Rothko, Residency, Russia
Surely, I must be the only artist in Australia who has been offered a 3-month residency/exhibition on the Russian border since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. It is in the Mark Rothko Arts Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia (formerly Dvinsk, USSR) and the birthplace of Mark Rothko. I was originally offered this residency in 2020 after his daughter, Kate Rothko, Chair, the Rothko Foundation, had seen my work in 2018 whilst being exhibited in Riga. Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the residency and I didn't think I would be included in the Centre's new re-worked cultural programme as its cultural remit is for the Baltics and Central Asian artists.
However thanks to my art consultant Vineta Ungailo's ongoing representations, I received an email on Monday confirming a new residency/exhibition arrangement from March through to May 2023. The Mark Rothko Arts Centre is housed in a 14th Century Russian fortress on the Latvian side of the Russian border. Hopefully the cannon is pointing in the right direction whatever that is.....
Untitled Red (1953) - Rothko
Yellow and Blue Untitled (1953) - Rothko
Rothko and the Colour Field
I only became aware of Mark Rothko’s work and history when a member of the public walked into my gallery at the Intercontinental Hotel Sydney, pointed to my work the Water Line on the wall and asked how much the Rothko was. He looked askance when I told him the price. "Rothko's work sells for $80million and above. This must be a fake" he said. I didn’t know who Rothko was.
Subsequently I researched and became familiar with Mark Rothko’s body of works and I am honored to be even mentioned in the same breath.
The above examples of Rothko's most famous artworks alongside my documentary photographs reveal how colour and surface flatness, the basic elements of colour field painting, can be re-interpreted with a close up photograph of Nature's creation - reflections on the surface of the water - a prime source for any colour field.
