Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Harvard’s Illuminated Rothkos Draw Cult Watchers

April 2, 2015 by Marion Maneker

26HARVARD1-articleLarge-v2

Louis Menand has a meditation on Harvard’s Rothko murals and their light-powered restoration:

Rothko’s work is pretty much all about the color, so the murals, in their faded condition, seemed to be dead. Because of the methods and materials Rothko used (a long and interesting story), it was impossible to restore them by conventional means. So a solution was borrowed from a technique known as “compensating illumination,” which was pioneered by the art conservator Raymond Lafontaine. Five digital projectors have been programmed to light the canvases so that the original colors reappear. At four o’clock every day, the projectors are turned off one by one, and the colors revert to (mostly) muddy blacks and grays. You can still see the bones of the murals, the formal architecture—Rothko’s floating blocks, made to resemble portals in these pieces—but the glow is gone. As one observer put it, when the lights go off, comedy turns into tragedy.

It’s interesting that this is so interesting. When the museum staged events with discussions of the virtually restored murals, hundreds of people turned up. The “back from the dead” aspect of the phenomenon is captivating: you are seeing, or you feel that you are seeing, something that once was believed to have vanished forever. You also (this is why people come to watch the projectors turned off) get to see the Rothkos both as they were and, almost simultaneously, as they are. You experience a transformation that took many years in a few seconds.

Watching Them Turn Off the Rothkos  (The New Yorker)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Falling in Love with Marty the KFalling in Love with Marty the K
  • Is the Rose Closing an Assault on the Idea of Art?Is the Rose Closing an Assault on the Idea of Art?
  • Sotheby’s Puts Real Estate, Classic Car, Jewelry and Watches Under One ExecutiveSotheby’s Puts Real Estate, Classic Car, Jewelry and Watches Under One Executive
  • Can Asian Strength Drive the Market?Can Asian Strength Drive the Market?
  • Ségalot-Qatar Connection Propping Up the Art MarketSégalot-Qatar Connection Propping Up the Art Market
  • Sotheby’s Myron Kunin Collection of African Art = $41.6mSotheby’s Myron Kunin Collection of African Art = $41.6m

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • After Pandemic’s Rapid Change, Sotheby’s Has 8 Predictions for 2021
  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • A Season of Improvisation: Fall 2020 New York Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Analysis
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Phillips Includes $2.5m Norman Rockwell Painting in November Evening Sale
  • Re-discovered John Constable Painting at Sotheby's in December
  • Rauschenberg’s Buffalo II Leads Mayer Collection at Christie’s
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor