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Mark Raggatt nd Matthew Austin
In Mies’ drawings of the Seagram building, its most obvious characteristic – being a tower – is forgotten. Mies drew the plaza and façade curtain in the background. Two statues frame the scene; there lies a simple and exact stage set: a pure and empty city. Mark Rothko painted murals for the Seagram. Jonothan Jones said, “These are paintings that seem to exist on the skin inside an eyelid.” Rothko’s murals never hung in the Seagram, he withdrew them and gifted the paintings to various museums. Soon after, Rothko was found dead by his own hand. He said “I accepted this assignment with strictly malicious intentions. I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room. This studio is about towers. This studio is about what makes cities lonely and if there’s anything we should do about it.
