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Christopher Rothko Has Spent 30 Years Connecting With His Father Through the Work

"His work is all about the conversation with the viewer. My conversation is a little different, maybe a little deeper. I'm very grateful to be able to do this work because it's given me a much deeper relationship with him, even if it's ever so slightly indirect."

The Monastery of San Marco in Florence was originally established in the 13th Century; the monks’ cells of the convent were decorated by Fra Angelico in the 1440s. Each small cell has a single window oriented away from direct sunlight. The diffused, soft light was specifically designed for meditation and prayer. Each cell is adorned with a devotional fresco that matches the single arch-topped window in size and shape. In one cell, alongside his Noli me Tangere (Touch Me Not) depicting Jesus speaking to Mary Magdalena after the Resurrection, now hangs Mark Rothko’s shimmering pink and orange Untitled, from 1958. A fitting place to hang a Rothko, who said, “self-expression is boring,” and that he was painting his “not self.”

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“Rothko in Florence,” mounted in San Marco, Palazzo Strozzi and the Biblioteca Laurenziana designed by Michelangelo, is a 15-year labor of love undertaken by Rothko’s son, Christopher. Co-curated with Elena Geuna, it places 73 works in dialogue with these three ancient architectures, with the old and the new illuminating each other. Speaking with Christopher about the exhibition, he pointed out how important it would have been for his father due to the strong connection he felt to the culture and place: “To feel the work resonate as you walk through Palazzo Strozzi, such a beautiful, quiet space, and the more focused interaction you get at the other two venues—it’s very personal, and very special.” What follows is our conversation with the Color Field movement master’s son, lightly edited.

Observer: You started the Rothko Foundation 20 years ago?

Christopher Rothko: There isn’t a Rothko Foundation anymore. The Rothko Foundation, which was independent, conserved the works and gifted them to museums, closed in 1986. My sister and I have two private collections, but we function like a foundation. We support exhibitions; we support research. We try to loan generously.

"Rothko in Florence" Artist: Mark Rothko Venue: Palazzo Strozzi Address: Piazza degli Strozzi, 50123 Florence, Italy Through: August 23, 2026

I covered the National Museum show in D.C., Rothko’s “Paintings on Paper.” I met with Adam Greenhalgh, the curator and lead author of the catalogue raisonné. How’s that going?

This has been a long process, but since Adam’s taken over, it’s really accelerated and just gotten much deeper. They actually closed the research on the catalogue a couple of months ago, in preparation for the print volume coming out in the fall of ’27. My sister and I have probably spent more time working with our father’s works on paper than anything else over the last 50 years.

To see the works unframed, to sense the ripple effect of the paper and then that last room with his quote “Silence is so accurate” hung over the luminescent pink and lilac, Untitled (1969), one of his last works. Thinking about it now still gives me chills.

For many years, that painting hung across from my writing chair. I always hang something inspirational there to fire my words.

How did you choose which paintings went with the Fra Angelicos?

My father didn’t talk a lot about his artwork, but he’s on record twice talking about San Marco and how important it is. I went in with the thought that maybe we would do a Rothko show, and maybe they would be open to some kind of juxtaposition. The amazing thing about Rothko paintings is that they talk. Three of those paintings chose themselves in five minutes. And I knew the three Fra Angelicos they would be paired with. I wanted smaller paintings. I didn’t want to try and shout down Fra Angelico. I wanted something that was going to be scaled to the room, not just color, it was texture. I wanted something that had that powdery, soft texture of a fresco. For me, it’s the soul of the exhibition, if not the heart.

It all comes together as a feeling of reverence. Inspired. Was it hard to procure the space?

Yes, they don’t do this. I think they once before allowed an artist to do a one-day or two-day installation. In the Laurenziana Library, never. This was the first time. I was in discussions with them for 15 years, and they were open to the idea. Even though Firenze has so many tourists, they need more visitation to balance their budget. San Marco is my first destination, but it’s just that little bit outside of the central part of Firenze, and tourists don’t make the jump. I can’t say enough about what amazing partners Palazzo Strozzi have been. It’s the perfect venue for doing this retrospective, which is so focused on the interaction with the history of Florence.

Did you choose San Marco because your father wrote about it in his book, The Artist’s Reality?

Absolutely. This is abstract work. It’s not like he’s making landscapes of Florence. My father talked so little about his work, that when he talks about some place being an important influence for him, I take him really seriously. Besides a brief trip back and forth to London when his retrospective opened at the Whitechapel, he only travelled three other times for multiple months and the entire focus was Italy. He loved ancient Rome, the Roman and Greek temple sites, Tuscany, Umbria. He was looking at art, sun up to sundown, in churches, monasteries, museums.

Both yours and Geuna’s essays in the catalogue for the show are excellent. In yours, you write about the architecture of Firenze and that focus in selecting the paintings.

Particularly all of his drawings for the mural series. He’s working out ideas, in black and white. He’s looking at structure, at forms that have solidity, forms that create their own structure. Within the classic works that we displayed, like the Whitney’s Four Darks in Red, is........

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