WHY MARK ROTHKO IS AMAZING!

One of my favorite painters is Mark Rothko; I was simply blown away by an exhibition that was put on by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C held in Seoul back in 2014.

Why was I so impressed? Well, the paintings seemed to move and perform and vibrate before my very eyes like magic! I had never seen anything like it. Some of the paintings seemed to glow eerily in the dark with a ghostly or supernatural presence. It can be hard to describe the effect of a Rothko painting exactly because it is like a meditative experience. Those of you who meditate are much more likely to relate to Rothko than those who only live their lives in the everyday mundane and material world. A Rothko painting can be like a religious, mystic or spiritual experience. The size of the paintings kind of envelops you and it feels like you are having a direct experience with the work. To me, it felt like I was encountering the soul of the artist, not a flat canvas with streaks of color applied to it. A lot of people just do not seem to “get” Rothko at first and I think it is because they bring their own prejudices with them when viewing art. There is a preconceived idea that they have that anybody can easily do a color field painting or abstract expressionist painting so they make a comment like, “My kid could do that!” Well, if it is so easy to paint like Rothko or Pollock then why don’t you do it then and create paintings that fool experts and make lots of money then?

In reality, skill, imagination, sensitivity and passion are required to produce any effective work of art regardless of the style. Yes, a kid can put blobs of color on a canvas, but do they have the life experience to create an iconic art work. I am not undermining the art work of kids by the way, the imagination kids have and their courage and freedom to explore is just wonderful and we should encourage them in anything creative that they do. They could be the next Picasso! All I’m saying is that adults bring years of life experience to their work. Rothko for example was highly intellectual; interested in both music and philosophy and in his work are contained the human themes of joy, ecstasy, tragedy and doom. He was proud of the fact that some viewers cried in front of his paintings and he saw this as evidence that he was able to directly communicate something profound with the viewer. I do think the size of his paintings helps in their impact. It is hard to get this type of emotional experience from a small print hanging in your bathroom! You begin to understand the scope of what he was doing and what he wanted to achieve though once you are standing in front of a vast painting that seems to overwhelm you in its size and scale and which seems to suck or draw you into it like some type of vortex or gateway into another reality. If you ever get a chance, be sure to go to an exhibition on Mark Rothko. You may see art in a different way and you may come to see how powerful art can be if you are prepared to keep an open mind.

If you are interested in abstract art, then follow me. Next, I will share with you techniques you can use to create your own art work in the style of Mark Rothko!