In the 1930s and 40s, Mark Rothko produced a number of images based on the Crucifixion. The style was Surrealist. During WW2, he dismembered the human body. The reference was now to the Holocaust.
These figurative images were the last Rothko created. He moved then into abstraction.
Crucifix, 1941 or ’42; oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko, American born Russia, now Latvia, 1903-1970. National Gallery, Washington, DC
The painting below is thought to be the first where all figuration has been removed. MOMA, NY notes the artist is now investigating space, colour and scale.
A year later, the Museum notes that he began to create his Color Field paintings. (Colour Field in which colour is the singular subject of the painting and artists used several kinds of bounded forms – stripes, geometricshapes, simplified naturalistic forms, flat bold areas of the canvas – to draw attention to colours and their interaction).
In 1943, the artist had already written a credo in company with his fellow artist, Adolphe Gottlieb (1903-1974, American).
No. 1 (Untitled), 1948, oil on canvas from the museum’s website.
Mark Rothko, American born Russia, now Latvia, 1903-1970. MOMA, NY
“We favor the simple expression of the complex thought.
“We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal.
“We wish to reassert the picture plane.
“We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.”
No. 5/No. 24, 1948, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko, American born Russia, now Latvia, 1903-1970. MOMA, NY
Rothko refused to be categorized as a Color Field artist.
He had no time for the theorizing of critics.
Nor did he publicly use the term ‘multiform’ for his first experimentations, 1947-49, in abstract art. This was a label created by others.
And he never swore formal fealty to the Abstract Expressionist creed either.
Untitled, 1949, oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko, American born Russia, now Latvia, 1903-1970. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
In 1956, the artist said:
“I am not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else…
“I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on —…
“And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!”
No 5/No. 22 (dated 1949 on the reverse), oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. MOMA, NY
Rothko achieved the translucent quality of these images by applying very thin layers of glaze one on top of another.
He asked that the images be hung at eye level so that visitors can be ‘enveloped’ by each work.
He also wanted (with rare exceptions for specific exhibitions) the paintings to be hung without the presence of other work.
We (eastern US) usually see these paintings in full light.
The National Gallery, Washington DC in the spring of 2023
A half light, as here in the current exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, is striking.
Installation view of the Mark Rothko exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
From left, “No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow),” 1958; “No. 9 / No. 5 / No. 18,” 1952;
“Green on Blue (Earth-Green and White),” 1956; “Untitled,” 1955
Credit…Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC has four paintings in a small room in somewhat reduced light.
In so small a space, the colours vibrate.
On the left, Green and Maroon, 1953, oil on canvas.
On the far wall, detail of Orange and Red on Red, 1957, oil on canvas.
Detail of Orange and Red on Red, 1957, oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
On the left, Green and Tangerine on Red, 1956, oil on canvas.
On the far wall, Ochre and Red on Red, 1954, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. The Philips Collection, Washington, DC
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MOMA, NY notes that between 1949 and 1950 Rothko devised his signature style: the canvas divided into 3 planes filled with contrasting, pulsating colours.
Untitled, 1949, oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
“The artist wrote: “A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is an Experience.”
No, 10, 1950, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. MOMA, NY
He wanted viewers to stand close. He wanted us to be moved emotionally.
Untitled, 1950, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Orange and Tan, 1954, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Red Band, 1955, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The National Gallery, Washington, DC in the spring of 2023
Untitled, 1957, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
No. 17, 1958, pigmented hide glue, egg, and oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko, American born Russia, now Latvia, 1903-1970. Corcoran Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
No. 16 (Red, Brown and Black), 1958, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko, American born Russia, now Latvia, 1903-1970. MOMA, NY
No 13, 1958, oil on canvas.
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. MOMA, NY
No. 16, 1960, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko,1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
The National Gallery in the spring of 2023
No, 1, 1961, oil on canvas
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The artist continued to use bright colours to the end of his life
even if his legacy has been burdened with the association of a late dark palette with his suicide in 1970.
Untitled (Maroon Over Red), 1968, acrylic on paper mounted on linen.
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970, American born Russia, now Latvia
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia
On the walls of a current exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vitton, Paris: five of Rothko’s “Untitled” canvases from 1969 and 1970.
In the center of the room: Alberto Giacometti, “The Walking Man I,” 1960 and “Grande Femme III,” 1960.
Credit…Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Succession Alberto Giacometti/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York from the website of the NY Times
It would seem to defeat the purpose of the artist to try to view more than a few of these canvases at one time. You become either overwhelmed or numb or jaded.
That would be to reduce 20 years of the artist’s most mature work to a meaninglessness.
The artist created 1000 works on paper and a little more than 830 on canvas.
You have wonderfully caught the pulse of the light on the paintings in your commentary. They literally glow. Thank you.