Mark Rothko (1903–1970)

“The function of great art is to produce generalizations, no matter whether they are derived from the particular aspects of our environment or from a purely imaginary source” (129).

I have always found Mark Rothko’s color field paintings arresting. There is something about the size, the color choices and their saturation that elicits an immediate affective response in me. Whether these paintings are reflections of mental or emotional states, I’m not sure, but after reading this show more collection of essays that Rothko wrote about his philosophical approach to art, I’m inclined to think that the color field paintings were studies in the ideal.

It is clear from early on in these essays that Rothko is a Platonist. For him, painting is a technique of inquiry, perceiving, and expressing truth. Each instantiation, each visual expression on a canvas is an attempt at capturing the ideal, which is moving, enlarging with each expression to encompass the attempt while still remaining something beyond any individual attempt to capture it. Sometimes that ideal being chased could be something like a color field or something as simple as the way a garment folds or the way two lines meet at a juncture. Art pursues that ideal across forms of expression.

There are a couple of ideas that are central to Rothko’s philosophy and they are interesting.

Movement

Good art moves. “Art must always be in a state of flux, the tempo being slow or fast. But it must move” (14). He encourages artists not to stop and dwell on a particular form of expression but to continue developing, and pushing, and inquiring and trying to uncover more about the ideal one is trying to capture. The artist chases what is true and what is beautiful. When we perceive something as beautiful we are reacting to its “rightness” or truth (62). “[T]o feel beauty is to participate in the abstraction through a particular agency” (64). Artists participate in the abstraction through the iteration of truths and through the modification of techniques that both show artistic movement toward truth but that also invite the viewer to participate, to move as well. Twists of texture in a painting, or sweeping lines, or turns of a brush stroke move the eye through the painting toward the abstraction that the artist wants the viewer to participate in.

I like this notion of finding movement in art. For one, I am imagining each piece of art that is truly art as being at the end of a gossamer, branching tree with each branch chasing an ideal along a different edge of uncharted ground. Those who stop to dwell at any moment are reproducing and duplicating and not moving forward. I also like the idea that viewing / participating in art involves seeing the movement and following it.

“The function of art is to express and to move. The function of decoration is to embellish” (129)

Plasticity

Plasticity to Rothko is the technique and achievement of movement in art (55). It may be a function of malleable media or just the impression of outward and inward or other kinds of movement (46). The movement may be tactile or pictorial or achieved through words, but the important point is that the depiction is a movement toward an ideal. Media that are plastic move the viewer through it to an end or application. Strangely, the image that came to mind was ergonomic design that, for example, allows one to approach a vacuum cleaner and to see from the plasticity of its design how it can be used. Or that plasticity might be in the adaptability of material or object toward some end or truth that it participates in, like a newspaper that can be folded to be read, to cover one’s head, to hold a fish, or to swat a fly.

Myth

Myth is a kind spirit or orientation one has to their place and time. It is what motivates inquiry and truth seeking, whether from fear, desire, love, repulsion, or something else (90). It is sense of being in the world that is of a time and it is what motivates movement and compels one to see plasticity in the media available to us for pursuing truth. “We know that all art is inescapably entwined with all the intellectual processes of the age in which it is functioning, and modern art is no less an expression of that state of mind than were Christian or Renaissance art of the intellectual aspirations of their own times” (112). Art of a time reflects the methods of truth seeking.

The theory gets a little sketchy when it comes to myth, but Rothko sees expression of it in schools of painting that are expressions of myth of a desire to seek an ideal or an understanding of a condition. Where some older forms of art might express a a myth born of poverty and insecurity, another might derive from rebellion, and others from something else. It makes me wonder what kind of myth we currently inhabit and what kind of art and movement it produces? Maybe a myth reflecting networked isolation? Directionlessness? show less

originally appeared on my blog, http://smallpressures.blogspot.com

OK, so Mark Rothko was not a writer. This is apparent in this recently discovered text, published in 2004 by Yale UP but probably written during the late 1930's or early 1940's. His prose is dense and sometimes circular, he lets his bitterness about other, more commercially successful artists pop up in the middle of seemingly unrelated chapters, and he creates obscure definitions for artistic principles that he doesn't clearly show more define.

That having been said, The Artist's Reality is still a gem, if only because you get a tiny glimpse into the mind of one of the 20th century's most remarkable painters. Having just read Rothko's "philosophies," I am not sure I understand his work any more than I did before, and readers looking for insight into his color field paintings won't find much in the way of new clarity, as the editor, Rothko's son, warns. But it sure is delightfully bitchy fun listening to him make fun of Maxfield Parrish.

And there are some lovely sentences in this slim text, such as when Rothko proclaims:

Therefore art, like philosophy, is of its own age; for the partial truths of each age differ from those of other ages, and the artist, like the philosopher, must constantly adjust eternity, as it were, to all the specifications of the moment.

There is something really striking about this sentence, because among the meandering construction and totally useless little phrases to trip over like "as it were," there is this tiny gem of a phrase: "must constantly adjust eternity."

The whole book is like that -- a genius who knows his own mind and yet is struggling with words to make it clear. It's really wonderful in its rawness. We have to remember that Rothko himself did not publish the book, maybe for good reason, and did not have the final edit, since the manuscript was (thankfully!) unearthed from his files long after his death. show less

Let me first state that I love Rothko's work and am also a fan of the play Red (which is about Rothko). I should also add that the written works published in this book were never polished and completed by Rothko, the manuscript having been discovered after his death. Therefore, anyone reading it should take this into account before setting expectations.

While this book is interesting and has some nice insight, I felt as if I knew Rothko better through his artistic compositions. Maybe that's show more because visual art is his native language, and he's more fluent in light, shapes, and color than in the written word. There are some gaps and rough spots that made the book feel incomplete, but the volume still serves as an introduction to the artist's philosophy and perspective on the state of the art world during his lifetime.

This book will be primarily of interest to Rothko's fans and admirers, and there are a few gleanings for art students. That said, there are some wonderful quotes about art and artists that I really enjoyed. show less

This book is a wonderful way to learn about the theories related to the artist Mark Rothko. No one is probably more qualified to write this than his son Christopher Rothko. It is just the right amount of personal experiences from Christopher Rothko and the art analysis of the paintings. It covers the large commissions throughout Mark Rothko's career and it promotes some lost ideals on how to experience a Rothko painting. Most importantly it clears up some myths associated with the show more painter.

This is a very loose biography of the artist. I'm also assuming that the reader has a connection with a Rothko painting. Some of the topics are pretty big and it would help if the reader had prior knowledge of Rothko. Christopher Rothko doesn't take the time to translate the meanings of the paintings, as he should because it is a personal experience. Readers going into this book looking for answers will probably be disappointed. Christopher Rothko mostly writes about the paintings significance to Mark Rothko and the viewer of his paintings. The author keeps it light in the heavier parts of Rothko's work.

The book is perfect for those curious to learn more about Mark Rothko. Because it is not strictly a biography, it can bring interesting theories about the artist and the paintings to light. For those who haven't "experienced" a Rothko but want to, this book can help point you to the right path. For those who have, this book somewhat explains why you might have this experience. Christopher Rothko makes sure it all stays within the wishes of his father to make sure the experience is authentic. show less