Mark Rothko, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: 12 March-30 June 2019

The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna organises a retrospective, the first in Austria, on  the American artist Mark Rothko’s oeuvre, setting up an interesting dialogue between his paintings and the other works at the museum. Indeed, one of the major features of Rothko’s art is the constant comparison with works from the past, from which he often draws inspiration, and it is this point of view that the exhibition highlights.                             

Thanks to around 40 works, you will be able to retrace the artist’s development, from his first paintings from the 30s to the more innovative works from the 50s and the 60s. The exhibition ends with a section dedicated to the last 10 years of Rothko’s life: the works become more classical and refer to the examples of the greatest European masters, like Titian, Rembrandt and Vermeer. So in his last paintings, you will see the influence of art and the architecture of the Old Masters, which he knew during the journey he made to Europe in 1950, especially to Italy, where Rothko could also see Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library, Fra Angelico’s frescos in Florence, the temples in Paestum and the Torcello Baptistery in Venice, all buildings that influenced his work.

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Wien, Austria