“Rotkho. Made in Latvia”: Latvian Artists Create Copies of Mark Rothko’s Works in Unique Art Project.

For a whole year, the Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils had to survive without the original works of the world-famous artist. In preparation for the celebration of the art center’s tenth anniversary and the opening of a new exhibition of original works, an unusual art project was created in which Latvian artists were entrusted with creating copies of Rothko’s works.

Zane Melāne, curator of the Collection Department of the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center, says: “This fact that Mark Rothko’s original works are coming back to us also resonates with the idea of ​​how important the original works of art are, what feelings are given by the oil stroke of the work of art, the artist’s emotions. [..] Considering the era of digitization, the rise of the importance of artificial intelligence, cyber art, we think more and more about the value of the works created by artists, the feelings that the artist puts into his works are also transferred to the copies. But this project – on the one hand, they are copies, on the other hand – they are completely original works, in which each artist has put a part of his experience, a part of his creative handwriting, a part, of course, also of his emotions, which was the main part of Mark Rothko in the works.”

The art project “Rotkho. Made in Latvia” was inspired by the Daile Theater performance.

“I always like that artists play in visual art, that it’s not too serious, that it’s not too responsible,” says Juris Žagars, a member of the Dailes Theater board. “The fact that this exhibition is here in the theater is not a joke, it is serious art, but it is still a reflection on something. Just like the theater reflects. We reflect on how society thinks, feels and so on, so do artists reflects. It is a huge honor that our show “Rotkho” has gained so much attention among artists that they are ready to create works of art.”

Six Latvian painters – Franceska Kirke, Helena Heinrichson, Sandra Strelei, Aleksej Naumov, Kaspar Zariņš and Ritum Ivanov – were given one digital image of Mark Rothko’s vivid creative period work and the task of creating a copy or their own interpretation.

“I stifled my ego and I think it’s healthy for any artist – to slow down your ego, give up on yourself and try to go deeper into the other artist, what he wanted to say,” says Francesca Kirke about the experience. “My goal was to make a real copy, not a variation on the theme, but a real copy. [..] It wasn’t difficult for me. The only thing I really restrained myself was not to put in a single red spot, not to add a single black square, not to draw a single line, to give up everything, which is usually the last thing for me before I finish the work, then I end up with some kind of wrong detail, and here I refused it. I got along and was an honest copyist.”

“I was very diligent, honest in the sense that I wanted to give the least of myself. Of course, I painted this work from a digital image, I will be very happy to see the original,” said Kaspars Zariņš. “I’ve read about Rothko, how he painted, and he didn’t actually paint much, mostly he sat and looked, but he painted slowly – layer by layer, which I did. I painted this work about four times, layering, drying and layering . Because that beauty in Rothko is between the fact that it looks like anyone can do it, but really can’t. I tried to achieve the maximum simplicity, which was also important to Rothko, because he wanted that color to emit sound in its own way and to emit silence as well. “

“Rothko is such a symbol of freedom not only for me and my family, but for many. I saw him for the first time in nature in New York in 1989, standing as if at an altar,” says Helena Heinrichson. “I was very surprised, pleased, then there was such confusion as to why, what to do at all, but when I overcame it, I completely identified with a great master for about ten minutes, and then I added from myself. A very interesting experience.”

The exhibition at the Daile Theater will be on view until the end of the theater season, after which the paintings will enter the collection of the Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils.

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