Mark Rothko retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris: impressions of the show
The Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris has closed its major retrospective of Mark Rothko (1903-1970), the most significant ever devoted to the artist. Since October it has unfailingly drawn formidable queues.
They say that the scenography of the exhibition follows the artist's own instructions, but can one achieve the expected sensory experience in a crowd of several hundred people?
Strong emotions were aroused by the first room, devoted to Rothko's figurative beginnings, and by those that followed, given over to the Surrealist compositions. The revelation was his early figurative works and portraits, and all the more so the single self-portrait of 1930. Yet the abstractions and the coloured rectangles have their power too. We could literally observe Rothko, a colourist (which he himself rejected), turning into an artist of light as his palette took on ever darker hues.
Moving on, we see Rothko's growing pull towards abstraction and spirituality, and become acquainted with his reflections on the place of man through his work with ancient myths.
I must say that I am very grateful for the chance to see so much Rothko in the flesh, some 115 works in all, and yet I am also a little disappointed.
Strangely enough, the number of paintings seemed too great: in the end the visitor was hurrying through the galleries of the upper floors at a brisk pace. The rooms that had suited Simon Hantaï and Joan Mitchell so well rendered Rothko silent and monotonous.
The paintings were lit none too well, with a slightly yellowish halo and light trained on the walls rather than the canvases. Several rooms of black and dark canvases were plunged almost wholly into darkness.
From the experience of a couple of exhibitions at the Foundation, I have gained the impression that this vast contemporary space is somehow being used wrongly. I speak also of the extremely crowded queues, which languish beneath the indefatigable Parisian sun. This is, after all, a new building, conceived for large-scale, much-sought-after projects, so why not add one more petal before the entrance group, so that people might take shelter in the shade while waiting for the chance to visit this temple of art?
