Frieze Masters Podcast

When Mark Rothko visited Fra Angelico's frescoes at the convent of San Marco in Florence, he was 'overwhelmed,' recounts his son, the psychologist and writer Christopher Rothko. 'That's what he wanted for his viewer,' says Rothko, 'to look at his artwork as sources of inspiration, spirituality and contemplation.'

In the second episode of the Frieze Masters Podcast 2025, Christopher Rothko is in conversation with curator and art historian Carl Strehlke and Arturo Galansino, director general of Palazzo Strozzi, to discuss the affinity between Rothko's abstract expressionism and the Italian renaissance, ahead of a landmark show of Rothko's work in Florence in 2026.

The Frieze Masters Talks programme and the Frieze Masters Podcast are brought to you by Frieze in collaboration with dunhill

'Rothko in Florence' is on view at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 14 March – 26 July 2026

About the speakers

Christopher Rothko is a writer, psychologist and son of artist Mark Rothko. He has written extensively on his father's legacy. Carl Strehlke is an art historian and curator of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They are joined by their host Arturo Galansino, art historian, curator, director general of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and this year's curator of the Frieze Masters Talks programme.

About the Frieze Masters Podcast

The Frieze Masters Podcast is back for 2025, bringing you seven conversations across art history curated by Arturo Galansino (Director General of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence).

Entitled 'Woven Histories' and recorded live at Frieze Masters 2025, this year's series features artists, curators and thinkers, whose conversations weave together geographies and chronologies, and challenge us to look at history in new and unexpected ways.

Topics range from the evolving relationship between fashion and art to the role of the archive in Black history, the last Mughals and their cultural influence in India and the enduring inspiration of the old masters and renaissance art on contemporary making. Speakers include artists Tracey Emin, Glenn Brown and Antony Gormley, museum directors and curators Nicholas Cullinan, Émilie Hammen, Elizabeth Way and Carl Strehlke, and writers Edward George, Matthew Harle, Christopher Rothko and William Dalrymple.

The Frieze Masters Talks programme and the Frieze Masters Podcast are brought to you by Frieze in collaboration with dunhill.

Further Information

'When you make a painting, you want to make a good painting. You are more interested in the composition of the things, than in the precise description of the things.' – Nathalie Du Pasquier

In the seventh and final episode of Series 3 of the Frieze Masters Podcast, artist Nathalie Du Pasquier, architect Annabelle Selldorf and Curator Abraham Thomas discuss the plasticity of the creative environment, and the collisions and contrasts between the visions of artists, architects and curators.

Nathalie du Pasquier is an artist and co-founder of the Memphis design group in the 1980s; Annabelle Selldorf of Selldorf Architects has a global practice with expertise in complex cultural projects, including museums and temporary structures such as Frieze Masters; and Abraham Thomas is the Daniel Brodsky Curator of Modern Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

'If I can let the viewer stand in front of my painting and question – if they can ask a question – this is success.' – Glenn Ligon

How does the written and spoken word relate to the visual language of painting, sculpture and installation? To discuss this connection and the power and potential of poetry, the sixth episode of the Frieze Masters Podcast brings together artists Glenn Ligon and Dia al-Azzawi and Chisenhale Director Zoé Whitley.

Glenn Ligon is a New York-based artist whose career has explored history, literature and society through painting and conceptual art; Dia al-Azzawi is now a central figure in the development of modernist art in the Arab world; and Zoé Whitley is Director of the non-profit Chisenhale Gallery in London.

'What's left for art? Art can offer ritual and ceremony, a communal place where bodies can gather. It's a place where things can happen visually, musically, sonically, and in dance and with the voice.' – Mark Leckey

In the fifth episode of the Frieze Masters Podcast, artist Mark Leckey, curator Polly Staple and Director of Art Fund Jenny Waldman reflect on the legacy and future of British art and discuss how it might expand its reach to engage young and underrepresented audiences.

Mark Leckey is a Turner Prize-winning artist whose work is infused with popular culture, memory and experience; Polly Staple is Director of Collection, British Art, at Tate; and Jenny Waldman CBE is Director of Art Fund.