Discussion with Kate Rothko Prizel, Christopher Rothko & James Scott, moderated by Anita Rogers
May 9, 2023
Anita Rogers Gallery
494 Greenwich Street, GFL
New York, NY 10013
This event was in conjunction with the gallery's exhibition, MARK ROTHKO and WILLIAM SCOTT: Continuing the Dialogue. On view April 26 - June 3, 2023 in NYC.
00:00-04:20 Introductions by Elizabeth Thompson, Gallery Director
04:20 - Discussion Begins with Kate Rothko Prizel, Christopher Rothko & James Scott, moderated by Anita Rogers
SPEAKER BIOS
Kate Rothko Prizel is a retired physician and is also the daughter of the abstract painter Mark Rothko. Katel was born in 1950 and grew up in New York City. She attended Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and went on to practice Clinical Pathology and Transfusion Medicine and teach Pathology in the Baltimore-Washington area. As a young woman and still a college student, Kate successfully sued one of the most powerful art galleries in New York City to reclaim her father’s paintings, which he had always wanted to be available to the public after his death. After she won the return of more than 650 of her father’s paintings, she became the administrator of his estate and was involved in reconstituting the Mark Rothko Foundation which, in turn, donated the bulk of the art works to 19 museums, allowing public access to some of the most important paintings of the 20th Century. Since that time Kate has been actively involved with maintaining her father’s legacy through planning exhibitions, overseeing the creation of the Mark Rothko Catalogue Raisonnee, and writing about her father.
Christopher Rothko, the second of Mark and Mary Alice Rothko's two children, is a psychologist, writer and for the last thirty years, a custodian of the Rothko legacy in partnership with his sister, Kate. He is editor of his father's book of philosophical writings, The Artist's Reality. His book of essays, Mark Rothko from the Inside Out, was published in 2015 by Yale University Press. Rizzoli published a new landmark monograph on Rothko in 2022, created by the two Rothko children. Dr. Rothko has helped prepare more than two dozen Rothko exhibitions at museums and galleries around the globe and is co-curator of the upcoming Rothko exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. He is Past Chair of the Rothko Chapel Board and is currently head of the Opening Spaces Campaign, guiding the restoration of the Chapel and enhancement of its campus.
James Scott is the son of William Scott. He is an artist and an Academy Award winning filmmaker. He's made a series of groundbreaking films on artists, including David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, and Claes Oldenburg and his father William Scott. He has just completed a film on Antoni Tàpies which recently premiered in Madrid. We have a DVD on sale tonight featuring several of these art films including the narrative feature Every Picture Tells a Story with Natasha Richardson as Scott's art teacher. He also co-founded Berwick Street Collective along with Marc Karlin, Humphry Trevelyan and the artist Mary Kelly to produce Nighcleaners and other political films. Along with his brother Robert, James manages the William Scott Foundation and archive, which while preserving their father's archives and legacy, is dedicated to raising awareness, support and money for the Alzheimer’s Society and its research into possible treatments for the disease from which Scott died. James first met Mark Rothko and his wife Mel and his daughter Kate when they visited the Scott home in England in 1959.
Anita Rogers is the gallery owner and director. As a child, Anita and her mother traveled across Greece, Turkey and Italy with her father, who was British artist and musician Jack Martin Rogers. Her father introduced her to Mark Rothko and the abstract expressionists, as well as William Scott's work at a very young age and she grew up with them as household names. This exposure to art and music at such a young age fueled her passion for the arts. She is a classically trained opera singer, as well as a harpist, and in 2016, she opened the gallery. The gallery has been working with the Scott estate for the last five years.