2024
Το έτος 2024 είναι υπερβολικά σοβαρό στον τομέα των εορτασμών. Το έτος 2024 συμπληρώνονται 20 χρόνια από τη διεξαγωγή των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων της Αθήνας. Το έτος 2024 είναι 20 χρόνια μετά το 2004. Το οποίο 2004 ήταν 8 χρόνια μετά τον εορτασμό των 100 χρόνων από το 1896 κτλ... Εκείνη τη χρονιά, εθνική ανάταση, η Συννεφούλα και το φουστάνι της Ισλανδής έκαναν το έθνος από ανάδελφο - περήφανο.
Εκείνα τα χρόνια τα πάντα ήταν πλούσια, σαν τα ελέη των κυριών. Στα πλαίσια του σαρκασμού αλλά και εορτασμού των παχουλών αγελάδων, αποφασίζω και με διατάζω να κυκλοφορήσω μια σειρά έργων εμπνευσμένα και αλληλοσυμπληρωμένα από τους τελευταίους και πιο σκουρόχρωμους πίνακες του Rothko που νέος είδα μια φορά στην Tate και ξαναείδα και ξαναείδα και ξαναείδα και ξαναείδα.
Η σειρά "The Seagram Murals" ήταν να κρεμαστεί στο Four Seasons Restaurant της Νέας Υόρκης στο ισόγειο του πύργου Seagram. Ο καλλιτέχνης δέχθηκε την προσφορά των $35,000 το 1958 για να δημιουργήσει τεράστια έργα διακόσμησης της μίας από τις δύο αίθουσες του διάσημου εστιατορίου. Ο γεννημένος στη Ρωσία αριστερός κι αναρχικός ζωγράφος δήλωσε ένα χρόνο μετά... “I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room. If the restaurant would refuse to put up my murals, that would be the ultimate compliment. But they won’t. People can stand anything these days.”
Τελικά, μετά από μια επίσκεψη στο χώρο και ένα γεύμα, ο Rothko επέστρεψε την αμοιβή του και απέσυρε τους πίνακες. Λίγο πριν την αυτοκτονία του μερικοί απ' αυτούς δωρίστηκαν στην Tate του Λονδίνου. Κάτι δεκαετίες μετά κι εγώ τους είδα κι άλλοι πολλοί.
Η Ακριβής Σιωπή είναι ανέφικτη. Δεν με ενδιαφέρει ο τρόπος που θα την εννοήσει κάποιος ακροατής. Εγώ απλά την εκφράζω με τον πιο απλό και βασικό τρόπο. Κι αν μέσα σ' αυτήν ο καθένας δεν ακούσει παρά την σιωπή, τότε κάτι δεν πήγε καλά στην ακρόασή του. Τμήμα του θορύβου και της ησυχίας σε αυτό το κομμάτι ηχογραφήθηκε στο δωμάτιο του Rothko, κάποτε στην Tate. Έκτοτε είναι κοινώς αποδεκτό σε μένα και στους λοιπούς εαυτούς μου ότι η μουσική έχει πεθάνει, είναι νεκρή - τελείωσε. Ήταν φθινόπωρο τότε, αλλά δεν θυμάμαι ακριβής ημερομηνία, εξού και η σιωπή.
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“Silence is so accurate.”
The year 2024 is an extremely serious year in the field of celebrations. The year 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the Athens Olympic Games. The year 2024 is 20 years after 2004. Which 2004 was 8 years after the 100 years celebration since 1896 etc... That year, national exaltation, a famous Greek naïve song and Bjork's dress made the nation extremely proud .
In those years everything was rich-made, like the mercies of the ladies. In the context of sarcasm but also in celebration of fat cows, I decide and command myself to release a series of works inspired and complementary to the last and darker Rothko paintings that I saw once at the Tate as a young man and saw again and again and again and again and again.
"The Seagram Murals" series was to hang in New York's Four Seasons Restaurant on the ground floor of the Seagram Tower. The artist accepted the offer of $35,000 in 1958 to create huge decorative works for one of the two rooms of the famous restaurant. The Russian-born leftist and anarchist painter declared a year later... “I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room. If the restaurant would refuse to put up my murals, that would be the ultimate compliment. But they won't. People can stand anything these days.”
Eventually, after a site visit and a meal, Rothko returned his fee and withdrew the paintings. Shortly before his suicide some of them were donated to the Tate in London. Some decades later, I saw them and many others like me, almost anarchists, partly leftists.
The Accurate Silence is unattainable. I don't care how any listener will interpret it. I just express it in the simplest and most basic way. And if within it everyone hears nothing but silence, then something went wrong with the hearing process. Some of the noise and silence in this piece was recorded in Rothko's room, once at the Tate. Since then it's been common knowledge to me and the rest of myself that music is dead, it's completely dead - it's over. It was autumn then, but I don't remember the exact date, hence the silence.
melophobia.bandcamp.com/album/tatemodern
melophobia.bandcamp.com/track/tate13
from
Τέλος Πάντων...,
track released February 12, 2024
'Black on Maroon', Mark Rothko, 1958
Black on Maroon is a large unframed oil painting on a horizontally orientated rectangular canvas. The base colour of the painting is a deep maroon. As is suggested by the work’s title, this is overlaid with a large black rectangle, which in turn encloses two slimmer, vertical maroon rectangles, suggesting a window-like structure. The black paint forms a solid block of colour but the edges are feathered, blurring into the areas of maroon. Different pigments have been used within the maroon, blending the colour from a deep wine to a muted mauve with accents of red. This changing tone gives a sense of depth in an otherwise abstract composition.
Rothko started work on the Seagram commission in a large new studio, which allowed him to simulate the restaurant’s private dining room. Between 1958 and 1959 Rothko created three series of paintings, but was unsatisfied with the first and sold these paintings as individual panels. In the second and third series Rothko experimented with varying permutations of the floating window frame and moved towards a more sombre colour palette, to counter the perception that his work was decorative. Black on Maroon belongs to the second series. By the time Rothko had completed these works he had developed doubts about the appropriateness of the restaurant setting, which led to his withdrawal from the commission. However, this group of works is still referred to as the ‘Seagram Murals’.
Black on Maroon was the first painting to be donated in 1968, although it was known as Sketch for ‘Mural No. 6’ or Two Openings in Black Over Wine.
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