St Ives Circa 1959

In 1959, St Ives in Cornwall was becoming more widely recognised as an artists’ community. Artists there were exploring the many possibilities of abstract art. This often reflected their experience of the dramatic coastal landscape.

North American painter Mark Rothko visited Somerset and Cornwall in August 1959. This display invites you to follow in his footsteps, encountering the work of the artists he met in the west of England. At the time, Rothko was becoming established as one of the most successful painters of his generation. His visit reflected a dialogue between British and North American artists that was part of the increasingly international nature of contemporary art production.

The wind-blown Cornish landscape inspired the St Ives artists in different ways. We don’t know what Rothko thought about this coastal setting, so different from his New York base. He once told a friend that he hated nature. But he did visit an old Methodist chapel at Lelant which was for sale and considered buying it for his work. He liked the possibility of out-of-the-way places ‘where the traveller or the wanderer could come for an hour to meditate on a single painting.’