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The Phillips Collection has an intimate Rothko Room which creates a meditative space to view his color field paintings. The museum's founder designed the room specifically for this purpose. Mark Rothko's last years are chronicled in a play currently showing at the Arena Stage in Washington,DC. Washington holds a special place for this artist, with the National Gallery holding the largest collection of his work in the world and the Phillips Collection having a special Rothko Room designed for his work by the museum's founder. "Red," an award-winning Broadway play by John Logan, will continue its run until March 9. The entire play takes place in Rothko's studio with a dialogue between Rothko and a young assistant named Ken. In 100 minutes without interruption, there are no lulls in this play. Of Rothko, Duncan Phillips described "mysterious layers of paint...suggest depth in spite of their flat mat quality. " Or ange and Red on Red, 1957, is part of t...

An exquisite of exhibition "mourning" statues at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, have a beauty and realism that give us something to cry about, a phrase Michelangelo used to describe Flemish painting. In the 15th century, Flanders was ruled by the Duke of Burgundy and similarities to the Flemish style of painting can be are apparent in the style of sculptors Jean de la Huerta and Antoine de la Moiturier. They learned their art from the great Claus Sluter, a Netherlandish sculptor who worked in Burgundy. The Dukes of Burgundy had one of Europe's richest courts, in rivalry with the King of France to the west and Holy Roman Empire to the east. The 40 statues line up as if in a funeral procession. At the exhibition, viewers have a chance to see the statues in more completeness and in a more realistic way than in the location they were originally placed, below the bodies of Duke John the Fearless (Jean sans Peur) and his wife, Marguerite. In the current display, th...

Saint Francis in Ecstasy, from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, is in the Kimbell Art Museum's exhibition, Caravaggio and His Followers until January 8 One painting in the Kimbell Art Museum's Caravaggio exhibition (today is the last day) reveals an unexpected side of Caravaggio's nature. St. Francis in Ecstasy , from the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT, is poetic. Parallel lines of light on water to the left lead to a very sweet angel holding St. Francis.  The saint  has swooned after receiving the stigmata , the wounds of Jesus. In dead center, St. Francis's foreshortened hand vaguely reveals this hole representing the nail that went into Christ's hand. Intentionally I have refrained from writing about the type of paintings for which Caravaggio is most famous. The Boy Bitten by a Lizard and The Sacrifice of Isaac (in the Kimbell exhibition ) cause discomfort and hit us in the gut. As Isaac is about to be killed by his father Abraham, he looks out of ...

Martha and Mary Magdalene, c. 1598, shows the saint at the moment of her conversion. It is from the Detroit Institute of Arts, but is currently on view in Caravaggio and His Followers, at the Kimbell Museum of Art In Caravaggio's remarkable version of the Mary Magdalen story, he painted the moment of her transition from sinner to saint. As much as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code popularized the idea that the Church demonized Mary Magdalen, more commonly she was idealized in art as a saint who turned her life around. The painter Michelangelo Merisi, who is nicknamed Caravaggio, was demonized in his lifetime for his shockingly realistic paintings and his own "sinful" life. (He was charged with murder and often on the run.) The inclusion of Martha with Mary Magdalen and other objects requires the viewer to interpret the symbolism. Martha is seated with her back to the viewer, with only one shoulder and her hands hit by Caravaggio's dramatic lighting. On the ...

Valentin de Boulogne, Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice, c. 1618/20 A magnificent exhibition of Caravaggio and His Followers at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Wort h features the Washington National Gallery of Art's Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice by Valentin de Boulogne. The painting tells a story of deception. Caravaggi o had also painted Card Sharks with fewer figures. Boulogne, a Frenchman working in Rome, may have known of his composition. Boulogne's painting is a tight, close-up composition with masterfully chosen areas of ligh t. Two simultaneous episodes are taking place: dice throwing on the right and cheating card players on the left. The card sharks are the first to demand our attention, as they look startlingly real. Behind the central fig u re, who is in the process of cheating, a nother drama is happening. A man on the r ight l ooks down and covers his dice, perhaps hiding something while his adversary with the red hat seems about to erupt in anger. Although ...

St Anthony Torment by the Demons, c. 1487, was painted by Michelangelo when he was only 13. The panel, 18 x 12 inches, is warped as happens to many panels over time. The Torment of Saint Anthony is a small panel painting which was recently discovered to have been painted by Michelangelo in 1487/88. Intensive cleaning in 2008/9 led experts to believe that Michelangelo painted it when he was 12 or 13 years of age. Only four easel paintings by Michelangelo are known, and this one of is in North America, at Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum. Michelangelo's St. Anthony looks remarkably calm despite the demons who are scratching him St. Anthony was an early Christian of the 4th century who lived as a hermit for many years. According to his biographer, the rigorous asceticism practiced by St Anthony in the Egyptian desert allowed him to float in the air, where he was attacked by devils trying to beat him to the ground. Anthony defeated these demons on more than one occasion, but n...

The Newseum in Washington, DC, opened near the Mall in 2008. This 7-floor, 653 square-foot building on Pennsylvania Avenue is a museum of photographic, print and broadcast journalism. Its architecture combines ul tra-sleek glass with reinforced concrete. Instead of going to the National Gallery's exhibition, Andy Warhol: Headli nes, a trip to the Newseum across the street to learn abo ut real headlines and the history of journalism w ould be more worthwhile . Warhol had a need for publicity, but that does not make his art interesting and r eal li fe news deserves more of the public's attention. The 14 galleries and 15 theaters involve many historic events. A few news programs are broadcast here, including This Week . S eeing a Warh ol in person offers nothing new, unless the colors are wrong in reproduction. Size is the only difference between a real Warhol and a reproduction, but big does not make the art good. A concurrent Wa rhol exhibition at the Hirshhorn has very ...