He's neither black...nor white...nor red...

neither black nor white
nor red...















link to The Ind - Entertainment article - Red by John Logan...
http://www.theind.com/a-a-e/arts-a-entertainment-stories/15412-wanderlust-theatre-presents-red

link to Wanderlust Theatre Co...
http://www.wanderlusttheatre.com/#!

link to Wanderlust Theatre Co Facebook - Red in September/October Timeline...
https://www.facebook.com/wanderlusttheatre?hc_location=timeline


link to YouTube - Red (John Logan) - Theatre Trailer...(another production)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLeIRtaBbok


link to YouTube - Highlights from "Red" Starring Alfred Molina Jonathan Groff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED0hrzFWZrI

love the beginning line: "What do you see?" followed later by all the lines rapid fired back & forth regarding the color of red...I'd never thought of so many colors in the world that are the color red in all it's many multi- faceted versions of...

link to Wiki of artist - Mark Rothko...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko

link to Wiki of the play - Red...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_(play)

link to the chapel - Rothko Chapel...
http://www.rothkochapel.org/





photo credit: Wiki - Rothko Chapel
(inside...taken from the doors looking to the back wall & then from the back wall looking toward the doors)
photographer: Woderful Tree (aka Wonderful Tree)

link to YouTube - The Power of Art - Rothko (BBC Documentary)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WAjk0DIU00
documentary length 59:01 min's long

link to Tate - London - Artists: Mark Rothko...
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mark-rothko-1875

link to Tate Modern Exhibition - London - 26 Sept to 1 Feb 2008...
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/exhibition/rothko

Rothko Room - The Seagram Murals
"...desparate for pockets of silence where we can root and grow..."

51:39 Rothko Chapel - Houston, TX - 1965

link to Tate Modern Exhibition - London...
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/rothko-0
Curator meets Conductor...sound--music is added

The History and Manufacture of Lithol Red, a Pigment Used by Mark Rothko in his Seagram and Harvard Murals of the 1950s and 1960s...
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/history-and-manufacture-lithol-red-pigment-used-mark-rothko-his

"...Rothko’s use of lithol red has had significant implications for the longevity and understanding of his artworks: the extremely high light levels suffered by the Harvard murals mean that they have faded to the degree that they are no longer considered suitable for display, whilst the fading of some of the Seagram murals – although much less dramatic – has altered the colour and tonal balance of the works, which must influence our interpretation and appreciation of them. It is only through the study of the history, properties, and behaviour of such materials that we can begin to understand how best to care for works of art that incorporate them, to admit the possibility that gross colour changes may occur, and to incorporate this into our understanding when there is good evidence that they have occurred..."

link to Room Guide - Rothko Room - Room 1-9...
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/exhibition/rothko/room-guide

Room 1 - The Seagram Murals between NYC & London
Room 2 - Four Darks in Red
Room 3 - The Segram Murals
Room 4 - Material History
Room 5 - Towards the Houston Chapel
Room 6 - Black-Form Paintings
Room 7 - Seagram Studies
Room 8 - Brown and Gray Works on Paper
Room 9 - Black on Gray

from Room 3 description...
"...His studio assistant, Dan Rice, recalls that Rothko ‘was very reflective, gathering all the paintings together again and jumbling them up. It would be very difficult to say that one was intended as part of the murals and one was not’..."

note: in the play Red the studio assistant's name is Ken--here I find the real assistant's name is Dan (tho it's possible there was more than one studio assistant over the years)

link to the Menil Collection - Houston, TX...
http://www.menil.org/collection/modern.php

“ A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer.”
—Mark Rothko

note: the Rothko Chapel & the Menil Museum will be the only place I'll be able to view Rothko's paintings...tho I may have passed the Rothko Rooms while visiting the Tate Modern in London once--as I was with another who didn't care to stand still long in any museum I really don't remember them, the Segram Murals...I do know for sure I've seen any of them 'pulsate' & for that alone I will revisit at least what I can view & stand a bit longer in meditation to try for this feeling or the idea of the 'gate' or 'gateway' inside the light & shadows of the Rothko paintings or murals...






link to the Wiki about the Seagram Building - 1958 - Midtown Manhattan, NYC...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seagram_Building
the restaurant The Four Seasons opened in 1959...

Re: the art in the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building & Mark Rothko the artist...
(because I was curious about the 'rest of the story' - if there was no Rothko Murals then what...)

Art in the Four Seasons

"The artist Mark Rothko was engaged to paint a series of works for the restaurant in 1958. Accepting the commission, he secretly resolved to create 'something that will ruin the appetite of every son-of-a-bitch who ever eats in that room.' Observing the restaurant's pretentious atmosphere upon his return from a trip to Europe, Rothko abandoned the project altogether, returned his advance and kept the paintings for himself. 

The final series was dispersed and now hangs in three locations:
London’s Tate Gallery, 
Japan’s Kawamura Memorial Museum 
and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 

During the period in which Rothko worked on his murals, the Four Seasons rented Jackson Pollock's masterpiece Blue Poles from its then-owner, art collector Ben Heller. 

John Logan's Tony Award-winning 2010 play Red dramatizes Rothko's time working on the Seagram Murals.

From 1975 until 1985 four paintings by Ronnie Landfield from the collection of Philip Johnson were installed on the wall that had been initially planned for the Mark Rothko commission. 

In 1985 the artist James Rosenquis was commissioned to install a permanent mural on the wall; the Landfield paintings were returned to Philip Johnson...

The large curtain designed by Pablo Picasso for the Ballets Russes ballet Le Tricorne (1919) has been hung between the Grill Room and the Pool Room since the restaurant opened..."




link to Wiki of Japan's Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art - Sakura City: Collection - Mark Rothko's Segram Murals...
http://kawamura-museum.dic.co.jp/en/collection/mark_rothko.html
note: 7 of the murals...9 of the murals are in London at the Tate & once they were all together there...in both locations they have their very own room--The Rothko Room...

my program...Wanderlust Theatre Co. Presents Red by John Logan



note: I don't have enough words in me to describe the feeling of this play...I tried not to read much about Rothko or the play before watching this local presentation of the play...my first reaction was just simply Wow...I wanted to read the play--now I've forgotten that I did ask if I could read a script, must follow up on that and soon (before I go back to the Menil & the Rothko Chapel... or I may just buy the script to have my very own clean copy to read & reread ad fin)

There is so much physicality going on in this play that I did not expect, I also did not expect Rothko/Duncan to light a cigarette, (OK, a red ended e-cigarette...but it was well realistic what with him clicking a real lighter to light up the thing,) mix red paint, paint on a canvas or two--with his assistant Ken, speak about Art, speak about the color Red...that I could read & re-read, all the permutations of the color Red...afterwards on social media, prob fb, all I could manage to say was thank you thank you thank you--as there were the 2 actors & the 1 director & am not sure too many others in this play, which you wouldn't think would hold you enthralled--but it does...I am now so over curious I've been reading, watching video's about Rothko--when I should probably just go stand in front of his canvases again...and again...I'm waiting for the 'pulsating' to occur at some point in time...

link to John Logan quotes from Red on Goodreads.com...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/19586.John_Logan

“ROTHKO: (Explodes) 'Pretty.' 'Beautiful.' 'Nice.' 'Fine.' That's our life now! Everything's 'fine'. We put on the funny nose and glasses and slip on the banana peel and the TV makes everything happy and everyone's laughing all the time, it's all so goddamn funny, it's our constitutional right to be amused all the time, isn't it? We're a smirking nation, living under the tyranny of 'fine.' How are you? Fine.. How was your day? Fine. How are you feeling? Fine. How did you like the painting? Fine. What some dinner? Fine... Well, let me tell you, everything is not fine!!
HOW ARE YOU?!... HOW WAS YOUR DAY?!... HOW ARE YOU FEELING? Conflicted. Nuanced. Troubled. Diseased. Doomed. I am not fine. We are not fine. We are anything but fine.”
― John Logan, Red

aka the 'Fine' rant...now to find the color 'Red' rant...

link to quotes about red, the color red--not the color red rant in the play Red between Rothko & his assistant Ken...
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/red

link to Wiki, regarding the color Red...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red




photo credit: Wiki...9 diff shades of red color (tho I don't think of pink at first)

link to an aside of the color red--Carmine...made of Cochineal...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

(note: aka bug guts, dried or otherwise...ew...think about that wearing red lipstick...again ew...or worse--food dye...pst pst...or even worse--in yogurt...noo, I liked yogurt...no more red yogurt my friends...)

note: I must find the script lines, must borrow a script...until then...I'll see Red when I close my eyes before falling asleep, which if the light is just right I will, I have before, but soon it fades to black...and sleep...