Sculptor Bob Catchpole, a former trustee of Sculpture in Norwich, recently visited the Rothko in Florence exhibition. Here are his reflections and images.
Rothko in Florence
There is currently a major exhibition of Rothko’s work in the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence which I visited recently. It was a very moving experience. Whilst everyone isfamiliar with his large paintings in the Tate, I was particularly interested in seeing his early work and his development.
He visited Florence early on and was enormously influenced by Fra Angelico's frescoes in the San Marco former monastery and Michelangelo’s staircase for the Laurentian Library.
His early work was especially interesting: I had never seen his surrealist paintingsbefore, and his drawings were most instructive.
The Strozzi show was hung chronologically, and it was possible to see his gradual removal of colour from his canvases as he moved towards his eventual suicide. In the last room the paintings were black and white, with a strong horizontal boundary.
The curator also imaginatively decided to hang some of his work in the monks’ cells of the former monastery next to the frescoes. The result was the most extraordinary juxtapositions: they were quite simply very beautiful, breathtaking in fact.
There were also works placed within the Michelangelo staircase. The Strozzi is famous for its excellent shows, but this was quite extraordinary.
Two memorable things that Rothko expounded, which I found significant: he saw painting as architecture, and he wished his paintings to be viewed at close quarters, not from a distance.
The exhibition continues until August 2026.
