Episode Details

Mark Rothko accepted a commission to paint murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, then returned the money and kept the paintings. He refused to let his work become wallpaper for wealthy diners. His luminous color field canvases were meant to produce religious experiences, not complement expensive meals.

This episode traces Rothko from his emigration from Latvia through the abstract expressionist movement, the Seagram commission, and the depression that ended in his suicide at sixty-six.

• He returned a commission worth roughly thirty-five thousand dollars from the Four Seasons restaurant rather than let his art serve as decoration
• His mature paintings consist of stacked rectangular fields of color designed to envelop viewers in emotion
• He insisted galleries display his paintings in low light and at specific heights to control the viewer's experience
• He took his own life in his studio in 1970 at the age of sixty-six