Friday, March 05, 2010

Of The Rothko Museum with No Rothkos (46/100)


These pictures are really old, but they're some of our favorites from our whole time here. I don't exactly recall why we've never published them before.


They are from the hopeful future site of a Mark Rothko museum in Daugavpils, Latvia. Rothko was born there when it was part of Russia, before there was a Latvia. There is broad agreement that there ought to be some sort of museum in his honor there. But the Rothko paintings of the world are mostly owned by people who are not interested in giving them to a inchoate museum in a town they haven't heard of. Nonetheless, with support from Rothko's family, planning is proceeding and there may one day be Rothkos hanging in Daugavpils.


The site is a Napoleonic-war era fortress, with a bunch of cool old buildings along the outer fortifications, and a bunch of less-cool Soviet-era buildings inside the fortifications. This is the space that may one day be the museum, but the staff photographer thought it looked pretty cool as it stands now, used apparently as an art space, but with some pretty odd artifacts left behind, including, for some reason, the canopy of a fighter plane. A few more pictures here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's Friday, and that means that the Third Weekly State Department Blog Roundup is up - and you're on it!

Here is the link:

http://bit.ly/9hUsvA

(If I quoted your text or used your photo(s) and you would rather I had not, please let me know. Please also be sure to check the link(s) that I put up to you, in order to verify that they work properly. If you would rather that I had not referenced you, and/or do not want me to reference you in the future, please also contact me.)

Thanks!