Mark Rothko's "No. 210/no.211 (Orange)"

UPDATE:  The work of Rothko has been even more newsworthy since the defacement of one of his paintings at the Tate Gallery in London.  Not everyone considers the vandalism to be an epic tragedy.
Novelist and art critic Ruth Dudley Edwards not only considers Rothko a fraud but also excoriates esteemed British artists like Tracey Emin, "creator" of the work below and others.

I have a similar work at my house but it's dynamic art, changing from day to day according to what newspapers and books I'm reading and what clothes are laying around waiting for a trip to the washing machine.
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 The administrators of the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, want their facility to be impressive and relevant. This article in the WSJ describes their response to criticism that their collection did not include enough abstract art.

Don Bacigalup, former director at the Toledo (Ohio, not Spain) Art Museum was somehow coerced into moving from the suburb of Detroit to the wilderness of central Arkansas, but his previous position doesn't lend the required prestige to the new museum. Will a new Rothko help?

Mark Rothko himself, Russian-born creator of abstract American art that no chimpanzee could hope to duplicate.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, easily the most impressive building ever constructed in Bentonville and probably the entire state of Arkansas. The shocking lack of a multi-million dollar abstract painting hanging in the building has been alleviated with the purchase of the Rothko. Nuevo-riche Alice Walton has brought real culture to the heartland.