Red

American Voices

John Logan

It was the paintings. It all comes back to the Seagram’s Murals for me. I was working in London and I happened to go to the Tate Modern museum. Walking into that room and being among those grand and brooding murals for the first time was almost overpowering. They touched me, mostly because of their sense of profound seriousness. I read the little description on the wall of the gallery and knew, immediately, there was a play in Rothko’s complicated relationship with his work. Almost as immediately I knew it had to be a two-hander, to reflect the vibrant interplay of the colors on the canvasses. For me Red has always been binary: red/black; light/dark; young/old; teacher/student; father/son. In the end if you don’t like the play, blame me, not the paintings. They are mute, magnificent and unassailable.