00:22:48,336 --> 00:22:51,942
...it's all very fragile.
256
00:22:52,637 --> 00:22:56,461
It shows that he was not a professional painter.
257
00:22:56,591 --> 00:22:58,937
He was a philosopher...
258
00:22:59,068 --> 00:23:04,020
...who used canvas and colour
to express philosophical thought.
259
00:23:14,664 --> 00:23:16,142
What are you looking at?
260
00:23:16,489 --> 00:23:20,878
A first impression. Is there anything odd?
261
00:23:21,008 --> 00:23:28,089
I don't know the painting but I
can see there's no big scratch on it.
262
00:23:28,220 --> 00:23:32,260
But the courier is coming
to take a more specific look.
263
00:23:33,694 --> 00:23:36,952
And then we both sign for approval.
264
00:23:43,814 --> 00:23:45,587
♪ somber music ♪
265
00:23:55,326 --> 00:23:57,409
"The recipe for a work of art,
266
00:23:57,453 --> 00:24:01,163
its ingredients, how to make it,
267
00:24:01,207 --> 00:24:03,248
the formula.
268
00:24:03,292 --> 00:24:03,999
Number one:
269
00:24:04,043 --> 00:24:04,875
there must be a clear
270
00:24:04,919 --> 00:24:08,253
preoccupation with death.
271
00:24:08,297 --> 00:24:09,463
Number two:
272
00:24:09,507 --> 00:24:10,839
sensuality.
273
00:24:10,883 --> 00:24:12,591
It is a lustful relationship
274
00:24:12,635 --> 00:24:15,552
to things that exist.
275
00:24:15,596 --> 00:24:17,179
Number three:
276
00:24:17,223 --> 00:24:18,138
tension,
277
00:24:18,182 --> 00:24:22,559
either conflict or curbed desire.
278
00:24:22,603 --> 00:24:24,311
Number four:
279
00:24:24,355 --> 00:24:25,521
irony.
280
00:24:25,564 --> 00:24:29,233
This is a modern ingredient.
281
00:24:29,277 --> 00:24:30,359
Number five:
282
00:24:30,403 --> 00:24:32,236
wit and play
283
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,863
for the human element.
284
00:24:34,907 --> 00:24:36,198
Number six:
285
00:24:36,242 --> 00:24:39,076
the ephemeral and chance,
286
00:24:39,120 --> 00:24:41,912
also for the human element.
287
00:24:41,956 --> 00:24:43,831
And number seven:
288
00:24:43,874 --> 00:24:45,082
hope.
289
00:24:45,126 --> 00:24:46,041
Ten percent.
290
00:24:46,085 --> 00:24:49,336
Just enough to make the tragic concept
291
00:24:49,380 --> 00:24:51,632
"more endurable."
292
00:24:53,134 --> 00:24:55,843
I think this is, uh, an example of my father's
293
00:24:55,886 --> 00:24:56,969
great love of irony.
294
00:24:57,013 --> 00:24:59,221
I think if we take him too seriously,
295
00:24:59,265 --> 00:25:00,889
we are in trouble.
296
00:25:00,933 --> 00:25:03,519
(cityscape sounds)
297
00:25:18,743 --> 00:25:20,784
Painting, for him, was a way
298
00:25:20,828 --> 00:25:22,536
to address the people.
299
00:25:22,580 --> 00:25:23,912
It was a social statement.
300
00:25:23,956 --> 00:25:25,956
It was a way of finding
301
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:27,249
his identity
302
00:25:27,293 --> 00:25:30,169
in the American society.
303
00:25:30,212 --> 00:25:35,090
It was a way of stating that the artist
304
00:25:35,134 --> 00:25:37,468
has a role in society.
305
00:25:37,511 --> 00:25:39,553
It was not the case in the United States.
306
00:25:39,597 --> 00:25:40,763
The United States was a country
307
00:25:40,806 --> 00:25:45,809
where the artist was very much marginalized.
308
00:25:45,853 --> 00:25:48,937
So, Rothko decided to step in
309
00:25:48,981 --> 00:25:50,481
and to...
310
00:25:50,524 --> 00:25:55,152
to assert what he had to say is true:
311
00:25:55,196 --> 00:25:56,989
his art.
312
00:26:01,619 --> 00:26:08,042
♪ Drone music ♪
313
00:27:07,518 --> 00:27:10,269
"After I had been at work for some time,
314
00:27:10,313 --> 00:27:14,064
I realized that I was much
influenced subconsciously
315
00:27:14,108 --> 00:27:16,567
by Michelangelo's walls in the staircase
316
00:27:16,611 --> 00:27:19,361
of the Medici Library in Florence.
317
00:27:19,405 --> 00:27:22,906
He achieved just the kind of feeling I'm after.
318
00:27:22,950 --> 00:27:24,158
He makes the viewers feel
319
00:27:24,201 --> 00:27:25,826
that they are trapped in a room
320
00:27:25,870 --> 00:27:29,163
where all the doors and windows are bricked up,
321
00:27:29,206 --> 00:27:30,330
so that all they can do
322
00:27:30,374 --> 00:27:33,625
"is butt their heads forever to the wall."
323
00:27:33,669 --> 00:27:40,176
♪ drone music ♪
324
00:27:48,851 --> 00:27:50,978
(pebbles clanking)
325
00:28:12,875 --> 00:28:15,044
(pebbles rolling)
326
00:28:39,593 --> 00:28:46,241
You could say that Rothko is
after a one-to-one confrontation.
327
00:28:47,023 --> 00:28:50,672
He more or less excluded the space around it.
328
00:28:50,803 --> 00:28:55,712
It was all about the physical
dialogue with the canvas.
329
00:28:55,842 --> 00:29:00,968
But well, a body is always in
space and you can't entirely ignore it.
330
00:29:01,099 --> 00:29:08,746
When he was commissioned to do a series
of paintings for a Manhattan restaurant...
331
00:29:08,876 --> 00:29:11,483
...a luxury restaurant...
332
00:29:12,742 --> 00:29:18,043
...he was confronted with a novel situation.
333
00:29:18,174 --> 00:29:22,736
On the one hand he found it very fascinating...
334
00:29:22,822 --> 00:29:29,035
...to be allowed to use the whole
room, to involve the whole space...
335
00:29:29,165 --> 00:29:34,075
...but he doubted whether a luxury
restaurant was the right space.
336
00:29:46,501 --> 00:29:52,670
It kept nagging at him and he didn't solve the dilemma.
337
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:59,534
He needed a break and went
with his wife and daughter to Italy...
338
00:29:59,664 --> 00:30:04,705
...where he visited many places
that featured 'art on location'.
339
00:30:04,835 --> 00:30:07,355
Also purpose-built locations.
340
00:30:07,745 --> 00:30:12,612
Especially the monastery
cells in the St Mark in Florence.
341
00:30:13,263 --> 00:30:16,435
He went there...
342
00:30:16,652 --> 00:30:19,171
...and the situation there is as follows.
343
00:30:19,780 --> 00:30:22,778
In a small cell for a monk...
344
00:30:22,908 --> 00:30:27,600
...there's a fresco by Fra Angelico
on the short wall, made for the monk.
345
00:30:27,731 --> 00:30:30,955
He can develop a relationship with it.
346
00:30:31,013 --> 00:30:32,014
♪ drone music ♪
347
00:30:53,409 --> 00:30:59,924
It's the perfect participation that
Rothko envisaged for his paintings.
348
00:31:00,055 --> 00:31:03,139
And when he came back...
349
00:31:03,269 --> 00:31:07,398
...he was pained by the
difference with the luxury restaurant.
350
00:31:07,528 --> 00:31:11,264
I think that's why he returned the commission.
351
00:31:11,568 --> 00:31:15,826
It's the famous failed Seagram commission.
352
00:31:15,956 --> 00:31:22,038
But it was the first step in a whole development...
353
00:31:22,170 --> 00:31:27,209
...of making works for specific locations.
354
00:31:29,238 --> 00:31:35,870
♪ drone music ♪
355
00:32:06,442 --> 00:32:08,484
"Since my pictures are large,
356
00:32:08,527 --> 00:32:10,402
colorful and unframed,
357
00:32:10,446 --> 00:32:13,447
and since museum walls are usually immense
358
00:32:13,491 --> 00:32:14,740
and formidable,
359
00:32:14,784 --> 00:32:16,533
there is the danger that the pictures
360
00:32:16,577 --> 00:32:19,328
relate themselves as decorative areas
361
00:32:19,372 --> 00:32:20,871
to the wall.
362
00:32:20,915 --> 00:32:23,290
This would be a distortion of their meaning.
363
00:32:23,334 --> 00:32:26,043
Since the pictures are intimate and intense,
364
00:32:26,087 --> 00:32:29,129
and have been painted in a scale of normal living
365
00:32:29,173 --> 00:32:32,466
"rather than an institutional scale."
366
00:32:32,510 --> 00:32:33,135
♪
367
00:32:47,454 --> 00:32:52,016
The Association of Friends of
Harvard University got a new building.
368
00:32:52,449 --> 00:32:55,406
He made five paintings for it.
369
00:32:55,491 --> 00:32:58,924
He wanted to show that it was possible:
370
00:32:59,054 --> 00:33:03,269
To create a space with paintings,
to create a sanctified location...
371
00:33:03,399 --> 00:33:08,656
...without the paintings
being degraded to decorations.
372
00:33:08,787 --> 00:33:16,650
So he worked on those, and created
paintings for this specific space.
373
00:33:16,780 --> 00:33:19,822
There was also a reception room.
374
00:33:20,951 --> 00:33:25,296
But in that case the problem was...
375
00:33:26,252 --> 00:33:29,336
...that the canvases were enormous...
376
00:33:29,467 --> 00:33:34,767
...wall-covering and therefore called 'murals'.
377
00:33:34,897 --> 00:33:39,459
The other walls had gigantic windows.
378
00:33:39,589 --> 00:33:44,021
The pigment he had used was highly light-sensitive...
379
00:33:44,151 --> 00:33:46,541
...and the sun was shining all day.
380
00:33:46,670 --> 00:33:51,884
And some years after his death
the paintings had to be removed,
381
00:33:52,015 --> 00:33:56,968
In that sense it also failed. The
installation doesn't exist anymore.
382
00:33:59,055 --> 00:34:04,977
♪ violin music ♪
383
00:34:42,348 --> 00:34:45,140
"When I went to Europe and saw the old masters,
384
00:34:45,184 --> 00:34:49,770
I was involved with the credibility of the drama.
385
00:34:49,814 --> 00:34:53,023
Would Christ on the cross, if he opened his eyes,
386
00:34:53,067 --> 00:34:55,025
believe the spectators?"
387
00:34:55,069 --> 00:34:58,445
♪
388
00:34:58,489 --> 00:35:00,280
"I think that small pictures,
389
00:35:00,324 --> 00:35:01,657
since the Renaissance,
390
00:35:01,701 --> 00:35:03,075
are like novels.
391
00:35:03,119 --> 00:35:04,576
Large pictures are like dramas
392
00:35:04,620 --> 00:35:06,245
in which one participates
393
00:35:06,289 --> 00:35:08,122
"in a direct way."
394
00:35:08,165 --> 00:35:08,791
♪
395
00:35:13,337 --> 00:35:16,171
Painting is, in fact, the subject.
396
00:35:16,215 --> 00:35:18,799
Here, he... he's almost a sculpture.
397
00:35:18,843 --> 00:35:19,842
Mm-hmm, yeah.
398
00:35:19,885 --> 00:35:21,343
And what Rembrandt did, and especially
399
00:35:21,387 --> 00:35:24,346
this whole part, but... but this...
400
00:35:24,390 --> 00:35:25,264
This is blurred.
401
00:35:25,308 --> 00:35:26,974
This is abstract painting.
402
00:35:27,018 --> 00:35:27,808
And also this.
403
00:35:27,852 --> 00:35:30,310
I mean, this... this color red,
404
00:35:30,354 --> 00:35:31,770
it's (inaudible word).
405
00:35:31,814 --> 00:35:32,896
It's... it's, I mean, of course,
406
00:35:32,940 --> 00:35:35,107
paint... yeah, the face is very nice,
407
00:35:35,151 --> 00:35:36,984
but he did many paintings.
408
00:35:37,028 --> 00:35:39,486
But this... this has never been done.
409
00:35:39,530 --> 00:35:41,613
So, basically, it's not so much
410
00:35:41,657 --> 00:35:43,449
the faces, which he's interested in,
411
00:35:43,492 --> 00:35:46,660
but the figures and the experimentation of light.
412
00:35:46,704 --> 00:35:49,038
Here we look at invention in art.
413
00:35:49,081 --> 00:35:51,373
And then Rothko comes close.
414
00:35:51,417 --> 00:35:55,794
Rothko wrote in 1940 that Rembrandt
415
00:35:55,838 --> 00:35:58,797
was interested in the plasticity of light.
416
00:35:58,841 --> 00:35:59,631
-Here. -Yeah.
417
00:35:59,675 --> 00:36:02,509
And Rothko reinvented himself in 1940
418
00:36:02,553 --> 00:36:05,596
when he wrote a book called The Artist's Reality
419
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:07,264
where he's looking at all the figures.
420
00:36:07,308 --> 00:36:09,641
He stops painting for one whole year
421
00:36:09,685 --> 00:36:11,143
and he write a book.
422
00:36:11,187 --> 00:36:12,394
And in this book he goes through
423
00:36:12,438 --> 00:36:14,563
all the big figures of the past;
424
00:36:14,607 --> 00:36:17,107
philosophers, writers,
425
00:36:17,151 --> 00:36:18,984
musicians, and artists.
426
00:36:19,028 --> 00:36:22,321
And he talks about Rembrandt a lot,
427
00:36:22,365 --> 00:36:24,365
especially about this painting
428
00:36:24,408 --> 00:36:27,117
and the plasticity of light.
429
00:36:27,161 --> 00:36:29,747
(echoed chatter)
430
00:36:32,708 --> 00:36:34,917
"Rembrandt discovered that his patrons
431
00:36:34,961 --> 00:36:37,044
were not interested in his plastic
432
00:36:37,088 --> 00:36:38,712
preoccupations with light,
433
00:36:38,756 --> 00:36:42,091
and that they preferred
the obvious illustrative gifts
434
00:36:42,134 --> 00:36:45,805
"of his contemporaries and followers."
435
00:36:52,144 --> 00:36:55,354
"Rembrandt and Rothko."
436
00:36:55,398 --> 00:36:56,689
Rothko would say to a friend,
437
00:36:56,732 --> 00:36:59,900
then pause, smile, and say,
438
00:36:59,944 --> 00:37:04,238
"Rothko and Rembrandt."
439
00:37:04,282 --> 00:37:05,009
I'm gonna add...
440
00:37:05,053 --> 00:37:06,699
I'm gonna add one from the family.
441
00:37:06,742 --> 00:37:07,741
This is not written anywhere,
442
00:37:07,785 --> 00:37:11,120
but this... this is what he said in the house.
443
00:37:11,163 --> 00:37:15,040
"Mozart, Matisse, and Mark."
444
00:37:15,084 --> 00:37:18,836
That's the follow-up to "Rothko and Rembrandt."
445
00:37:18,879 --> 00:37:22,506
No, he didn't turn it around as far as I know.
446
00:37:22,550 --> 00:37:25,509
I don't think anyone could go before Mozart.
447
00:37:25,553 --> 00:37:30,474
(pebbles clanking)
448
00:37:54,248 --> 00:37:57,124
"When you looked at Matisse's Red Studio,
449
00:37:57,168 --> 00:37:58,751
you became that color.
450
00:37:58,794 --> 00:38:01,879
You became totally saturated with it."
451
00:38:01,922 --> 00:38:07,303
♪ drone music ♪
452
00:38:22,944 --> 00:38:31,243
(cityscape sounds)
453
00:39:04,527 --> 00:39:07,277
"Art necessarily reflects the artist's
454
00:39:07,321 --> 00:39:10,032
understanding of his times.
455
00:39:14,996 --> 00:39:18,080
We have wiped the slate clean.
456
00:39:18,124 --> 00:39:19,206
We started new.
457
00:39:19,250 --> 00:39:20,457
A new land.
458
00:39:20,501 --> 00:39:21,792
We have got to forget
459
00:39:21,836 --> 00:39:24,005
"what the old master's did."
460
00:39:29,593 --> 00:39:32,555
(emergency sirens in distance)
461
00:39:45,103 --> 00:39:51,967
His third installation was a commission by
a married couple of collectors in Houston.
462
00:39:52,097 --> 00:39:55,702
The De Menil couple.
463
00:39:56,442 --> 00:40:04,002
People had long agreed that Rothko's
work would look best in a chapel.
464
00:40:05,652 --> 00:40:13,473
They asked him to paint for a chapel
specifically built for this purpose.
465
00:40:13,603 --> 00:40:17,427
He was totally in control there.
466
00:40:17,557 --> 00:40:22,249
That is the famous Rothko chapel in Houston.
467
00:40:23,553 --> 00:40:26,811
He had rented a studio that was large enough...
468
00:40:26,941 --> 00:40:34,154
...to make a mock-up of the chapel and paint
in the circumstances the work was meant for.
469
00:40:34,221 --> 00:40:39,267
♪ somber music ♪
470
00:40:58,224 --> 00:41:00,557
"I've wanted to paint my own size.
471
00:41:00,601 --> 00:41:04,269
I wanted to recognize myself in my work.
472
00:41:04,313 --> 00:41:06,983
Then I realized it's completed."
473
00:41:15,157 --> 00:41:18,617
His project was not painting paintings,
474
00:41:18,661 --> 00:41:23,247
his project was to create environments.
475
00:41:23,291 --> 00:41:26,875
His project was to reinvent
476
00:41:26,919 --> 00:41:30,629
a relationship between the public
477
00:41:30,673 --> 00:41:32,256
and his art.
478
00:41:32,300 --> 00:41:33,632
And how would it be?
479
00:41:33,676 --> 00:41:37,177
It would be like theater.
480
00:41:37,221 --> 00:41:41,473
He wanted the viewer to step into the painting.
481
00:41:41,517 --> 00:41:43,100
He wanted the paintings to be...
482
00:41:43,144 --> 00:41:46,520
Not positioned low, but... high, but low.
483
00:41:46,564 --> 00:41:49,273
He wanted them not to be on a white wall,
484
00:41:49,317 --> 00:41:51,900
but on an off-white wall.
485
00:41:51,944 --> 00:41:54,486
He wanted them not to be lighted,
486
00:41:54,530 --> 00:41:57,906
but very in the shadow.
487
00:41:57,950 --> 00:42:00,117
And he didn't want one painting,
488
00:42:00,161 --> 00:42:01,577
but a whole room.
489
00:42:01,621 --> 00:42:05,581
He wanted the audience to be surrounded by the art.
490
00:42:05,625 --> 00:42:06,331
Why?
491
00:42:06,375 --> 00:42:08,542
Because what he aimed at
492
00:42:08,586 --> 00:42:11,545
was not consumption of art,
493
00:42:11,589 --> 00:42:15,340
he wanted a dialogue, an interaction,
494
00:42:15,384 --> 00:42:16,717
a spiritual dimension,
495
00:42:16,761 --> 00:42:19,511
something much more complex
496
00:42:19,555 --> 00:42:23,682
than, you know, than watching a painting.
497
00:42:23,726 --> 00:42:25,517
He wanted, uh,
498
00:42:25,561 --> 00:42:30,230
basically, he thought that art could
499
00:42:30,274 --> 00:42:34,860
transform, um, the public.
500
00:42:34,904 --> 00:42:41,452
♪ Drone music ♪
501
00:42:45,498 --> 00:42:46,499
♪ piano music ♪
502
00:42:59,887 --> 00:43:02,846
"If I must place my trust somewhere,
503
00:43:02,890 --> 00:43:04,848
I would invest it in the psyche
504
00:43:04,892 --> 00:43:06,558
of sensitive observers
505
00:43:06,602 --> 00:43:08,519
who are free of the conventions
506
00:43:08,562 --> 00:43:10,896
of understanding.
507
00:43:10,940 --> 00:43:12,690
I would have no apprehensions
508
00:43:12,733 --> 00:43:14,983
about the use they would make of these pictures
509
00:43:15,027 --> 00:43:17,986
for the needs of their own spirits,
510
00:43:18,030 --> 00:43:21,031
for if there is both need and spirit,
511
00:43:21,075 --> 00:43:24,370
"there is bound to be a real transaction."
512
00:43:49,228 --> 00:43:53,272
How is it to restore a Rothko?
513
00:43:53,316 --> 00:43:55,107
Well...
514
00:43:55,151 --> 00:43:56,025
it's complicated.
515
00:43:56,068 --> 00:43:58,777
I think to restore any work of art
516
00:43:58,821 --> 00:43:59,549
is complicated.
517
00:43:59,593 --> 00:44:05,034
Um, for a non, uh, representational work of art,
518
00:44:05,077 --> 00:44:06,326
an abstract work of art,
519
00:44:06,370 --> 00:44:08,704
it's even more difficult because we don't have
520
00:44:08,748 --> 00:44:12,708
any representational clues to go by.
521
00:44:12,752 --> 00:44:17,337
So, we are very much in need of understanding
522
00:44:17,381 --> 00:44:19,548
the artist's manipulation of material
523
00:44:19,592 --> 00:44:21,091
for visual effect.
524
00:44:21,135 --> 00:44:21,842
And that takes time,
525
00:44:21,886 --> 00:44:24,511
that's not something that you immediately see
526
00:44:24,555 --> 00:44:26,472
when you look at a work of art.
527
00:44:26,515 --> 00:44:28,474
So, in the case of Rothko,
528
00:44:28,517 --> 00:44:30,100
because it's so sophisticated,
529
00:44:30,144 --> 00:44:30,893
it's so many layers,
530
00:44:30,937 --> 00:44:34,980
it's so much building up of paint over time,
531
00:44:35,024 --> 00:44:37,691
um, it takes that amount of time as well
532
00:44:37,735 --> 00:44:39,234
to understand what the artist
533
00:44:39,278 --> 00:44:41,403
is trying to achieve.
534
00:44:41,447 --> 00:44:48,245
♪ Somber music ♪
535
00:46:11,495 --> 00:46:13,912
Do you think that the paintings
536
00:46:13,956 --> 00:46:14,642
we see in Houston,
537
00:46:14,686 --> 00:46:17,833
that we see them now with the light
538
00:46:17,877 --> 00:46:21,045
Rothko wishes?
539
00:46:21,088 --> 00:46:25,174
Um, I think that's a hard question to answer.
540
00:46:25,217 --> 00:46:28,677
I would say that the question of the light
541
00:46:28,721 --> 00:46:31,555
is the overriding question that haunts
542
00:46:31,599 --> 00:46:36,018
those of us concerned with the Rothko Chapel.
543
00:46:36,062 --> 00:46:38,771
It never seemed to be right.
544
00:46:38,814 --> 00:46:41,815
And so, um, it's something
545
00:46:41,859 --> 00:46:44,860
that will always be on our minds
546
00:46:44,904 --> 00:46:49,114
of how to improve it, resolve it, make...
547
00:46:49,158 --> 00:46:51,658
Make peace with it in someway.
548
00:46:51,702 --> 00:46:54,036
Um, I don't... so I can't say
549
00:46:54,080 --> 00:46:55,204
that you're seeing the paintings
550
00:46:55,247 --> 00:46:57,831
exactly the way Rothko would've intended,
551
00:46:57,875 --> 00:47:01,919
but what I can say is that you will have
552
00:47:01,963 --> 00:47:06,006
a very, um, personal and meditative,
553
00:47:06,050 --> 00:47:09,551
I think, experience in the chapel
554
00:47:09,595 --> 00:47:10,636
from the light.
555
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:13,639
Um, the light changes in Houston.
556
00:47:13,683 --> 00:47:14,932
Well, everywhere it changes,
557
00:47:14,976 --> 00:47:17,518
but because it's all natural light,
558
00:47:17,561 --> 00:47:20,562
if you sit there you'll see clouds go by,
559
00:47:20,606 --> 00:47:22,606
you'll feel the change of light,
560
00:47:22,650 --> 00:47:26,362
and the paintings respond in that way.
561
00:47:28,656 --> 00:47:34,578
♪ Somber music ♪
562
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:15,993
"I would like to say to those
563
00:48:16,037 --> 00:48:18,328
who think of my pictures as serene
564
00:48:18,372 --> 00:48:22,041
that I have imprisoned the most utter violence
565
00:48:22,084 --> 00:48:24,752
in every inch of their surface."
566
00:48:24,795 --> 00:48:30,176
♪ somber music ♪
567
00:49:23,187 --> 00:49:26,772
Bryan Robertson describes a moment
568
00:49:26,816 --> 00:49:29,108
in the Whitechapel Gallery with Rothko,
569
00:49:29,151 --> 00:49:31,985
together with Rothko when he left the place.
570
00:49:32,029 --> 00:49:34,988
He said, "My strongest personal memory"
571
00:49:35,032 --> 00:49:37,616
is of leaving the Whitechapel Gallery
572
00:49:37,660 --> 00:49:42,830
with Rothko late one winter afternoon
573
00:49:42,873 --> 00:49:46,834
when the daylight had practically gone.
574
00:49:46,877 --> 00:49:51,130
He asked me to switch all the lights off
575
00:49:51,173 --> 00:49:53,090
everywhere.
576
00:49:53,134 --> 00:49:55,676
And suddenly Rothko's color
577
00:49:55,720 --> 00:49:58,554
made its own light.
578
00:49:58,597 --> 00:50:04,101
The effect once the retina had adjusted itself
579
00:50:04,145 --> 00:50:06,353
was unforgettable.
580
00:50:06,397 --> 00:50:08,731
Smoldering, and blazing,
581
00:50:08,774 --> 00:50:13,902
and glowing softly from the walls.
582
00:50:13,946 --> 00:50:18,073
Color in the darkness.
583
00:50:18,117 --> 00:50:20,200
We stood there a long time
584
00:50:20,244 --> 00:50:24,038
and I wished everyone could have seen the world
585
00:50:24,081 --> 00:50:29,668
Rothko had made in those perfect conditions,
586
00:50:29,712 --> 00:50:33,088
radiating its own energy
587
00:50:33,132 --> 00:50:36,216
and uncorrected by artifice
588
00:50:36,260 --> 00:50:38,469
"or the marketplace."
589
00:50:38,512 --> 00:50:40,848
I think it's wonderful.
590
00:50:48,189 --> 00:50:54,278
♪ Drone music ♪
591
00:51:35,319 --> 00:51:38,737
It was a custom to equate the blackness
592
00:51:38,781 --> 00:51:42,574
and the sharpness of the Rothko Chapel paintings
593
00:51:42,618 --> 00:51:45,953
with the artist's despair.
594
00:51:45,997 --> 00:51:47,621
I never felt that.
595
00:51:47,665 --> 00:51:50,207
I never did, and I still don't.
596
00:51:50,251 --> 00:51:54,044
I truly believe that the paintings...
597
00:51:54,088 --> 00:51:55,087
Well, there are two things.
598
00:51:55,131 --> 00:51:56,338
But I truly believe that the paintings
599
00:51:56,382 --> 00:52:02,177
were a... a major step forward for him, technically.
600
00:52:02,221 --> 00:52:05,013
In eliminating color, the one feature
601
00:52:05,057 --> 00:52:07,224
for which he was best known,
602
00:52:07,268 --> 00:52:09,560
and he had... his classic paintings
603
00:52:09,604 --> 00:52:11,228
he was a master of,
604
00:52:11,272 --> 00:52:12,813
he kind of upped the bar
605
00:52:12,857 --> 00:52:15,941
and went into creating paintings
606
00:52:15,985 --> 00:52:17,651
without a lot of color.
607
00:52:17,695 --> 00:52:20,112
He also was so well-known, as you know,
608
00:52:20,156 --> 00:52:22,197
in his classic work for these wonderful
609
00:52:22,241 --> 00:52:26,118
diaphanous edges around his forms.
610
00:52:26,162 --> 00:52:29,455
In the Chapel paintings he does these very tight,
611
00:52:29,498 --> 00:52:31,874
straight, taped even,
612
00:52:31,917 --> 00:52:34,126
forms, edges.
613
00:52:34,170 --> 00:52:36,795
He's just going into something very different,
614
00:52:36,839 --> 00:52:38,589
and I think that's a very hard,
615
00:52:38,633 --> 00:52:39,319
hard thing to do.
616
00:52:39,362 --> 00:52:40,966
I think it was a natural progression
617
00:52:41,010 --> 00:52:42,801
of where he was going,
618
00:52:42,845 --> 00:52:44,011
but I do not think...
619
00:52:44,055 --> 00:52:46,972
And I wish it would be dispelled forever...
620
00:52:47,016 --> 00:52:48,474
This association with that
621
00:52:48,517 --> 00:52:49,641
with his final death.
622
00:52:49,685 --> 00:52:52,603
I do not think that that...
623
00:52:52,647 --> 00:52:54,521
That makes sense at all.
624
00:52:54,565 --> 00:53:00,696
♪ Drone music ♪
625
00:53:17,505 --> 00:53:20,506
"There is more power in telling little
626
00:53:20,549 --> 00:53:22,966
than in telling all.
627
00:53:23,010 --> 00:53:25,803
Silence is so accurate."
628
00:53:25,846 --> 00:53:26,472
♪
629
00:53:57,128 --> 00:53:58,210
The color of my voice?
630
00:53:58,254 --> 00:53:59,253
What color?
631
00:53:59,297 --> 00:54:00,629
Um, I don't know,
632
00:54:00,673 --> 00:54:04,133
I think dark brown.
633
00:54:04,176 --> 00:54:06,385
His voice was a little softer, I think.
634
00:54:06,429 --> 00:54:07,761
A little, a little rounder
635
00:54:07,805 --> 00:54:08,637
around the edges.
636
00:54:08,681 --> 00:54:11,390
He has a little bit more red in it.
637
00:54:11,434 --> 00:54:12,059
♪
44773
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.