Walking Into a Rothko

Mark Rothko

Untitled / Grey and Black

The more I work on this the more I feel like the model walked into a Mark Rothko painting and leaned on the mass of colorful greys.

Words from Mark Rothko (taken from his wiki)
"I am not an abstract painter. I am not interested in the relationship between form and color. The only thing I care about is the expression of man's basic emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, destiny."

In the June 13, 1943 edition of the New York Times, Rothko, together with Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman, published the following brief manifesto:

1. To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.
2. This world of imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense.
3. It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.
4. 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.
5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted."
[Rothko said "this is the essence of academicism".]
There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.
We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art."

Wow.

As always the art world is ever changing. I believe the art world is struggling right now with how realism and figurative art fits into the world that modernists such as Rothko created. Struggling not only with being seen as going backwards in the progression of the art world, but also with the notion that using the tools of our time (photography, computers) makes realism redundant.

Personally I find our times exciting and hope I live long enough to see where it all takes us!

I can hardly believe I am almost finished with this. Unfortunately I can not work on it today... I have to drive to a gallery and then obligations at my kids' school, but it is probably fair to say it will be finished by the end of the week. Not too bad for how big it is and how small my paintbrush was (the tip of a pencil).