Overview
- Opening March 14 and running through August 23, Rothko a Firenze spans Palazzo Strozzi, the Museo di San Marco and the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.
- Co‑curated by Christopher Rothko and Elena Geuna, the show assembles more than 70 works with major loans from MoMA, the Guggenheim Bilbao, Tate, the Met and the Centre Pompidou, including pieces not previously shown in Italy.
- Five paintings are installed in direct dialogue with Beato Angelico’s frescoed cells at San Marco, while two works engage Michelangelo’s Laurenziana vestibule.
- The exhibition follows Rothko’s evolution from 1930s figurative and neo‑surrealist works through the Multiforms and large color fields to the late Black and Gray series, supplemented by watercolors, sketches and studies for the Seagram and Harvard Murals.
- Christopher Rothko emphasizes his father’s aim to elicit a religious experience from viewers, noting that visits to Rome and Florence intensified this spiritual focus.