"Red" is set in the New York studio of artist Mark Rothko, who is known for paintings that seem to pulsate with a life force of their own.

It?s the 1950s and Rothko is working on a commissioned series of paintings for the new Four Seasons restaurant and his recently hired assistant is rapidly learning about the uncompromising aesthetic of his new boss. Though Rothko feels the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, he tells his assistant, "There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend . . . One day the black will swallow the red."