THE SEAGRAM MURALS

In 1958 Rothko was commissioned $35,000 to decorate approximately 50 square meters of wall space in the Four Seasons Restaurant of the high-end Seagram’s Building on Park Avenue, New York. This was the first series of related paintings which Rothko would undertake, and the first opportunity to design work for a specific room.

ROTHKO’S LOCAL CONNECTION

On a trip to Europe in 1959 Rothko stayed with renowned British Abstract Expressionist painter William Scott. Scott had spent much of his childhood in Enniskillen and trained at the Belfast School of Art. At the time of Rothko’s visit both men were engaged in large scale mural commissions: Rothko’s was the most lucrative commission in art history at the time, Scott’s was for the first newly-built NHS hospital, Derry’s Altnagelvin. We’ll never know what the two artists spoke about, but surely they’d have discussed their current work; perhaps they considered the nature and power of art, its place in society, its existential dimension and healing potential. What we do know is that not long after this trip Rothko pulled out of his contract with the high-end Four Seasons Restaurant, while in 1962 Scott’s large Four Seasons Mural would be unveiled at Altnagelvin where it would hang for generations, welcoming all those in need in that shared space.