Rothko

It's been a while since my last 'featured artist' so I thought I should share some of the amazing art that I was able to see while in England. I only visited one art museum while in London, which was the Tate Modern. The collection had several artists that I plan on sharing later, such as Mondrian, Beuys, Manzoni, and Lichtenstein, as well as a few paintings by Pollock, whom I've already discussed here. I think the highlight of the museum visit was seeing Summertime by Pollock:

It's difficult to see the vibrant forms from this picture of it, but the work itself is really quite brilliant. By the way, that is Jack the Dripper himself standing in front of the painting. However, as the title of the post suggests, this isn't another post about Pollock. It is about Mark Rothko, who had several paintings on display at the Tate, London.

The paintings that I have pictured here display Rothko's belief that a painting should be just color on canvas. That is what the medium of paint is, afterall, just color.. there is no demension to paint, and to create the illusion of dimension by various techniques is to take away the true form of painting. He also felt that painting should not refer to anything outside itself. That is, the subject of these paintings is the paint itself. When you look at the painting, you do not see reference to Lady Madonna, or a pastoral scene, but you see (get this) the painting. Just the painting. In art theory, we say it points inward rather than outward.

These paintings are quite large, and quite moving. Sometimes I cry when I look at them. Because they are so large, and because of the nature of the painting to point inward, it is easy to get lost in them; you forget that you are standing in an exhibit room of a stuffy museum looking at art. You only see the colors and feel the colors. As Rothko said himself: "The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."

It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to understand Rothko just by looking at these pictures. You need to get to a museum and stand in front of one. The art institute of Chicago has a couple that I can sit in front of for hours. Another note about these pictures is that many of the paintings were originally contracted to go to a restaraunt, but while painting them Rothko realized that they would not reach their full potential in such an environment and instead donated them to the Tate Modern, London. They are being displayed as Rothko wished, in a dark room. The lighting makes it easier to get lost in the color squares, because there is very little telling your senses where you're actually at. When I looked at some of the paintings, I felt like I was falling- kind of like alice.

***Note: I am having troubles uploading my rothko images. As it is very late, I will post the pictures later. If you're really curious, go to google.com and do an image search on "rothko" Sorry!)***