The Silent Room
The Silent Room centred on Rothko’s classic period with a biographical exhibition about Rothko’s life and work
The Silent Room is built around a simple idea: one painting at a time. Three large screens show works from Rothko’s classic period in sequence, allowing each to fill the room before giving way to the next. Light is part of the display: the paintings slowly appear and fade, changing the feel of the space around them.
The renewed biographical exhibition follows Rothko’s life from his childhood in Daugavpils, then Dvinsk, through his years in the United States and beyond his death to the consecration of the Rothko Chapel in Houston. Among its highlights are photographs from the Rothko family archive, digitally animated with subtle movement and depth. They show the Rothko family in Dvinsk, the young artist at Yale and Rothko in his New York studios at the height of his career, offering glimpses of the places and circumstances in which he lived and worked. An interactive game invites visitors to draw and experiment with layering Rothko’s works.
The Rothko Museum’s Silent Room and the renewed biographical exhibition were developed in cooperation with the Latgale Planning Region under project No. LL-00263, “Modern Art Technologies to Open Museums for Innovation” (MATOMI), co-funded by the European Union’s Interreg VI-A Latvia–Lithuania Programme 2021–2027.
Support: Daugavpils City Council and State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia
Publicity image: Mark Rothko, “Untitled [yellow, pink, yellow on light pink]” (1955). Oil on canvas, 202.6 × 172.1 cm. Collection of Kate Rothko Prizel, CR# 526, Estate Number: 5031.55
