By John Logan principAL funderS

core funders Premier partner

Welcome major project partners Welcome to the New Zealand By all accounts Rothko was sensitivity and his own unique premiere of John Logan’s a difficult man: intense and style the role of Ken. My huge RED, the fourth play in our intensely private, fiercely thanks to them both. 2011 Territories of the Heart intellectual, serious and totally Big thanks too to our stellar season. The subject of this dedicated to his work. He creative team: director Oliver Tony Award-winning play is said, “I am interested only Driver, set and costume major supporters Mark Rothko – one of the in expressing basic human designer John Parker, lighting most important painters of emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, designer Brad Gledhill (who so post World War II modernism. doom, and so on. And the loved the play when he saw In fact one of Rothko’s works fact that people break down it on Broadway, he begged still holds the record for the and cry when confronted me to let him light it for us!); Proud to be NZ’s Most Awarded Official caterers of Auckland highest priced sale at auction with my pictures shows that Winery and Sponsor of Auckland Theatre Company sound designer Claire Cowan Theatre Company of any post World War II I can communicate those and Paul Pachter for his painter — $US72 million. basic human emotions. The Rothko reproductions. people who weep before my MEDIA partners Mark Rothko was one paintings are having the same So we invite you into Rothko’s of a group of artists, religious experience I had studio – and into one of the loosely labelled Abstract when I painted them”. great minds and talents of Expressionists. Since the 20th century modernism. late nineteenth century Paris Not the easiest character to had been the centre of the recreate on stage then. But Enjoy! Art World, which had been playing difficult artists is not dominated by European strange territory to Michael supporting partners currents. But Rothko and his Hurst, one of our finest actors; colleagues (who included he’s already played Charles bka interactive / BDO Auckland / Canon Willem De Kooning and Goldie and Toulouse Lautrec. Colin McColl M.A.C. Cosmetics / marketing impact / Waiwera Water Jackson Pollock) put paid Joining Michael onstage in his Maidment Theatre / The Edge / Q Theatre to that; they were the first Auckland Theatre Company American artists to receive debut is Elliot Christensen- truly international recognition. Yule – who brings a great DIRECTOR’S NOTES

By John Logan cast Rothko – Michael Hurst Ken – Elliot Christensen-Yule “We have Art that we may not it as closely as we could, and Rothko loved music and the perish from Truth” – Goya. John has managed to make play calls for a sound design creative you feel as if you really are that not only stays true I have worked with Michael Director – Oliver Driver Set & Costume Design – John Parker transported back to the 50s, to the music he loved but Hurst many times throughout hiding in Rothko’s studio, also underscores the story Lighting Design – Brad Gledhill Sound Design – Claire Cowan my career and there was unfolding onstage. nobody else in my mind who eavesdropping on history. Painting Coach and Rothko Reproductions – Paul Pachter Claire Cowan has created could capture Rothko. My You can’t do a play about a soundtrack Rothko would thanks to him for allowing Rothko without seeing his be proud of. production me to bully him into taking on work up on stage and I thank Production Manager – Mark Gosling Technical Manager – Paul Nicoll this role and for working so God for New Zealand artist Thanks also to my Stage Senior Stage Manager – Fern Christie Stage Manager – Gabrielle Rhodes hard with me to create the Paul Pachter, who not only Manager Gabrielle; this is her play you will see tonight. I recreated some of Rothko’s show now and I know it is in Technical Operator – Rochelle Houghton Properties Master – Diana Kovacs saw many young actors while works for us but taught us all the safest of hands. Wardrobe Supervisor – Set Construction – searching for Ken but Elliot Sophie Ham 2 Construct about painting and painters. Finally, my heart felt thanks stood out from his very first Rehearsal Photography – Amber McWilliams ASB Community Trust Emerging Artist This production would not be to Colin McColl for letting audition; there was something what it is if he had not turned me direct this wonderful Apprentice –Jessika Verryt eminently watchable about our rehearsal rooms into an production. It has been an him and luckily he is as hard actual painter's studio. awfully long time since I and fast a worker as both worked for Auckland Theatre Michael and I, which is no RED premiered at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, London (3 December 2009). Michael Grandage, Artistic Director Company but it’s good to mean feat I can assure you. Original Broadway Production Produced by Arielle Tepper Madover, Stephanie P. McClelland, Matthew Byam Shaw, be back. A play stands or falls on its Neal Street Productions, Fox Theatricals, Ruth Hendel/Barbara Whitman, Philip Hagemann/ casting and I could not be Murray Rosenthal and The Donmar Warehouse. happier with my wonderful Oliver Driver little cast. Director AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR HELP WITH THIS PRODUCTION: Linda Tyler, Amber Older, Richard Thomson, Robin Richmond, Corinna Lotz, A World To Win, Richard Jeffery, Cole Jenkins, Working with John Parker International Art Centre, Mark Castle at the French Art Shop, Regina McMenamin at The Four Seasons. for the first time as a director has been an absolute treat. RED is the fourth Auckland Theatre Company production for 2011 and opened on June 2nd. We wanted to take you inside RED is approximately 90 minutes long. Please remember to switch off all mobile phones, pagers and watch alarms. Rothko’s studio, to recreate Auckland Art Gallery full-page ad. Prefer right hand page if possible please).

SYNOPSIS 1950s New York. In Brian Brake the dimly-lit sanctum Lens on the World of the artist’s studio, 1 June to 14 August abstract expressionist free Admission painter Mark Rothko drinks, smokes and works. His project: a series of enormous Auckland Art Gallery red murals to grace Toi o Ta¯maki the walls of a new open daily 10am–5pm restaurant in the Corner Wellesley and Lorne streets Seagram Building. www.aucklandartgallery.com

Into this carefully controlled environment comes Rothko’s new assistant, Ken, bringing with him Chinese takeaways, his own aspirations, and a new perspective on the changing outside world. Layer by layer the foundations of the paintings – and the relationship – are laid. Rothko’s rants and revelations are punctuated and proved by Ken’s insights. The past and future are brought together in the deepening hues that demonstrate the meaning of tragedy for both men. As Rothko’s contemplations on canvas draw near completion, Ken begins to challenge the painter’s assumptions about his assistant and his art. Reading between the rough lines of colour, much is revealed about the messy art of living.

Brian Brake (1927–1988) Monsoon girl from deveLoPed And toured the series: monsoon, 1960, india. gift of By te PAPA mr raymond Wai-man Lau, 2001, te Papa REHEARSALS MARK ROTHKO (1903–1970) By Linda Tyler

The name frame, inspecting it and League qualified him to then moving away. Rothko’s become the art teacher at the Mark Rothko paintings were nearly three Central Academy in Brooklyn, metres in height and over two a parochial school attached is synonymous metres wide, engendering in to a synagogue in 1929. His with Abstract the viewer a sense of being teaching career was to sustain suspended in space and him for the next thirty years. Expressionism, immersed in the experience Rothko’s first solo exhibition at of the colour. “I paint large an American art the aptly-named Opportunity pictures because I want to Gallery in New York was also movement of the create a state of intimacy. A in 1929. Two more shows large picture is an immediate followed in the early years of mid twentieth transaction: it takes you into it.” the Great Depression – one century, which Rothko endured financial in New York and the other deftly shifted the hardship for most of his life. in Portland, Oregon and He was the youngest of four these qualified him for work centre of artistic children born in 1903 to Jakob with the Federal Art Project. Rothkovich, a pharmacist, While his marriage to jeweller influence from They are the symbols of taught at the California School Rothko was caustic in and his wife Anna. As eight Edith Sacher around this man’s primitive fears and his criticism of public art Paris to New York, year old Marcus Rothkowitz, time was not a success, his of Fine Arts in San Francisco. institutions. He had been he emigrated from Dvinsk in weekly salary of $23.50 in motivations, no matter which His daughter Kate, was born included in the Whitney just in time for the Russia to Portland, Oregon the easel-painting division of land or what time… And in 1950 and the family moved Annual, an important public Cold War. in 1913. Seven months later the FPA sustained the couple modern psychology finds them back to New York, where he his father died suddenly, financially. persisting still in our dreams, was mocked by the bohemian gallery survey in 1945, and the ensuing poverty our vernacular, and our art, painters who inhabited the but had little respect for Both in America and abroad, Work at the FPA brought meant that Rothko had to for all the changes in outward lofts of Greenwich Village. the Whitney curators. He Rothko was the most widely him into contact with Adolph get a newspaper delivery conditions of our life.” In 1938 Despite this, his friendship refused to be in the 1947 acclaimed and exhibited Gottlieb, with whom he round to pay his school fees. he received his citizenship with Alfred Barr, Director Annual, saying that he had artist of the New York founded “The Ten”, a group no wish to be shown “next An outstanding student, papers and two years later of the Museum of Modern School. Soaking his huge of Expressionist artists who to mediocrity”. In 1952 he graduated high school officially shortened his name to Art, paid off hugely when vertical format canvases with exhibited regularly together aged seventeen, and won a Rothko. Soon after he divorced he vetoed the sale of two thinned oil paint applied in in New York, and even once Barr persuaded the architect scholarship to Yale, which Edith and married Mary Alice paintings to the Whitney, parallel rectangular blocks in Paris. His painting shifted Philip Johnson to donate a was offered as a loan rather (Mell) Beistle, a children’s book which he referred to privately with softened edges – bright from dreamy Surrealist Rothko painting to MOMA. than a grant because of illustrator ten years his junior. as “a junkshop”. That year, oranges, yellows, reds and landscape themes to images But the critical endorsement anti-Semitism. he also fell out with Dorothy magenta – he created whole of idealised Greek gods At the end of WW2, Peggy of his work didn’t leverage into Miller, curator of Fifteen environments of colour. Undeterred, he paid his way and goddesses and archaic Guggenheim presented sales, and financial pressures Americans, a group exhibition Painting on a huge scale, he through college, but dropped symbols. He explained this Rothko’s recent work in a led him to return to full-time at the Museum of Modern Art overwhelmed his viewers, out in 1923 after only two change in subject matter solo show at her ‘Art of This teaching. After a stint at Tulane by sending her many more who were used to physically years and found work in the thus: “Greek myths are the Century Gallery’. When that University in New Orleans, the paintings than those she had controlling their encounters garment district in New York eternal symbols to which gallery closed, Betty Parsons Rothko’s returned permanently chosen, and interfering with with art by walking up to as a pattern cutter. Painting we must fall back to express became his New York dealer to New York where a son, the installation of the works. something encased in a classes at the Art Students’ basic psychological ideas. while he lived in California and Christopher, was born in 1963. His relationships were better Seagram Murals, Rothko Room — Seven Murals, 1958 Interior Chiba-Ken, Japan, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art with West Coast public art were reminiscent of the Biennale with Mark Tobey in in that room” – the luxury drinking heavily and taking black and grey canvases with museums: the San Francisco watercolours which he had 1958 fed his ambition, and Four Seasons restaurant. In both barbiturates and anti- stark white borders. Yet even Museum of Art and the painted in the 1930s, and he three years later a full-scale the end, he decided to return depressants. Friends of the these successes could not Santa Barbara Museum had described this classic style retrospective of Rothko’s work Seagram’s money and keep Rothko’s recall the drunken appease his dissatisfaction shown his works from the as “the simple expression was curated at the Museum the paintings himself on the brawling that preceded his with life. Edward Lucie-Smith late 1940s which were based of complex thought”. While of Modern Art. Three grounds that the setting was desertion of his wife on on images of the New York his reputation and his challenging commissions too pretentious for his work. New Year’s Day in 1969. described his death, which subway — paintings he later earning power grew steadily to paint murals followed. In The creation of his seemingly was achieved by slashing the Subsequent commissions referred to as “images from throughout the 1950s, 1958, his forty red and brown tranquil paintings had come at veins inside the crooks of his for murals from Harvard a tableau vivant of human Rothko’s competitiveness paintings in three series for huge cost. University and the St Thomas own arms on 25 February incommunicability”. soured old friendships and he the Mies van der Rohe and chapel in Houston meant that The unhappy circumstances 1970, as “a messy end to earned a reputation as self- Philip Johnson-designed By 1947 the Surrealistic he no longer had financial of the last year of his life an intolerably miserable centred, temperamental and Seagram Building on Park seascapes, subway scenes worries. His new threat resulted in radical departures ambitious. Barnett Newman Avenue in New York were existence”. and Greek myths disappeared was the beginnings of Pop in Rothko’s art. His doctor had was incensed when Rothko conceived, not as individual and Rothko launched what Art, whose practitioners he told him not to work on any claimed that he had taught works, but as a coordinated would become known as his declared were “charlatans and surface larger than a yard in him how to paint, and Jackson installation complementary mature style: abstractions opportunists…who are out height, so he turned to work Pollock was offended by to the vertical architectural with floating blocks of pure features of the interior. He to murder us”. In the spring on paper, producing a series Research Partner with Rothko’s dismissal of Auckland Theatre Company colour which lifted viewers later claimed that his aim with of 1968 he was diagnosed of dazzling acrylics. Dividing Blue Poles during a private away from the sights and the Seagram murals was to with an aortic aneurysm, the picture into two unequal studio visit. sounds of modern life into a paint “something that will which exacerbated his already rectangular areas of uniformly Linda Tyler is the Director at meditative space. The thinly- Selection as the American ruin the appetite of every morbid depression and made luminous colour, he produced the Centre for New Zealand painted, radiant surfaces representative at the Venice son-of-a-bitch who ever eats him impotent. He began a separate series of small Art Research and Discovery. CAST

Directing credits include GO GIRLS and THE MICHAEL CABARET, SHE STOOPS ELLIOT INSATIABLE MOON. TO CONQUER, HAMLET, HURST CHRISTENSEN-YULE While a student at Northcote MACBETH, KING LEAR, College, Elliot played The In a career spanning more than TWELFTH NIGHT, THE Since achieving New Fool in KING LEAR, Vladimir three decades, Michael has THREEPENNY OPERA, Zealand’s top Scholarship in WAITING FOR GODOT, become one of New Zealand’s LOOT and HAPPY DAYS. award for Drama in 2006, and York in HENRY VI, leading actors and directors. He has also directed many Elliot has gone on to build for which he received the His theatre credits include episodes of the US television a respectable resumé on Dymocks Award for Special AMADEUS, Riff-Raff in THE series HERCULES — THE both stage and screen. As Individual Performance at the ROCKY HORROR SHOW LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, Posner for the Peach Theatre 2006 National Sheila Winn and Widow Twankey in his XENA — WARRIOR Company production of THE Shakespeare Festival. own version of ALADDIN. PRINCESS, SPARTACUS HISTORY BOYS in 2009, he His musical roles include was fortunate to work with, — BLOOD AND SAND and This is Elliot’s first production Koko in THE MIKADO, Judge and learn from, some of SPARTACUS — GODS OF with Auckland Theatre Turpin in SWEENEY TODD, New Zealand’s most talented THE ARENA as well as the Company, and he is both Macheath and Tiger Brown in performers including George NZ feature film JUBILEE. humbled and amazed by the THE THREEPENNY OPERA, Henare, Annie Whittle and opportunity to work with such King Herod in JESUS CHRIST Michael was a founding Bruce Phillips. titans as Oliver Driver and SUPERSTAR and the Emcee member of Auckland’s A member of The Outfit Michael Hurst. in three productions of Watershed Theatre in 1990, Theatre Company, Elliott CABARET. and is now a patron of both Q Theatre and TAPAC (the has performed twice in their Michael is also renowned Auckland Performing Arts production of LITTLE WHITE for his interpretations of Centre), a Trustee of the MEN: for the Auckland Fringe Shakespeare, including AUSA Outdoor Shakespeare Festival in 2009, and again HAMLET, MACBETH, Trust, a Trustee and member for The Basement Theatre RICHARD III, Touchstone of the Advisory Council of in 2010. in AS YOU LIKE IT and The The Actors’ Program, a New On screen, Elliot has played Fool in KING LEAR. In 1993 Zealand Arts Laureate and an a diverse range of characters Michael was cast in the role of Officer of the New Zealand including Young Wolf in Iolaus and co-starred in the US Order of Merit (ONZM). He OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE, television series HERCULES is a proud member of the NZ Jed in THIS IS NOT MY LIFE, — THE LEGENDARY Actors Equity. and Tourette’s syndrome JOURNEYS, which ran for patient Angus Phelps in eight years and played to a SHORTLAND STREET, world-wide audience. alongside roles in both the newly created current affairs respected in the world of arts show FRONTSEAT at TVNZ. ceramics as he is in set design. He has a long history of As host of FRONTSEAT for over designing for Auckland Theatre eighty episodes he interviewed Company. many of New Zealand’s leading artists and politicians and filed His set designs include MARY creative stories from around the country STUART, STEPPING OUT, and overseas. Oliver then went THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING on to run the independent music EARNEST, THE WIFE WHO team channel ALT TV before becoming SPOKE JAPANESE IN HER the host of Sunrise for TV3. SLEEP, THE 25TH ANNUAL Throughout this time he PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING continued to both direct and star BEE, END OF THE RAINBOW, in theatre including such shows SWEET CHARITY, DOUBT, as THE GOAT, TWELFTH MUM’S CHOIR, TAKING OFF, JOHN LOGAN OLIVER DRIVER NIGHT, ASSASSINS, EQUUS, CALIGULA, THE BRAD GLEDHILL THOM PAIN, BACK-STORY, BACH, MIDDLE AGE SPREAD, PLAYWRIGHT DIRECTOR BETRAYAL, RABBIT, GLIDE THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, LIGHTING DESIGNER John Logan is an American Oliver started out in improv and TIME, BASH, REUBEN NOISES OFF, WAITING FOR “Rothko liked to have control of screenwriter, playwright and film before being cast in the TV2 GUTHRIE, BASED ON GODOT, ROSENCRANTZ AND the environment his painting's film producer. His play RED drama CITY LIFE. His work on AUCKLAND and BARE. GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD existed in, and this included about artist Mark Rothko, the show won him the award and INTO THE WOODS. light, so he boarded up all the Oliver has appeared in numerous first produced by the Donmar for best actor at the NZ Film and windows in his studio as to films including SNAKESKIN, Other works include THE Warehouse, transferred to TV Awards and a core cast role remove any natural light to BLACK SHEEP and UNDER SCENE, CREDITORS, IL Broadway, where it received in SHORTLAND STREET. Oliver create a place to paint. This is THE MOUNTAIN. He has a TROVATORE, TRUE WEST, six Tony Awards in 2010 began training as a theatre what I have based my design regular radio show on Newstalk THE THREEPENNY OPERA, including Best Play. Logan director while still working on upon. Using practical lamps ZB and will next be directing CHESS, ROMEO AND wrote ANY GIVEN SUNDAY SHORTLAND STREET and at as a starting point, I have built ONLY CHILD for Silo Theatre. JULIET, TITUS ANDRONICUS, and the television movie the end of his two year contract TWELFTH NIGHT, F.I.L.T.H, images around darkness letting RKO 281, before gaining an went to work full time at ASSASSINS, WAIORA, the work eb and flow. There is Academy Award nomination Auckland Theatre Company. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, a lot of word play around light for co-writing the Best While Associate Director and DECADENCE, ON THE and what it meant to Rothko, I Picture-winner, GLADIATOR, then Acting Artistic Director of RAZZLE, CHICAGO, THE have taken this as a language to in 2000. He gained another the ATC, Oliver directed many MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, start a conversation with space nomination for writing 2004’s productions including THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, COSI creating pictures within pictures.” THE AVIATOR. Other notable VAGINA MONOLOGUES, THE FAN TUTTE, EVITA and TRASH films written by Logan include Brad designs and creates BLUE ROOM and LADIES TO FASHION. STAR TREK: NEMESIS, THE lighting and video imagery NIGHT and starred in SERIAL TIME MACHINE, THE LAST for theatre and events KILLERS, ROSENCRANTZ John has also designed for SAMURAI, and Tim Burton— with the likes of Auckland AND GUILDENSTERN ARE The Louis Vuitton Ball and The helmed musical, SWEENEY Theatre Company, Nightsong DEAD, THE ROCKY HORROR America’s Cup Ball, Bendon’s TODD: THE DEMON BARBER Productions and Theatre SHOW and CALIGULA. Next To Nothing, Bellsouth OF FLEET STREET. Other Pharaohs, Precious Legacy and Stampede, Silo Theatre, works include the screenplay In his role as Associate Director Peru: Gold and Sacrifice for the TAPAC, Tempo and Spotlight adaptation of the vampire he established the Audience Auckland Museum. He is also Systems. He also designs and novel, THE PASSAGE and Development programmes JOHN PARKER the recipient of a Waitakere City lectures on the Performance HBO’s series pilot, THE ‘2econd Unit’, the ‘Literary Unit’, Millennium Medal for services Technology Programme MIRACULOUS YEAR. the ‘Playreading Series’, the SET & COSTUME to the Community. for UNITEC Department of ‘Industry Training Programme’, DESIGNER Performing and Screen Arts. the ‘Education Unit’ and the ATC production designs include John is an award winning ‘ATC Ambassador Programme’. WELL HUNG, STEPPING OUT, Oliver left ATC in 2004 to host set designer and is as well— International Art Centre, (4) Parnell, Auckland

“ART’S BUYING- AND- SELLING THE WIFE WHO SPOKE Recent credits include last 16 years. Last month often represent a stable JAPANESE IN HER SLEEP, CLAIRE COWAN WAITANGI – WHAT REALLY MARKET, we offered Les Deux Amies of contemporary artists. THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, SOUND DESIGNER HAPPENED (TV1), PAPER (The Two Friends), a modern They maintain a mutually YOUNG & HUNGRY FESTIVAL SKY and CARNIVAL OF masterpiece, by Dame Louise beneficial relationship with the “The challenge in creating the IS INDEED 09, WHO NEEDS SLEEP SOULS (Auckland Festival), Henderson (1902-1994). This artist, exhibiting their works perfect musical landscape for ANYWAY?, THE FEMALE OF MOONFISHING (Prod. Heather work received significant internationally at art fairs, RED was in understanding BIG THE SPECIES, DESIGN FOR Henson, NY), EGO (HERE Arts interest and finally sold for working with museums and Rothko’s character at any LIVING, MY NAME IS GARY Centre, NY) and THE KEEPERS $102,000, double the previous managing the artist's long given moment he decides to BUSINESS” COOPER, THE TUTOR, THE (Thread Theatre Co.). auction record for the artist. term career. Dealers tread a put a record on, or take one SHAPE OF THINGS, THE By Richard Thomson difficult path supporting the off. It becomes apparent in TALENTED MR RIPLEY, In 2010 the New Zealand artist’s creative integrity while the play that classical music PLAY 2 and PLAY 2.03. art market turned over encouraging them to produce is both a comfort and an Having spent over a quarter approximately $20 million at commercially viable work. Other designs include ‘360’ inspiration for Rothko. Rothko of a century involved in the auction. On a global scale This dichotomy is examined for the Wellington International was a Mozart and Schubert New Zealand and international this seems inconsequential by John Logan within the text Arts Festival, THE LOVER, fan, I’ve chosen to include art market, I have witnessed SEXY RECESSION CABARET when compared with the of RED. some of his favourites and many changes. In the early (TAPAC), PRIME CUTS 09 New York art market, which expand on that with music 80s, the International Art Once ownership of the (Tempo), THE CUT (Silo), alone turned over $1.3 billion featuring the most soulful of Centre held three fine art work has shifted from the HEAD (AK07 + Wellington in the same period. But while melodies and instruments, auctions a year. In 2010 we artist to the buyer, the most Season), ALADDIN (AK03), the New Zealand art market is focusing on strings and held eight. common avenue for resale is MEASURE FOR MEASURE relatively small, it represents sparser piano works.” a specialist art auction house (Unitec), MINIATURES (Malia As a fine art auctioneer, an important part of our that operates in the secondary Johnston), LASHINGS OF Claire has a classical recent highlights include national identity and heritage. art market. Art auctioneers act WHIPPED CREAM, KNOCK background which informs an oil painting by Charles On a personal level, artworks as a conduit between vendors KNOCK TURN (Chris Jannides) her work as a composer for Frederick Goldie (1870-1947), challenge us, represent a and buyers. and CORAM BOY (Unitec). film, theatre and television. titled ‘Forty Winks’ a portrait connection to our past and Her compositions have been of Rutene te Uamairangi, Vendors sell for a variety His works for the theatre/ enhance our quality of life. performed throughout a Kingite Warrior of Taupo. of reasons, including tiring dance genre included creating New Zealand, Japan, UK, On the night of the auction In New Zealand the art of an art work, cashing up, work for UNITEC with USA and Australia. She also no less than six parties had market is comprised of refocusing their collections Shona McCullough, Michael performs as a cellist in various registered serious interest in both primary and secondary Parmenter, Michael Hurst, or disposing of an unwanted ensembles including the alt- the painting. Over 15 tense markets. In the primary Leo Gene Peters, Cathy inherited work. It is country band Toad, and the minutes I took some 70 bids market, an artist either sells Downes, Malia Johnston, impossible to generalise Blackbird Ensemble (which resulting in a final sale price of directly to the public or has Simon Ellis, Daniel Belton, about a typical profile of these she is the director). $573,000, the highest price an arrangement with a dealer Raewyn Hill, Katie Burton vendors as they come from a (referred to as the “enemy” and Chris Jannides. paid for a single painting at a cross section of society and New Zealand auction in the by Rothko in RED). Dealers socio-economic groups. All to be sold by auction 14th July, (3) images (1) to (4): (1) Charles F Goldie Serenity — Harata Rewiri Tarapata, Nga Puhi, Auckland 1904 Oil on canvas 55.5 x 47.9 (2) Milan Mrkusich Centre with Three Elements Oil on canvas (3) Colin McCahon Kauri Oil on board 76 x 55 (4) Frances Hodgkins Wheelwright, Solva Gouache on paper 41 x 53.5 Signed & dated 1941

(1) (2) Auctioneers endeavour to appreciation of the aesthetic Auctions can be emotionally Early and Rare’ New Zealand present the best possible value of the artwork, as charged as buyers compete paintings to coincide with the works to increasingly discerning part of a collection, fashion, for coveted art works. Within fortieth anniversary of the collectors as well as the buying investment and/or emotion. the New Zealand psyche, International Art Centre. This public. Hence not all works Unlike vendors it is possible auctions have become an sale includes fine examples presented to auctioneers will to generalise about the profile increasingly common method by renowned artists such be offered for sale. of a typical buyer. They of exchange. Anecdotal as Colin McCahon, Charles have disposable income and evidence suggests that as Frederick Goldie, Milan Works are they generally have some the number of art auctions Mrkusich, Frances Hodgkins, selected appreciation for the skill has increased in recent Evelyn Page and Sydney involved in creating the work, years, the number of dealer Lough Thompson. The auction will be held on Thursday according to a the artist’s practice or the galleries who specialised in 14th July. number of subject matter. the secondary market has different factors Auctions and individual works significantly decreased. are promoted via catalogues Having spent over quarter including: (both in hardcopy and online). Richard Thomson is a Director of of a century involved in art International Art Centre in Parnell, — Artist’s reputation Social media is increasingly auctions, I have seen many Auckland. being used to promote art — Technique highs and lows of the market. www.internationalartcentre.co.nz works and artists. Like many After countless auctions and — Subject matter industries, the advent of the hours spent sourcing and — Condition internet has globalised the researching art works, not a — Demand market with international day goes by without a new buyers active in New Zealand. discovery. The auction room Occasionally auction houses I had the pleasure of is an ever-changing market compete for works which are auctioning a postcard-size place, in which art works exemplary in all of the above watercolour by old English change hands ready to be factors. But in the majority of master JMW Turner in 2006. cases, vendors rely on the enjoyed by a new collector. This work garnered interest track record of the auction As Rothko says in RED, from around the globe and house and their relationship “A picture lives by ultimately sold to an English with it. companionship.” collector for $176,000 — a Buyers purchase for a staggering $3,000 per square I am currently cataloguing variety of reasons, including centimetre. a major sale of ‘Important, (4) His actual studio was in an old, As a further method of SET & voluminous indoor basketball enhancing the movement court, but he was always and depth of field of his work costume aware of creating special in the best way, he always spaces, chapels or planned controlled the level of the architectural environments to artificial light in his studio. DESIGNs show his work off to the best By John Parker advantage. We want to place the audience at the heart of the Within the large studio, Rothko creative process, in the very Red is a subtle used to construct timber moment where the private colour — it can be frame partitions defining insights and decisions and self “scarlet, crimson, the space his work would doubts of the artist are being eventually be displayed in, and formulated. The audience is so plum, mulberry, he would cover the frames present and intimately involved with stapled brown paper. My in the conception that there is magenta, set is a set within a set. He no element of voyeurism from also made scale models out of burgundy, a safe distance. The artwork cardboard, in much the same being created is the fourth wall salmon, carmine, way a theatre designer does. at the front of the stage. The carnelian or coral.” The costumes reference audience will be part of the period photographs, with fluidity and the smell of paint. For the set design concept, allowances for authentic 1959 Much of the problem-solving we want to explore the accuracies that also have of the design has been around emotional nature of colour and modern overtones. The hues the practical business required its perception and abstraction. are within a limited colour by the text. The audience will palette suggested by the While there is no conscious be in on the actual building Manila paper stapled to the of stretcher frames and their intention of replicating false walls. In this way, the covering with canvas, as well Rothko’s studio exactly in a colour and all its implications as the alchemy of the mixing ‘living museum’ way, we are is reserved totally for the art of the nuanced, elusive red. suggesting the ambience of being created and discussed in his functioning creative space. the play. —in this case spiritual experiences. “Anybody who will eat that MARK “These are paintings that kind of food for those kind uneven horizontal seem to exist on the skin of prices will never look at a blocks of red and inside an eyelid,” writes The painting of mine.” (The four ROTHKO Guardian’s Jonathan Jones. paintings hang in a dedicated pink on a gold “They are what you imagine space at the Tate Modern in STILL background. might be the last lights, the London). final flickers of colour that What followed is all part of an The 1961 work register in a mind closing immortal story, and Rothko’s ROCKS down.” fears about the chattering was originally classes would not be Rothko agreed in the NEW YORK bought directly diminished in this current day. late 1950s to a lucrative It’s Spring in New York and By Sweeney Vesty from the artist by commission to paint huge while the art auctions bloom a private collector murals for the Four Seasons the Four Seasons continues A “lost” painting restaurant in the Seagram to pull in the city’s elite. In and had not been building in New York, at the his column in The New York by Mark Rothko epicentre of New York society, Observer, the restaurant’s seen since 1965. celebrity, money, and power. co-owner and maître d’, the sold at Christies irrepressible Julian Niccolini It was thought After a lifetime spent as an chronicles the champagne, in New York unknown, unsuccessful artist, that Rothko caviar and lobster he serves in May for had created Rothko had the chance to Martha Stewart, Henry US$33.5M, well decorate the most expensive Kissinger, Anna Wintour, 835 works. restaurant in New York. The Bill Clinton, George Soros, above the pre- outsider in him saw it as an Jon Hunstman and other Now, plus one. opportunity for subversion. supernovas. Drunken diners sale estimate He told Harper’s Magazine and angry royalty are the order of $18–22M, In a twist that Rothko would editor John Fischer the of the day. Life—and lunch have found distasteful, the restaurant was “a place —go on. And Mark Rothko is injecting an top lot at Christies was a where the richest bastards in still of the moment. unexpected shot work by Andy Warhol. New York will come to feed The 1963–64 ‘Self-Portrait,’ of and show off”. of excitement four photo-booth-strip images of Warhol in different shades “I hope to ruin the appetite of into the current of blue, fetched $38.4m after every son of a bitch who ever auction season. a torturous (some dealers said eats in that room,” Rothko tedious) bidding war. is said to have gloated, with The abstract paintings that will make diners Where Warhol’s pop art “feel that they are trapped in a expressionist reflects the Zeitgeist— room where all the doors and Hollywood royalty, the work, “Untitled windows are bricked up”. iconography of Campbells and New York-based art lovers Jane No. 17”, features Coke or a dollar bill—Rothko But after Rothko visited the Vesty and Brian Sweeney run a uses abstract forms and restaurant he backed out of global strategic communications Rothko’s signature consultancy. Jane Vesty was on the © Jennifer Calais Smith, The Four Seasons, www.fourseasonsrestaurant.com colour to evoke the deepest the project, and repaid his Board of the ATC from July 2004 till flat colour fields human emotions or even advance, reportedly saying, September 2006. PAINTING ON THE EDGE (1) Mark Rothko Henri Matisse’s influence view of Rothko. The high wire on Rothko has always act that walks the edge – the has been a interested me and he must edge of the colour, the edge have known the seminal of the canvas, the edge of the looming presence painting Open Window at light, the edge of sanity – is in Robin Collioure, painted in 1905, omnipresent in the works that introduced Fauvism to a of both artists. Quavering Richmond’s work wary world. Dominated as it is bands of line bleed into areas for many years. by two strong, fuzzy, vertical of saturated colour that laps rectangles and lifted by a and drags into itself. There is (2) (3) She reviews the horizon glimpsed through the a dynamic balance of what major exhibition eponymous open window, seems hardly there against heroes. And it terminally taxed In the last room, the Black on Published with permission it came to mind forcefully in strong, forceful shapes. Rothko’s allergy to the elitist Grey paintings from 1970 – from A WORLD TO WIN (www.aworldtwin.net) of his paintings at the crepuscular rooms of a There is a joy in this, and who New Yorkers who would the year of his suicide – are a and Robin Richmond dimmed–down, hushed Tate would have thought joy could have dined under these huge, revelation. These supposedly www.staff.city.ac.uk/hampton/ Tate Modern. Modern. come from a Rothko show? smouldering canvases. minimalist paintings have richmond/index.htm His work requires a patient an inner glow where “grey” First published on September 27, 2008. It is probably strange and He paid back his advance for eye. It does not deliver the meets “black” that is even heretical to posit an these works, never delivered As a painter, one’s influences immediate punch of Matisse. transcendent. Thinking about advocate of painting who to our eternal gratitude, kept are unstable and sometimes He is admittedly often the “moon walk” two years requires art to be “decorative” them, and now they belong to inexplicable, viewed through demanding company, but before, these pictures seem (a dirty word surely even from the world of museum goers, the lens of time. For example, this is a show that Rothko’s to gaze out into the empty Matisse?) and “comfortable not ladies who lunch. Eight for the life of me I cannot work richly deserves. It is space of the universe from like a good armchair” against are now culled from the Tate remember anymore why I beautifully hung, beautifully lit, the brightly–lit surface of an austere apostle of art collection; the others are a once loved Francis Bacon so and beautifully argued. the moon. I think these ARE whose work, in Rothko’s selection from the Kawamura passionately. I now find him horizons. His is a truly human words is about “the human The central gallery gathers Memorial Museum and the mannered, repetitive and presence in a world empty of drama” and the “tragic”. In a together many of the 30 National Museum of Art in arbitrary. But there has been humans. He may have lived simplistic, reductionist way paintings that Rothko Washington. These works a reproduction of one Rothko on the edge – and maybe this one tends to think about painted for the Four Seasons are ravishing. The eye loses or another in my studio since is the stuff of myth – but here Matisse as the incarnation of restaurant in the Seagram focus and one’s gaze melts I first started painting. So in this final gallery we see a an Unbearable Lightness of building in New York. This into the canvases, only I went to Tate Modern in a beautifully crafted and subtly Being and Rothko as a High ill–fated commission was to be “awoken” by small, state of apprehension (might it calibrated balance of emotion Priest of the Dark. originally only meant to dangerous brush fires where (1) Mark Rothko Sketch for “Mural No.4” let me down?) and exhilaration and thought. This is the show (might it give me a welcome consist of nine paintings. Its one colour meets another. (Orange on Maroon) 1958 But you come away from this of the year. (2) Mark Rothko Mural, Section 3 push?). huge ambition makes one (Black on Maroon) 1959 breathtaking show at Tate think of Michelangelo and the (3) Mark Rothko Untitled Modern with a very different (Black on Grey) 1969/70 Sistina — another of Rothko’s SILO THEATRE centrepoint Circa Downstage fortune What’s on THE BROTHERS SIZE theatre Theatre Theatre Theatre By Tarell Alvin McCraney Palmerston North Wellington Wellington Dunedin Herald Theatre FLIPSIDE MEET THE CHURCHILLS C’MON BLACK! THE TUTOR 27 May – 18 Jun in theatres By Ken Duncum By Paul Baker By Roger Hall By Dave Armstrong Backed by live drumming 28 May – 2 Jul 17 Jun – 16 Jul 8 Jun – 2 Jul 8 – 30 Jul and a score which mashes An epic yarn scripted by Randolph Churchill is holding John Sellars is a self-made up soul, hip-hop and R&B, Not simply a play about around the Ken Duncum twelve years a party to celebrate the rugby, C’MON BLACK! millionaire who figures few plays move with such ago based on real events, 88th birthday of his admired that if money can’t buy a distinctive beat. Folding cements itself as a poignant FLIPSIDE is the dramatic but estranged father, Sir happiness, at least it can together slangy vernacular snapshot of our history, story of the Rose Noelle’s Winston. Dr Jenkins, keep his kid in line. Nathan with bursts of glorious identity and maturity as a country? crew and their heroic assistant to Randolph, is a smart-mouthed fifteen- heartfelt poetry, McCraney’s nation. Leaving behind his struggle for survival on the jumps on the opportunity to year-old who’s just been play tests the fraternal ties of beloved cows (and wife), Pacific Ocean following its pursue his own agenda and expelled from his third two brothers when ex-con Dickie’s trip is a voyage Auckland capsize in 1989. The story forms a surprising bond with school this year. When Elegba shows up with his of discovery where he layers include existentialism, the wily Winston. Secrets John hires a washed-out, Theatre own claims of brotherhood. encounters the realities of human spirit, relationships, are revealed, resentments poverty, racism and the big Daihatsu driving hippy Company purpose and priorities. released and new world beyond the paddock to save Nathan’s Maths understandings formed, ON THE UPSIDE-DOWN OF ATC YOUNG & HUNGRY as he heads to the Rugby grades, three opposing in this fresh and funny World Cup in South Africa to mindsets go head-to-head in THE WORLD FESTIVAL OF NEW THEATRE Bats Theatre perspective on an iconic and watch the All Blacks take on a comedy of (bad) manners, By Arthur Meek IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE Wellington larger-than-life family. the world. modern education and YOUNG & HUNGRY ARTS TRUST parenthood. Concert Chamber SHEEP Auckland Town Hall THE BASEMENT By Arthur Meek 30 Jun – 16 July 23 Jul – 6 Aug Court 25 May – 11 Jun A crippled English woman Book: 09 309 3395 Theatre arrives in a savage land 24 young actors perform A girl and her dream face Christchurch charged with civilising seven short snapshots opposition from an unlikely the natives and, instead, linked by family and the FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE mob in the absurdist discovers the key to her journey of wool from SAME DRESS liberation. Ann Martin came black comedy COW by sheep’s back to wearable By Alan Ball Jo Randerson; a slacker product. Starting in a to New Zealand in 1841, the Aurora Centre young wife of New Zealand’s flat is torn apart by the Canterbury whorehouse 14 – 23 Jul first chief justice. Intrepid, wild animals within in the in 1862, and ending intelligent and possessing a thriller TIGERPLAY by Gary in Christchurch in the From the writer of great sense of humour, she Henderson; and Auckland is aftermath of the 2011 AMERICAN BEAUTY, SIX disregarded her personal under threat by the undead earthquake, SHEEP FEET UNDER and TRUE BLOOD, comes this superb disability, set about learning in the apocalyptic zombie addresses the issue of comedy that never loses Te Reo, established a adventure DISORDER by an increasingly complex To find out what else is going its charming spirit. Five makeshift hospital for Maori Thomas Sainsbury. relationship between on in Auckland be sure to read bridesmaids hide out during on the beach at Judges Bay technology and biology. the latest copy of the reception of an overblown and dared to dream of all that Southern wedding to discover was possible in this brave that they have more in new world. common than just a hideous dress. production supplier: auckland theatre company Artistic Director — Colin McColl General Manager — Lester McGrath Creative Development & Education Manager — Lynne Cardy Literary Manager— Philippa Campbell Youth Arts Co-ordinator — Amber McWilliams Participation Co-ordinator — Amo Ieriko Associate Director Production — Mark Gosling Senior Stage Manager — Fern Christie Technical Manager — Paul Nicoll From design services and construction to Marketing & Communications Manager — Michael Adams delivery and installation, 2 Construct is an Partnerships Manager — Ticketing & Sales Manager — excellent choice for the specialized needs Anna Connell Anna Nuria Francino of television, trade shows and theatre. Marketing Assistant — Rachel Chin Visit: www.2construct.co.nz Ticketing & Sales Representative — Lisa Sorensen Business Manager — Kathy Russell Finance Officer — Kerry Tomlin Receptionist — Sue East

BEAUTY & PRODUCT SPONSORS: AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair — Gordon Moller ONZM, Anne Hinton QC, Dayle Mace MNZM, Scott Kerse, Patricia Watson

ATC patrons ATC’s 2011 supporting M.A.C. Cosmetics offer a large selection of makeup, skin care products and nail care Margaret Anderson Len and Heather Jury acts thus far... items. Visit Smith & Caughey’s, St Lukes or The Chancery. John Barnett Ross and Paulette Laidlaw Our Standing Ovation Mark and Louise Binns Hillary Liddell and Andrew Supporters Mary Brook MacIntosh Betsy and Michael Benjamin Adrian Burr and Peter Tatham Chris and Dayle Mace Jenny Smith Peter Macky and Michael Best Robin and Erika Congreve Our Curtain Call Supporters Paul and Barbie Cook Laurie Matthews and Koen Boons Rob Nicoll Trevor and Jan Farmer Jackie and Philip Mills Sandy Bulmer D’Aguiar:hair.skin.nails Antonia Fisher and Stuart Grieve Denver and Prue Olde Christine Campbell 173 Symonds Street, Newton, Auckland Brian Keene www.daguiar.co.nz Stephen and Virginia Fisher Maria Renhart Brenda Levinsohn Cameron Fleming Geoff and Fran Ricketts Michael Friedlander Mike Smith and Dale D’Rose Our Take A Bow Supporters Dame Jenny Gibbs Philippa Smith-Lambert and Norma Journeaux Michael and Stephanie Gowan Chris Lambert Pip Meadowcroft Lady Tait Heather Simpson Ross and Josephine Green Kit Toogood and Pip Muir Rosemary Langham John and Sue Haigh Simon Vannini and Anita Killeen Ewan and Jenny Price Rod and Penny Hansen Ted van Arkel James Wallace Anne and Peter Hinton Sandra Greenfield Evan and Katie Williams Michael and Rosie Horton Jeff Mauk The French Art Shop is a cross between a chemist shop and a lollie shop for artists. All Peter and Sally Jackson John and Barbara Lindsay the right medicines for the greatest of artistic John Salmon and Susan Adams urges: paints, easels, brushes and canvas. Richard and Shane Compton 33 Ponsonby Road, Auckland Visit: www.thefrenchartshop.co.nz

For more information about how you can support Auckland Theatre Company visit www.atc.co.nz/ Partnerships or call Anna Connell, 09 309 0390 ext. 272 the Season of

STARRING: Theresa Healey • Alison Quigan • rima te wiata • Hera Dunleavy Jennifer Ludlam • Kate-Louise Elliott • catherine downes

10–20august 26–27august 01–03september The Civic, The Edge Founders Theatre Baycourt Theatre Auckland anga Leukemia and Blood Foundation Hamilton taur Charity Preview, August 11. Book: 0800 BUY TICKETS (289842) Book: 0800 TICKETEK (842538) Book: 07 577 7188 www.buytickets.co.nz www.ticketek.co.nz www.ticketdirect.co.nz Groups: 09 309 3395 Groups: 09 307 5058 Groups: 07 577 7188