New Ways to See Rothko: Silent Room and Renewed Biographical Exhibition Open at Rothko Museum
On 2 October, the Rothko Museum opens two new exhibitions dedicated to Mark Rothko’s art and life – a multimedia Silent Room centred on his classical period and a renewed biographical exhibition featuring animated photographs from the Rothko family archive.
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.
Both the Silent Room and the renewed biographical exhibition (multimedia solutions by Tomega) will open alongside the group exhibition of the international painting symposium “Mark Rothko 2026” and “Soul in Close-Up” – a new selection from the Rothko Museum Collection featuring paintings, prints and ceramics rarely shown to the public.
The opening begins at 4 p.m. Admission is free.
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.
Earlier in the project, a virtual tour was developed and virtual reality headsets purchased for the Rothko Museum’s Martinsons House and eight other museums in Latgale.
Total project budget: EUR 230,545.28
European Regional Development Fund co-financing: EUR 184,436.22
Rothko Museum exhibition budget: EUR 148,649.66
European Regional Development Fund co-financing for the exhibitions: EUR 118,919.73
Support: the European Union’s Interreg VI-A Latvia–Lithuania Programme 2021–2027, Daugavpils City Council and the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia
Photography and filming may take place during the event, and the resulting photographs and video footage may be published.
Publicity image: Rothko Museum (photo: Didzis Grodzs)
