Abstract Expressionism
(AE) |
Mark Rothko |
| When: |
1903-70 |
| Where: |
Born in Russia and moved to US when 10 years old. |
| Influenced by: |
Attended Yale University and his initial intention
was to become an engineer or an attorney.
|
"Nudes" 1926 |
| Rothko gave up his studies in the fall of 1923
and moved to New York City. |
| In the 1920s Rothko attended classes at the Art
Students League, briefly studying under Max Weber, who encouraged
him to work in a style reminiscent of Cézanne.
|
| Early Works: |
In 1929 Rothko began teaching children at the
Center Academy of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, a position he
retained for more than twenty years. |
"Underground Fantasy (Subway)"
1941 |
| |
In the 1930s Rothko painted mostly street scenes
and interiors with figures. |
| |
Rejecting conventional modes of representation,
he stressed an emotional approach to the subject--an approach
he admired in children's art--and adopted a style characterized
by deliberate deformations and a crude application of paint.
|
| |
"Entrance to Subway"1938
|
He produced a number of haunting images of the
New York subway, in which windows, portals, and walls serve
as structural and expressive devices of confinement.
Rothko shows the subway as a measured yet eccentric place, containing
a dramatic contrast of perspectival extremes: walls and railings
are represented as flat screens, while tracks recede sharply.
Figures can be identified by anecdotal details of dress as commuters,
shoppers, or schoolchildren, but they are largely attenuated,
faceless, and flat. |
| 1940s |
Figurative associations and references to the
natural world disappeared from Rothko's paintings of the late
1940s.
Linear elements were progressively eliminated as asymmetrically
arranged patches of colour became the basis of his compositions.
The paintings of 1947-1949 are sometimes referred to as multiforms
to distinguish them from the more distilled compositions that
follow. |
"Untitled" 1948 |
| |
In these multiforms the liquid paint soaks the
canvas, leaving soft, indistinct edges, while whitish outlines
surround some of the shapes like haloes. |
| |
Rothko now relied on these shapes to convey emotional
states. |
| |
Throughout this series the artist's work reveals
a greater breadth of both composition and scale and a heightened
attention to colour. |
| |
At this point Rothko began to paint the edges
of his stretched canvases, which he displayed without confining
frames. |
| |
For him, avoiding representation permitted greater
clarity, "the elimination of all obstacles between the
painter and the idea and between the idea and the observer." |
| |
The artist also now resisted explaining the meaning
of his work. "Silence is so accurate," he said, fearing
that words would only paralyze the viewer's mind and imagination.
|
| 1950s |
By 1950 Rothko had reduced the number of floating
rectangles to two, three, or four and aligned them vertically
against a coloured ground, arriving at his signature style. |
| |
From that time on he would work almost invariably
within this format, suggesting in numerous variations of colour
and tone an astonishing range of atmospheres and moods. |
| |
Now applied in thin washes (often composed of
both oil and egg-based media), colour achieved a new luminosity.
|
| |
Rothko's technique appears simple, but on close
examination is richly varied in its range of effects. |
| |
"Number 10" 1950 |
"Orange tan" 1954 |
"Untitled" (Seagram Mural) 1958 |
| |
"Untitled" 1968 |
Physically ill and suffering from depression,
Rothko committed suicide on February 25, 1970.
At the time of his death, he was widely recognized in Europe
and America for his crucial role in the development of non-representational
art. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
