Word: rothkos
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...this day, thanks to the generosity of the museum, over 500 square feet of canvas was allowed to shed its synthetic cocoon. For those unfamiliar with the enormous scale in which Rothko worked, this area refers not to the mural series as a whole, but rather only to a single panel, Panel #2 in this case. Three rectangles floating vertically in space connected at top and bottom by tensioned weights, Panel #2's chromatic range is now a pale blue denim rinse. Before its deterioration, the painting was of a fabled crimson complexion. Rothko's Harvard murals have been deemed...
...culprit is more a fugitive red paint pigment that faded with exposure to sunlight than neglect by the infamous Harvard Corporation, the owners of the murals. It is a story easily sensationalized, and has readily been made into a pseudo-scandal, a skeleton in the university's closet. "Rothko had a very high, serious sense for the murals, which is partly a basis for problems that occurred later. I don't think that either side, Rothko or Harvard, had a full understanding of what to do with the murals. There was subliminal misunderstanding all around, but it was pretty subliminal...
...Professor Wassily Leontief, head of the Harvard Society of Fellows, approached Rothko with a proposal to donate his artwork for the society's new meeting place, the penthouse of the Holyoke Center, to be designed by noted architect Jose Luis Sert, who also designed the Science Center and Peabody Terrace. Rothko, enamored with dreams of creating a public space with his artwork, was eager to bring this vision to fruition. Ideally, Rothko preferred that the viewer stand a mere 18 inches away from the surface of his paintings, so that his glowing canvases governed even peripheral vision. And still, what...
...Rothko's later paintings, half-jokingly described as "beach blankets", by Professor James Cuno, Director of the Harvard Art Museums, exhibit the potential for spiritual connotations. Indeed, there are as many possible interpretations of Rothko's artwork as there are opinions on the validity of modern art. But none is so evocative as the initial apprehension expressed by the Corporation about the Rothko commission. The walls of Harvard buildings, up to this point, had only been occupied by portrait after safe portrait of this or that Harvard luminary. At that time, the University was more a champion of contemporary architecture...
...Skepticism was finally assuaged after then Harvard President Nathan Pusey '?? visited Rothko. A keen-minded Yale dropout, Rothko facilely picked up on Pusey's religious interests and proceeded to affix the Passion of Jesus to the murals--the darker ochres of Panels #1-3 (the triptych) were the colors of Good Friday and the Last Supper, while the brighter magenta pink of Panel #5 was representative of the Resurrection. Pusey, thoroughly impressed by Rothko's analysis and enthusiasm, advised the Corporation to vote for the murals' installment...