"What do you see?"
That's the first question painter Mark Rothko poses, almost pleads, to his new apprentice Ken in the opening minutes of the Rep's scorching season opener, John Logan's RED.
Mark Rothko's "multiforms" led to the development of Color Field Painting in the 1940's and 50's. Although he is considered a master abstract expressionist, he shunned labels of any kind applied to his style. You know -- that temperamental artist thing.
The play takes place in Rothko's 1950's art studio after he's been given a $35,000 commission (over $2 million today) to paint a series of murals for Manhattan's new Four Seasons restaurant. Ken, an aspiring young artist himself, has been hired as Rothko's assistant. He does everything from fetching Chinese food and preparing Rothko's canvases, to being a sounding board for the master and his intellectual ramblings. Before Ken even has a chance to answer Rothko's initial question, he's given instructions on how to perceive his art -- "Let it work on you. Let it pulsate. Now what do you see?".
