Rothko and Mulas star in two documentaries premiering tomorrow night on Rai5

Tomorrow night’s episode of Art Night, Friday, February 12, 2021, is dedicated to a great of art, Mark Rothko, and a great of photography, Ugo Mulas. They are the protagonists of two documentaries that will be aired on Silvia De Felice, Massimo Favia and Marta Santella’s show starting at 9:15 p.m. on Rai 5.

It begins with Mark Rothko. Paintings must be miraculous, Eric Slade’s premiere documentary, titled after a quote by the artist, produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting in association with THIRTEEN’s American Masters for WNET. Among the most influential artists of the 20th century, Mark Rothko’s distinctive style revolutionized 20th-century art history and helped defineAbstract Expressionism, the movement that, in the 1950s, made New York one of the art capitals of the world. The film is an intimate portrait of the celebrated painter whose luminous canvases now set records at international auctions. Interviews with Rothko’s children, Kate and Christopher, as well as leading curators, art historians and conservators offer a comprehensive look at the artist’s life and career, supplemented by original scenes with Alfred Molina, who played Rothko in the award-winning play Red.

Over a career spanning five decades, Rothko developed his signature style: broad abstract color fields with luminous rectangular shapes that balance depth, form and tone through the delicate layering of many subtle washes of paint. The narrative follows his rise in the art world alongside Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell and others as abstract expressionism took the art world by storm and highlights one of Rothko’s most famous commissions, the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. After the paintings were completed, Rothko took his own life on February 25, 1970. Although he did not live to see the completion of Rothko Chapel with his paintings installed, the chapel is now celebrated as one of America’s sacred centers and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Next, Art Night features a document from the Teche Rai: Portraits - protagonists of culture in Milan. Photograph. Ugo Mulas 1989 made by his wife Antonia Mulas. A black-and-white portrait, a first-person account of Ugo Mulas’ work and his passion for photography. From his beginnings at Caffè Jamaica in Milan, a meeting place for artists and intellectuals, to his relationship with the art world, from his friendship with some of the greatest artists of the second half of the twentieth century to his experience in America in the 1960s when Pop Art exploded, up to his latest research that led him to abandon reportages on art and to reflect instead on the potential of the photographic medium itself.

From the recollections and testimonies of artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and gallery owner Leo Castelli, it emerges how much Mulas was a true pioneer in art photography. The first to tell through his shots the art in the moment of its creation. The first to immerse himself completely in the art scene, to live in contact with artists to capture through their behavior, the meaning of their art making. His eye was able to see before others, and Ugo Mulas did not just portray artists and their works but was himself a relevant artist. Supplemented with comments by critic Costantino D’Orazio, photographer Aurelio Amendola and gallery owner Lia Rumma, who now works closely with the Ugo Mulas Archive. The historical document is enriched with contributions that actualize the figure of this undisputed protagonist of the Italian and international art scene of the second half of the 20th century.

Rothko and Mulas star in two documentaries premiering tomorrow night on Rai5

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