New Film Planned About Famed Artist Buried On North Fork

EAST MARION, NY — The small cemetery in East Marion sits quiet and hidden from the Main Road, inscriptions on headstones bearing heartfelt witness to mothers, fathers, soldiers sent home from their final battles and laid to rest at the lakefront parcel. "He was loved," one stone reads.

Set humbly in a row, inconspicuous and easily missed, is a stone marked only "Mark Rothko: 1903-1970." No fanfare, no bouquets of flowers, no signs mark the spot where Rothko, a world-renowned abstract expressionist painter whose works now sell for millions, was laid to rest after he died by suicide.

The story of how Rothko ended up buried in the small North Fork cemetery is long and winding, marked by well-known men in control of his estate who reportedly attempted to sell his work "fraudulently," according to Slashfilm.com.

The New York Times reported that after dying by suicide on Feb. 25, 1970, Rothko was buried in the East Marion plot owned by artist Theodoros Stamos, "a friend and one of three executors of his estate. The following year, guardians acting on behalf of Mr. Rothko’s children sued the executors: Mr. Stamos; Morton Levine, an anthropology professor; and Bernard J. Reis, chief accountant of the Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan," the post said. "The executors were accused of selling or consigning paintings to the Marlborough at less than market value while collecting exorbitant commissions and dividing the proceeds."

The men were found guilty, "removed as executors and fined, along with the gallery, $9.2 million," the New York Times said.

A new film about the real-life drama — "Rothko," starring Russell Crowe — is slated to begin filming in 2021, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Rothko is a film about courage against adversity in the face of insurmountable odds," a release posted in Slashfilm.com said. The film centers on the long legal battle fought by Kate Rothko, just 19 at the time — "a fight that would rumble on for more than four years and expose the underhanded greed of the supposedly genteel art world," the post said.

Born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, Rothko, according to National Gallery of Art, was, along with Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, one of the most renowned artists of his generation, "identified with the New York school, a circle of painters that emerged during the 1940s as a new collective voice in American art."

His work is celebrated by many: A single painting sold for $190 million; and over the past decade, his work has fetched more than $1.1 billion at auction, according to Architectural Digest.

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the film is based on the book "The Legacy of Mark Rothko" by Lee Seldes and is slated to star Aisling Franciosi as Kate Rothko, as well as Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jared Harris.

Dr. Kate Rothko Prizel and Rothko's son Dr. Christopher Rothko also waged a legal war to bring their father's body from the East Marion Cemetery to Westchester County; Rothko's children won the suit in 2018, according to the New York Times.

But, despite the decision, on a blue March day, the only sounds are those of birds chirping as a soft breeze wafts in from the lake beyond. Rothko's body has not yet been disinterred and remains buried in East Marion, his grave marked with small stones, a symbol of his Jewish faith.

Nancy Poole, secretary and treasurer of the East Marion Cemetery Association, disagreed with the attempt to move Rothko from the area and wrote a letter to the judge at the time, she said. "He should rest in peace," she said.

Rothko, she added, is the most notable and accomplished artist associated with the North Fork.

And while it might appear implausible that a man seen by many as one of the greatest artists of his generation is buried at a secluded spot seemingly forgotten by time, there are some who remember — who come to pay homage.

Tucked under a rock at his grave this week, a single piece of folded notebook paper written by an unknown author bore testament to the impact Rothko has, still, on those whose lives he's touched with his art — a legacy that shines strong despite legal wranglings and controversy.

"To this day I sometimes get lost in blank walls. Others have teased me for it, as they should. But I think you saw something, like what I see. Something too big, too deep, too vivid," the note said.

"Of course, you might have said that I have it all wrong, as you should. And yet, I used to tell others that what I saw in the blank walls was God. Your work helped me understand that God is neither big, nor deep, nor vivid," the note continued. "So you did help me arrive at truth, even if it wasn't yours."