Living Color

In this riveting tale of art, creativity, addiction, infidelity, and murder, a famous Color Field painting is viciously slashed from side to side at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Morris Rubinoff, a talented young artist with a serious drinking problem, and his writer wife, Marica, are in the city at the behest of Oreia and Martin Santel. Wealthy American collectors, the Santels are interested in purchasing an important work by Mondrian that had been confiscated by the Nazis during World War II and recently come to light. While there, Morris and Marica visit museums, the Anne Frank House, and the infamous red-light district, where prostitutes pose erotically in shop windows. They become involved with Eunice Barts and her husband, Gene, a conservator working on the repair of the slashed canvas. The plot thickens when art student Rodrigo Mechant appears on the scene begging for funds to continue his studies. Surprisingly, suspicion for the slashing falls on Charles Leichbacker, a young man who recently fled South Africa, where he had been engaged in a visionary stint to help victims of apartheid that had gone horribly wrong. After a brilliant extensive investigation by the Dutch police, the perpetrator is finally apprehended.

Dr. Rothenberg weaves this intriguing tale like a restorer reweaving a slashed canvas. He takes us on unexpected twists and turns as all the characters intersect with one another and the blame bounces from one suspect to another. Suff used with references to colors as living entities and to the role they play in our perception of ourselves and of the world, Living Color is an exciting romp through a field of clues in red, yellow, and blue.