The Rothko Museum presents a rare encounter with Mark Rothko, one of the most radical and influential artists of the twentieth century. The works on view invite the viewer into a realm where light and colour create a private space for lived experience.
The museum is the only public institution in Eastern Europe to hold a permanent display of Rothko paintings from his family collection. Their presence here rests on a close and enduring collaboration with the artist’s children, Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko.
Born in Daugavpils in 1903, Mark Rothko spent the first decade of his life in the city before emigrating to the United States with his family. It was here, during the formative years, that his earliest impressions of the world took shape – foundational experiences that would inform his sensibility throughout his life. Although Rothko’s artistic career unfolded in America, where he achieved international recognition, Daugavpils remains the point of origin: the place where his journey began. The museum honours this connection while inviting viewers to encounter the works not as biographical chapters, but as autonomous and intensely felt acts of painting.
The exhibition follows the arc of Rothko’s creative evolution, from early figurative and Surrealist works to the multiform experiments and the iconic paintings of his mature ‘classic’ period. It does not seek to be a complete retrospective, but presents a curated selection that charts the shift in his thinking and practice – from form to colour, from representation towards emotion and presence.
In Rothko’s work, colour is never decorative. It is a field of intensity that stirs both heart and senses. Here, form and meaning are inseparable. In his mature paintings, Rothko rejects descriptive titles and resists directing interpretation, inviting stillness, silence and dialogue. Through light, layering and subtle compositional balance, the canvas becomes less an object than a site of emotional presence. In this charged space between abstraction and the spiritual resides the enduring power of Rothko’s art.
The exhibition is conceived as a living presentation. The paintings are rotated regularly, while the guiding idea remains unchanged: to reveal the breadth of Rothko’s creative journey. Since the museum opened in 2013, visitors have encountered twenty-four different works from the family collection. Each new selection resumes the conversation with a renewed perspective on his art.
The exhibition will be on view from 24 April 2026 to 22 April 2029.
Curated by Farida Zaletilo
Publicity image: Mark Rothko, Untitled (1948). Oil on canvas, 157.5 x 81.3 cm. Collection of Christopher Rothko.
Information: Rothko Museum