Rothko and Architecture
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ROTHKO AND ARCHITECTURE A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Matthew Palczynski August, 2011 Examining Committee Members: Gerald Silk, Advisory Chair, Professor, Department of Art History Therese Dolan, Professor, Department of Art History Marcia B. Hall, Professor, Department of Art History Michael Taylor, The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art i © Copyright 2011 by Matthew Palczynski ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………………………………………….vi 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………..1 2. SPACE………………………………………………………………………………..26 3. APPROPRIATING ITALY‘S AGGRESSIVE ENVIRONMENTS………………....49 4. EARLY WORKS……………………………………………………………………..94 5. ROTHKO, MIES, & TRANSCENDENCE …………………………………………131 6. ARCHITECTURAL THEMES IN NEW YORK‘S VANGUARD ART CA. 1955- 65…………………………………………………………………………….....156 7. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………...........178 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………299 iii ABSTRACT The overall goal of this dissertation is to identify and examine the neglected aspects of the literature on Mark Rothko‘s 1958-1959 project to make murals for the Four Seasons restaurant (see Figs. 1-12) in the then-newly opened Seagram Building in Manhattan. These include Rothko‘s attempts to merge the mediums of painting and architecture in order to create an antagonistic environment in the restaurant; how his visits to Italy before and during the project reinforced this goal; how a good deal of the figurative paintings from Rothko‘s earliest career anticipated his blend of aggression and architecturally-related themes; the connection between Rothko and Mies van der Rohe, the architect of the building, in regard to the theme of transcendence; and how his experiments with architectural subjects and motifs aligned Rothko with some of the most influential vanguard artists in New York in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Discussions of these topics will suggest that his career-long references to architecture functioned, for him, as something intended to produce discomfort in the viewer. I will show that his acceptance of a lucrative commission to make paintings for a lavish restaurant that might seem at first to suggest pandering to an élite audience had the paradoxical effect of condemning that audience. I intend also to demonstrate that Rothko understood that the project was not merely about making paintings. Instead, for him, it dealt more with the challenge of uniting architecture and painting. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to the members of my committee: Therese Dolan, Marcia Hall, Gerald Silk, and Michael Taylor. Without their assessments and suggestions, this dissertation would not have come together as it did. I also wish to think Tyler School of Art more broadly, from the stellar professors in the History of Art department for providing leadership in the most gracious way, to my students who continue to impress me. I am also indebted to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for providing me with such an excellent place to work while writing. As always, this project owes a good deal to JG for moral support and suggestions. v ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Mark Rothko, Untitled {Black on Maroon} [Seagram Mural Sketch], 1958, Oil on canvas, 90 x 81 ½ inches, Tate Gallery…………...…………………………………....184 Fig. 2: Mark Rothko, Sketch for “Mural No. 6” (Two Openings in Black Over Wine) {Black on Maroon} [Seagram Mural Sketch], 1958, Oil on canvas, 105 x 152 inches, Tate Gallery…………………………………………………………………………….185 Fig. 3: Mark Rothko, Untitled {Sketch for Mural/Black on Maroon} [Seagram Mural Sketch], 1958, Oil on canvas, 105 x 95 inches, Tate Gallery………………….……….186 Fig. 4: Mark Rothko, Untitled {Black on Maroon} [Seagram Mural Sketch], 1959, Oil on canvas, 105 x 90 inches, Tate Gallery………………………………………………….187 Fig. 5: Mark Rothko, Mural, Section 2 {Red on Maroon} [Seagram Mural], 1959, Oil on canvas, 105 x 180 inches, Tate Gallery…………………………………..…………….188 Fig. 6: Mark Rothko, Mural, Section 3 {Black on Maroon} [Seagram Mural], 1959, Oil on canvas, 105 x 180 inches, Tate Gallery……………….…………………………….189 Fig. 7: Mark Rothko, Mural, Section 4 {Red on Maroon} [Seagram Mural], 1959, Oil on canvas, 105 x 94 inches, Tate Gallery………………………………………………….190 Fig. 8: Mark Rothko, Mural, Section 5 {Red on Maroon} [Seagram Mural], 1959, Oil on canvas, 72 x 180, Tate Gallery…………………………………………………………191 Fig. 9: Mark Rothko, Mural, Section 7 {Red on Maroon} [Seagram Mural], 1959, Oil on canvas, 72 x 180 inches, Tate Gallery………………………………………………….192 Fig, 10: Ezra Stoller, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Mies van der Rohe (with Philip Johnson and Kahn and Jacobs), Seagram Building..., 1958, Gelatin silver print, 20 in. x 16 inches, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art…………………………………….193 Fig. 11: Current Plan, Four Seasons Restaurant, Seagram Building, New York. What was called the Grill Room in 1958 is at the top-left, in what is now called the ―Pool Room Terrace‖ or PDR 1 (Private Dining Room 1)…………………………………………..194 Fig. 12: (above) North wall facing 53rd Street and west/entrance wall (adjacent to Pool Room); (below) East and south walls, Four Seasons Restaurant, Seagram Building, New York………………………………………………………………………………….…195 Fig. 13: The Rothko Room, Tate Modern……………………………………………...196 vi Fig. 14: Marcel Duchamp, Mile of String, 1942, temporarily installed on the second floor of the former Whitelaw Reid Mansion, New York, First Papers of Surrealism exhibition…………………………………………………………………………….....197 Fig. 15: Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943, Oil on canvas, 97 1/4 x 238 inches, University of Iowa Museum of Art…………………………………………………………………...198 Fig. 16: Rothko Room, Phillips Collection, Washington……………………………....199 Fig. 17: Leonardo da Vinci, ―Vitruvian Man‖ (The Ideal Proportions of the Human Figure, ca. 1492, Pen and ink with wash over metalpoint on paper, 13.5 x 10 inches, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy……………………………………………….200 Fig. 18: Mark Rothko, pen drawing in Golde’s Composition Sketchbook, 1947-49…...201 Fig. 19: Mark Rothko, Untitled [Nude], 1937/1938, cat. 117, Oil on canvas, 23 7/8 x 18 1/8 inches, National Gallery of Art, Washington………………………………………202 Fig. 20: Section of frieze Dionysiac Mystery Cult, from Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Wall painting, ca. 50 BCE, National Museum, Naples………………………………...203 Fig. 21: Mark Rothko, No. 7/No. 11 {Untitled}, 1949, Oil on canvas, 68 1/8 x 43 ¼ inches National Gallery of Art, Washington…………………………………………………..204 Fig. 22: Fresco wall paintings in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 BCE, Plaster, The Metropolitan Museum of Art…..205 Fig. 23: Detail, Fresco wall paintings in a cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 BCE, Plaster, The Metropolitan Museum of Art……………………………………………………………………………………...206 Fig. 24: Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911, Oil on canvas, 71 1/4 x 7'2 ¼ inches, Museum of Modern Art, New York…………………………………………………...207 Fig. 25: Milton Avery, Girl Writing, 1941, Oil on canvas, 48 x 31 3/4 inches, The Phillips Collection, Washington………………………………………………………………..208 Fig. 26: Mark Rothko, Harvard Mural, Tryptych, Panel I-III, 1962, installation view, Holyoke Center, 1963…………………………………………………………………209 Fig. 27: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Last Supper, ca. 1486, Fresco, 13.1 x 26 ¼ feet, San Marco, Florence……………………………………………………………………….210 Fig. 28: Ambush of Troilus by Achilles, ca. 540 BCE, Tomb of The Bulls, Tarquinia..211 vii Fig. 29: Mark Rothko, No. 5 (Reds), 1961, Oil on canvas, 70 x 63 inches, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin………………………………………………………………………212 Fig. 30: Giotto di Bondone, Death of the Virgin, ca. 1310, Tempera on Panel, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin………………………………………………………………………213 Fig. 31: Giotto di Bondone, Crucifixion, ca. 1315, Tempera on wood, 22.8 x 13 inches, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin…………………………………………………………...214 Fig. 32: Marcel Duchamp, Fresh Widow, 1920, Miniature French window, painted wood frame, and panes of glass covered with black leather, 30 1/2 x 17 5/8 inches, The Museum of Modern Art, New York…………………………………………………..215 Fig. 33: Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23, Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass panels, 9 feet 1 1/4 inches x 69 1/4 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art……………………………..216 Fig. 34: Charles Sheeler, View of New York, 1931, Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 3/8 inches, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston………………………………………………………...217 Fig. 35: Casper David Friedrich, View from the Artist's Studio, Window on the Left, ca. 1805–06, Graphite and sepia on paper; 12 3/8 x 9 1/4 inches, Belvedere, Vienna…..218 Fig. 36: Casper David Friedrich, View from the Artist's Studio, Window on the Right, ca. 1805–06, Graphite and sepia on paper; 12 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches, Belvedere, Vienna…..219 Fig. 37: Hans Hofmann, Autumn Gold, 1957, Oil on canvas, 53 3/4 x 62 x 1 3/4 inches, National Gallery of Art, Washington…………………………………………………220 Fig. 38: Robert Motherwell, Open No. 122 in Scarlet and Blue, 1969, Acrylic and drawing on canvas, 84 x 100 inches, Tate Collection………………………………...221 Fig. 39: Michelangelo, Vestibule, The Laurentian Library, Monastery of San Lorenzo, 1535, Florence, Italy………………………………………………………………….222 Fig. 40: Michelangelo, Vestibule, The Laurentian Library, Monastery of San Lorenzo, 1535, Florence, Italy.…………………………………………………………………223