In 2023, two cultural magnets of Latgale – Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Center (now – Rothko Museum) and Latgale Embassy GORS – celebrated decades of operation. Confirming the common goal of both institutions in preserving cultural heritage and promoting creativity, as well as celebrating Mark Rothko’s 120th anniversary, the first exhibition project of the Rothko Museum is being implemented so far in the concert hall of Eastern Latvia.

The concept of the exhibition is based on the designation and symbolic meaning of the color red, which is marked both in the interior of “GORS” and in the works of the founder of abstract expressionism, Mark Rothko (1903-1970).

Red has several connotations that Rothko successfully interpreted in creating his sensuous painting. The red color evokes emotions, cultivates energy, is variable – flowing, vibratingly moving, intensely saturated, voluptuous and sensually soft like exquisite silk. The last unfinished work of art by Mark Rothko called “Red on Red” is also a symbolic testimony of the artist’s vivid world of emotions and feelings.

The exhibition “In Red” consists of works by Latvian and foreign artists from the collection of the Rothko Museum, in which the red color predominates, revealing its diverse shades and spectrums of feelings. The artworks in the collection have a closer connection with Mark Rothko’s art philosophy. Being next to the emotionally vibrating works of an artistic genius, the creative process of art resonates with what is seen, known and felt. The dominant aspect of the color red in the works of Mark Rothko is involuntarily, apparently unconsciously, but subconsciously permanently transferred to the artworks created during art residencies or lying on the shelves of the art storage after the artists’ solo exhibitions in the Rothko Museum.

The artists represented at the exhibition: Guna Millersone, Sigita Daugule, Ingūna Liepa, Edvards Grūbe, Pēteris Sidars (Latvia), Ramūns Čeponis (Lithuania), Bent Holstein (Denmark), Carol Bernier (Canada), Erdmute Blaha (Germany), Merava Šinna Ben- Alona (Israel).