Customer Reviews

The Legacy Of Mark Rothko

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In this interesting and enlightening book, Lee Seldes takes us into a world few of us will ever know. Most of us go to museums and enjoy the works, but we never think of the wheeling and dealing behind it. Seldes first shows us the troubled artist, then shows how greedy individuals will do whatever they need to to scam, lie and steal to increase their bank accounts and inflate the prices of the works they own. We see how Kate Rothko, still in school, must fight multi millionaire art dealers and powerful galleries to get what is rightfully hers, and to see that her father's legacy is presented and perserved the way he wanted it to be. If you're a lover of modern art, the works of Mark Rothko or even to a degree a fan of mystery stories, you'll enjoy this book and continue thinking about it long after you've finished reading.

Ms. Seldes has produced a superb book! This is a must read for anyone interested in Mark Rothko, the Matter of Rothko, or the ugly commercial world of art. While her writings on the lawsuits and the cast of characters are somewhat confusing, it's hard to blame the author because the subject matter itself was confusing! The book was almost hard to believe that it was non-fiction! It had all the intrigue of Swiss banks, Concorde jetsetters, the New York art scene, and tax havens like Bahamas and Lichtenstein -- and it all really happened! I congratulate Ms. Seldes on a very strong effort!

This compelling tale reflects nearly unbelievable hubris, chicanery, and recklessness in the art world that would make a terrific film if it weren't such a sad legacy for the Rothko family.

In the first half of the book Seldes details the tragic elements of Rothko's choices in her fine biography of the artist that is far more succinct than Breslin's tome, then in the second half plays out how his drunken actions were exploited fearlessly after his death. It contains an amazing array of international money-laundering and false corp shenanigans, jet-setting ex-pats, elegant museum and law-world figures, and bruised-ego academics, all at work during a trial of Bleak House proportions.

It's true that in the trial chapters the thousands of pages of evidence sometimes threaten to overwhelm the book, what with the Rothko Foundation board and their witnesses, the gallery players and their witnesses, the expert testifiers, the lawyers and their investigators, the family and their legal reps, etc. But the forward-moving narrative is brisk enough to overcome these reporting challenges. The author shows skill for leaving a reader agog at not only the greed of the handlers but the single-minded though talented egotism of the artist that were both key components of this tragedy.