My Christmas pilgrimage to Mark Rothko’s Latvia
Share:
I took the scenic route to Daugavpils, birthplace of the abstract artist – a world of breathtaking colour, kindness and cold. It’s a funny time of year to be visiting Latvia’s second city, Daugavpils, in the far south-east of the country. It’s midwinter and an icy blast has swept across northern Europe, bringing with it some of the coldest temperatures Latvia has experienced in a decade. On my third and final night, I set a new personal best, or worst, of -30C, and all that matters now is survival.
![[TRAVEL Latvia Daugavpils]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1391646ab5f6f77627e650c2c886d7f24c29694d/31_25_938_410/master/938.png?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Daugavpils is one of the most ethnically Russian cities inside the European Union today, a fifth of the population being Latvian, while half are ethnic Russians. During the Soviet occupation, Moscow sent tens of thousands of Russians to live in Latvia, as well as to other parts of the Soviet Union.
![[The end of the line at Turmentas, Lithuania.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1698d55e93ccbdb4f3d4a37fe54267af039acd74/0_0_5687_3791/master/5687.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The city is the birthplace of the abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko, and in 2013 the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, now renamed the Rothko Museum, opened there. It houses works by Rothko, as well as exhibitions by contemporary artists, inside Daugavpils Fortress, which was built early in the 19th century.
![[A bird’s-eye view of Orthodox Christmas celebrations in Daugavpils.Green]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/636e10458b437466ecb227f0550d6b72be343580/0_365_5760_3456/master/5760.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
This is also where I will be staying for the weekend, in one of its 10 rooms (doubles €45), providing comfort against the fearsome cold. The fortress’s ambience is rather like what is sometimes labelled as the dark period of Rothko’s last years, when the colours oozing from his palette appeared to darken. My room is certainly dark in hue, evocatively lit and warm as toast, creating the perfect resting place between mile-and-a-half walks to and from the city centre.
![[Rothko Museum in Latvia]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/10e221c5d75f06c7014b59f0577ad22cbf360834/0_200_6000_3600/master/6000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
