A Life Within Colors
Tingting Chen
Art History 150D
Professor Harren
July 26, 2012
A Life Within Colors
Mark Rothko, No. 12 (Black on Dark Sienna on Purple), 1960
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
“My father guarded it and, consciously or unconsciously, stoked the fires of interest in all those who heard murmurs of its existence. His words might be outside his artwork, but they communicate philosophies he still held dear even after paint became his sole vehicle for expression.” --Christopher Rothko
In this mature work of Mark Rothko’s color-field painting, the ambient soft-edged colors, black on top and dark sienna below, appear weightless at the first glance as if floating above the purple background. Yet, as the viewers’ gaze casts into the vast darkness of the two rectangles, the purplish borders emerge as if to sink the shapes rather than float them. The suggested mobility of positive and negative spaces implies an extraordinary sense of introspective depth. Though Rothko was classified as one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionists, his paintings seemed to transcend Greenbergian flatness and appeal to more human senses than merely opticality. The broad areas of color in No.12, as well as those of his other major practices, are his vehicles to evoke the primal instincts of humans. The use of somber palette beginning around late 1950s, which deviated remarkably from his early practices of bright and buoyant color chords, reflected the artist’s shift toward a more desolate stage of life. Here, the painting appears just like an ongoing piece of music, which embodies the artist playing in sorrow or even in deeper contemplation of human tragedy. Its enveloping scale invites the viewers to step forward and confront the emptiness of passive modern life.
Art That Breathes
Rothko's overall technique is atmospheric and evocative, yet his painting reveals a rich tonal range
Art History 150D
Professor Harren
July 26, 2012
A Life Within Colors
Mark Rothko, No. 12 (Black on Dark Sienna on Purple), 1960
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
“My father guarded it and, consciously or unconsciously, stoked the fires of interest in all those who heard murmurs of its existence. His words might be outside his artwork, but they communicate philosophies he still held dear even after paint became his sole vehicle for expression.” --Christopher Rothko
In this mature work of Mark Rothko’s color-field painting, the ambient soft-edged colors, black on top and dark sienna below, appear weightless at the first glance as if floating above the purple background. Yet, as the viewers’ gaze casts into the vast darkness of the two rectangles, the purplish borders emerge as if to sink the shapes rather than float them. The suggested mobility of positive and negative spaces implies an extraordinary sense of introspective depth. Though Rothko was classified as one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionists, his paintings seemed to transcend Greenbergian flatness and appeal to more human senses than merely opticality. The broad areas of color in No.12, as well as those of his other major practices, are his vehicles to evoke the primal instincts of humans. The use of somber palette beginning around late 1950s, which deviated remarkably from his early practices of bright and buoyant color chords, reflected the artist’s shift toward a more desolate stage of life. Here, the painting appears just like an ongoing piece of music, which embodies the artist playing in sorrow or even in deeper contemplation of human tragedy. Its enveloping scale invites the viewers to step forward and confront the emptiness of passive modern life.
Art That Breathes
Rothko's overall technique is atmospheric and evocative, yet his painting reveals a rich tonal range