Spotlight on Intersections@5: Tayo Heuser

The Phillips celebrates the fifth anniversary of its Intersections contemporary art series with Intersections@5, an exhibition comprising work by 20 of the participating artists. In this blog series, each artist writes about his or her work on view.

My response to The Rothko Room, particularly to his painting Ochre and Red on Red, painted in 1954: Color, lightness, fullness, sadness, spirituality, silence, movement, an opening towards a distant place. I wanted to keep still, sit down, look and listen for a very long time. Tears. It was like nothing else. The room has perfect lighting and proportions. The paintings breathed. The plain bench was good. This woodcut and sculptural drawing (among several others created in various sizes) is the result of my response to The Rothko Room.

Tayo Heuser