Well, now I know: in January, when Red, the play about Mark Rothko, was playing in London, and possibly coming to New York, I posted what the guides and reviewers there were saying about the play (mostly positive things), ending with the line: “the critics said the play goes on about art, too. I’ m eager to hear exactly what…”
I saw Red, which is in previews, over the weekend. I agree with London’s critics that the play, starring Alfred Molina as Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as his assistant, Ken, is brilliantly acted — they shine on Broadway, too. The play, by John Logan, is more talk than action, except for one fabulous scene in which the two prime a canvas with blood red in a frenzied bit of choreography, but it never drags.
And Rothko does give a few art lessons, praising Caravaggio, van Gogh and Matisse (specifically his Red Studio at MoMA), referring approvingly to Velazques and Monet, and dissing Pollock.
“Don’t think you understand them,” he says at one point, advising Ken to spend a lifetime with the great painters he cites.
And although he takes pride in helping to kill Cubism, Rothko is upset that the young artists (this is the late 1950s) Johns, Rauschenberg, Stella and Lichtenstein are “out to murder me.” Let alone Warhol. To Rothko, they’re not serious artists; they are making “zeitgeist art.” “Art shouldn’t only be popular,” Rothko advises. “I’m here to stop your heart. I’m not here to make pretty pictures.”
A few more choice bits:
- “Where’s the discernment that separates what I like from what I respect?”
- “You can not be an artist until you are civilized.”
- “Most of painting is thinking; 10% is putting paint on canvas.”
Ken lands some comments, too, of course. Most particularly, he asks, after listening and listening, “Who is good enough to own your art, or even to see your art?”
Good stuff. I liked the play a lot. The audience did too. It opens on Apr. 1. Will it attract people from outside the visual arts, yes. Will it get them interested in the visual arts? Some, I’d venture, yes. Others, maybe.
Photo Credit: Photo by Johan Persson, Courtesy of Red