TUONELAN TUOLLA PUOLEN  /  NDE EXPLORING

14.10.2010

A good documentary can do wonders at widening one’s perception of art.  If you doubt it, try one by Simon Schama on Mark Rothko, more specifically Rothko’s paintings for the Seagram restaurant (housed at Tate Modern and Kawamura Memorial not at Seagram’s).  Thanks to or, depending on one’s view, in spite of the personal style of Schama it is hard not to be moved by these paintings carrying one to the limits of existence or, almost, off the limits.  Rothko was keenly aware of the importance of how his paintings were presented.  He was right in that the Seagram restaurant would not have been the right place for them and that they should be shown together, in a dimly lit space.