An Introduction to Mark Rothko

The play RED by John Logan was a phenomenon. It portrays artist Mark Rothko at a serious time of his life, a time where he was becoming depressed and even considering suicide. The play deeply expresses Rothko’s conflicted mindset about the role of art. The conflict between his intellect and will for art represents an internal battle that artists may experience when creating. The play is also a good depiction about the ideas that society has on art... art appreciation. At the same time, the play shares an exhilaration of creating a piece of art. It is

Although books full of words are more efficient in delivering and describing what the author feels, sometimes pictures can give a deep meaning depending on how they are organized. The Veil by Marjane Satrapi’s is a graphic novel that’s organized in a particular way, to deliver a certain message through the pictures. Marjane includes different sizes and frames that serve what she is thinking and feeling. Choosing certain sizes, frames and colours isn’t arbitrary. As each box increases in size, it means that she wants to emphasize the message behind that box, or show her relation to that particular text. Contrast is also one of the main elements that Marjane uses in her graphic novel. For example, on page five, there is a big picture of

At first glance, the Red Fish looks like a decoration piece that someone would hang in their home or lake house for decoration. However, with a more in depth look, viewers will see that this painting illustrates much more than it appears. In 1990, Leonard Koscianski used a piece of canvas, 64’’x46’’ to paint the image of a fish out of water. Koscianski used oil and dark shades of red, orange, blue, green, and white to create the Red Fish. The Red Fish was painted vertically with the fish as the main focus point. Behind some green blade grass, a large red- orange fish appears to be leaping out of the water. The size of the fish helps show that the fish is the center piece of the painting. Behind the fish there is a small patch of land, filled with blade grass with two white house’s sitting off in the distance. Directly behind the houses is a section of woods. From left to right, the tree tops seem to follow and up and down pattern. The dark blue sky begins at the tree line and ends at the top of the painting. Throughout the sky there are patches of clouds that are an off white color. The contrast between the colors used by Koscianski show a lot of detail, but did not take away from the huge red- orange fish. Along with the color scheme, Koscianski used lines to add detail to the fish and to provide depth to the painting. With proper use of colors and lines, Koscianski was able to create the Red Fish. In 1991, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

The convergence of the implied lines forming the river banks with the fading blue mountains on the right produce a left to right movement when viewing the painting. The invisible lines created by the mountain range and the river emphasize direction by moving the viewer from a narrow and cramped foreground to a vastly open background that seems to go on for miles. His use of lines to produce this movement down the river has an effect of taking the viewer on a short ride into the distance towards the open mountains under a clear blue sky with white fluffy clouds. In contrast the buildings in the distance are enveloped in white with much softer lines and less defined outlines. This progression from clearly outlined and defined to less defined and wispy shapes communicates the thought of starting a journey in firm reality and moving down a dreamy river towards the unknown. Carefree clouds, beautiful mountains, and blue water just take the viewer to a more serene place, away from the reality of the

The engulfing size of the painting (250.5 x 159.5 cm) drives the audiences mind into a hypnotic frenzy as they are overwhelmed by bright and sensual colours, which, have the ability to evoke deep emotions and realisations. Kandinsky has portrayed this through the disorientation of his own personal visions of society during the industrial revolution. The rough yet expressive outline of buildings, a rainbow and the sun gives reference to realism as it allows viewers to connect and understand underlying motifs and shapes yet is painted abstractly to move away from the oppressive and consumerist society. Thus, Kandinsky breaks boundaries through his innovative approach to his art-making practise concluded from his personal belief of ‘art for arts sake’. He believed that art should mainly convey the artist’s personal views and self-expressionism that translated a constant individuality throughout his work from an inner intentional emotive drive. This broke traditional boundaries as art in the renaissance period was meant to be a ‘narration’ or an artwork where an audience could learn and benefit from. This is evidently shown in Composition IV as it exemplifies Kandinsky’s inner feelings towards the industrialised society

Therefore, the work engages the mind in a lot and this happens because of the powerful impact of color and texture, which serves to demonstrate emphasis and variety, which also occurs because the artist has combined them in a perfectly symmetrical manner (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 2014). The thoughts relating to the body are powerful to the reader, and they serve to remind the audience that death is inevitable and that we all have to face it as some point in our lives. Therefore, the principles of texture and color trigger remembrance especially because of the numerous repetitions that help to create balance, unity, harmony, and symmetry (Sayre 2012).

In the words of Henry David Thoreau, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination”. This statement speaks to all of mankind, in that, art can be traced back to thousands of years ago. For centuries people have put their whole lives into creating art, hoping that they would pass on their views while still creating something different, interesting, and unique. Generating from these ideas was as artist named Ivan Albright. Though his pieces appeared to depict a world of decay and corruption, Albright showed his love for art through his morbid emotional intensity. In this paper I will discuss the history of the artist, compare and contrast the subject matter and technique of two of his paintings, as acknowledge his approach to color, texture, balance, and space.

Red appears to dominate the painting and serves as an eye-catching color. The use of intensely saturated colors draws the attention to the front couple. Additionally, the red color plays with the mind of the onlooker without them thinking about it. It suggests deep passion, anger, and struggle. The artist intends to relay his feelings about the event to the viewer. His outlook consists of disgust towards the great depression that leaves many taken advantage of due to desperation.

Mark Rothko- Abstract Expressionist paintings can be divided into two groups. That of the action painters and that of the colour-field painters. As melancholic and misanthropic as Pollok, killing himself in 1970. Understood that to paint a flat form painting destroyed illusion and revealed truth. He was very aware of the spiritual dimensions attainable in abstract art, some of his works being described as deeply religious. (Hugh Honour & Fleming, 1991)

Taking following extreme cases of abstraction, when speaking of Pollock’s work such as his ”Autumn Rhythm” (1950), we realize how the visual formed is fully based on science and gravity that permits the dripping and pouring of the paint on the horizontal canvas. But, by walking around/on the canvas we can argue Greenberg’s analysis and suppose that the painter possibly connects with it, he gets drowned in the act and merges inside the painting while mechanically pouring paint on the canvas. This means that even though the painter tries to focus on the flatness of the painting rather than the content and is physically detached from the canvas, this focus cannot erase an emotional

61 (Rust and Blue). This piece is a painting that was layered with color on canvas. Rothko decided to use “layered colors to enrich the hues in the painting and to lend it a quality that artist described a that of ‘inner light’” (mark-rothko.org). This piece was created in 1953. This piece, Fountain, and the “Oyster dress” were all created in close proximity to each other in comparison to Pieta, which was created between 1498 and 1499. This piece by Rothko “consists of large expanses of colour delineated by uneven, hazy shades” (mark-rothko.org). From the documentary we watched on Rothko the other day in class, I learned that he wanted his paintings to evoke the basic human emotions. Although this piece is simple it is meant to resonate with the audience so that they can personally connect with it I some way. I think this is a very different approach to art. Most artists try to paint a scene, or have a story behind their art but Rothko approaches his art with emotion in hopes that it evokes emotion with others. This piece was created in a relatively similar time period to some of the other pieces, but its materials and intention are different from all of the other

Abstract Expressionism is making its comeback within the art world. Coined as an artist movement in the 1940’s and 1950’s, at the New York School, American Abstract Expressionist began to express many ideas relevant to humanity and the world around human civilization. However, the subject matters, contributing to artists, were not meant to represent the ever-changing world around them. Rather, how the world around them affected the artist themselves. The works swayed by such worldly influences, become an important article within the artists’ pieces. Subjectively, looking inward to express the artist psyche, artists within the Abstract Expressionism movement became a part of their paintings. Making the paintings more of a representation

The artwork, “Number 10,” by Mark Rothko displays two rectangles (top, yellow and the bottom, white) with a baby blue background color. Seeing the painting for the first time was surprising since I didn’t understand how it correlated with the title. It was easy to look at, but it didn’t catch my attention right away! I felt confused and frustrated while observing the piece because I didn’t know how I was going to find the meaning that lay behind the painting. This reminded me of my first-born nephew; I had such a difficult time trying to understand why he would cry so much. However, I was aware that crying was his way of communicating how he felt, just like painting this abstract piece was Rothko's style of communication.

This painting is divided into three equal parts by the arches in the background and the characters correspond to each of these arches (TV12). The father is in the middle portion of the painting. The lines of perspective created by the tiled floor, draws our attention to the swords that the father is holding and the vanishing point lies just behind the handles of the sword. Our angle of vision is such that we are looking directly at the main figures groups, particularly the father. A single light source from the left of the picture illuminates the characters and also focuses our attention to the father holding the sword. This creates a ‘theatrical’ effect. The background is simple and stark so our attention is focussed on the figure groups in the painting. The painting has a wide tonal range that makes the composition logical and balanced. The colours used in this

“Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. “- Francis Bacon. However when I learnt more about history of art and the way each movement and happenings in the world inspired artist to make new works, I was able to see much more than just a canvas with random paints and sketches. The interesting part about this concept is that each piece of art could be interpreted in many different ways. In contemporary art there isn’t right and wrong, each of us view and find different meanings and connections with artworks.