Transposition. The Rothko Motif
Iveta Vecenāne (Latvia)
Tapestry Language
With the kind blessing of the Rothko Museum and the artist’s family, I set about translating Rothko’s watercolours into my signature language of weaving, creating a tapestry collection for an exhibition project in Daugavpils.
Rothko could hardly have imagined how his works might be rendered in weave. His watercolours stand out with their flowing washes of colour, a delicate variety of line and a gentle, quiet elegance. Paint settles in luminous layers, allowing the warmth and grain of the paper to softly shine through.
An exact replication is neither possible nor necessary. Instead, I challenge myself to carry the richness of Rothko’s technique into textile, preserving the shimmer, the movement, the vibrancy – that quiet, enigmatic force at work within them.
Absorbed in weaving, I drift between elation and exhaustion – occasionally moved to tears – fully immersed in creation. Each moment demands decisions. My mind ablaze with them, I lose all sense of time.
How to guide the right thread into its destined place and bind it so the fabric holds; how to remember each dyed and patiently dried shade of yarn; and where to even find the one I need among the countless skeins.
The Dyeing Pleasure
I wash and dye the yarn myself. Not for style’s sake, but from inner necessity.
I take pleasure in the process – this meditative ritual of turning chaos into order before the weaving even starts. It connects me to the material, takes me back to the quiet, meticulous secrets of handling the yarn passed down from my mother. I savour the moment when, after washing by hand, the wool springs open – soft, airy, alive.
I work with aniline dyes. Over the years, I have come to know every tin in my collection. My ears delight in the quiet symphony of my well-used pots. Then the real challenge begins: to achieve the exact tone, at just the right intensity, and fix it so it lasts.
I watch as the yarn slowly absorbs the pigment until the water runs clear.
I trust my intuition and experience.
And then I wait for the right morning light – to let the miracle of weaving work its magic.
Iveta Vecenāne
Iveta Vecenāne (b. 1962) is a textile artist working primarily in classical tapestry weaving. She graduated from the Textile Art Department of the Art Academy of Latvia in 1988, where she studied under Rūdolfs Heimrāts, and completed her Master’s in 2004. Exhibiting since the mid-1980s, Vecenāne has shown her work in solo, group and juried exhibitions in Latvia and internationally. She has also represented Latvia in public and cultural diplomacy programmes across Europe, Asia and the United States. In 2025, her solo exhibition “Meadow” at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Rīga received the Latvian Public Broadcasting Award “Kilogram of Culture 2025”.
Drawing on a similar engagement with the work of Vilhelms Purvītis, Vecenāne approaches “Transposition. The Rothko Motif” as both a study and a transformation. Here, she undertakes the demanding task of translating selected works from Mark Rothko’s Surrealist period into tapestry. Expanding the scale of the original compositions, she reinterprets Rothko’s expressive line and nuanced palette. The project brings renewed attention to a lesser-known phase in Rothko’s practice – a formative moment leading towards his iconic colour field paintings.
In the mid-1940s, having turned to watercolour, Rothko developed experimental compositions populated by pictographic and biomorphic forms suggestive of primordial states of being. Influenced by Surrealism and its strategies of automatism, he pursued a visual language capable of articulating the mysteries of the unconscious. His line became freer, more fluid – a marked departure from the weight and stillness of earlier figuration. The restrained blues and greys of these works carry aquatic connotations, suggestive of an endless generative universe rich in potential. The dynamic compositions, the trembling, fluid lines and the strange biomorphic shapes offer a rare insight into Rothko’s technical mastery and creative freedom.
Vecenāne’s project was welcomed and supported by the Rothko family, who provided copyright clearance to reinterpret his paintings in the textile medium.
Curated by Farida Zaletilo
Support: Latvia’s Culture Capital Foundation
24/04–30/08/2026
Publicity image: Iveta Vecenāne. The Rothko Motif I, 2024, wool, cotton, 150 x 205 cm. Inspired by Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1944, paper, watercolour, 40 x 57,2 cm
