“ I hope to paint something that will ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room,
Mark Rothko, after being commissioned to paint a series for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York, which was housed in the Seagram Building, a celebrated modernist sky scraper in Park Avenue.After completing the works Rothko changed his mind about the commission, however, supposedly because he didn’t want his paintings being used as a backdrop for privileged diners. In 1965 he decided to donate some of them to the Tate. Nine eventually arrived in 1970, on the day of the artist’s death. (via cocothinkshefancy)
My brother-in-law is an art history PhD student, and he told me this story about Rothko’s Four Seasons caper. Turns out, though I can’t find much evidence online, that the color red actually stimulates appetite in humans. Rothko didn’t know this, and most of the canvases he supplied for the Four Seasons commission, with the expressed intent to disgust the diners, were covered in a deep, rust-colored red. Reportedly, no one’s appetite was ruined. While he didn’t want the privileged diners to see his work, more likely his experiment in sticking it to the squares was a total logistical failure.
(via mikkipedia)
7 months ago • 76 notes
