Mark Rothko, American (born Russia), 1903−1970; No. 8, 1949
Oil and mixed media on canvas

Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness. – Mark Rothko

The Columbia Museum of Art is showing an exhibit called Mark Rothko: The Decisive Decade 1940-1950 from September through January 6, 2013.  I had put off going to see the exhibit until the sale of a Rothko painting for $75 million on November 13^th at Sotheby’s caught my attention.  It was time to go learn more about Rothko.

Before seeing this exhibit, the only thing I knew about Rothko was that he was an Abstract Expressionist whose paintings were large rectangles of color.   If you Google his name and look at the images, you will see what I mean.

Mark Rothko was born in Russia in 1903 and lived most of his adult life in New York City.  In this exhibit, where most of the paintings were from the National Gallery of Art, the first section contained work by other artists in the 1930s and 1940s who influenced him.  Rothko’s work at the beginning of the decade was figurative and surrealistic.    Later he began to experiment with automatic drawing, incorporating fantasy sea creatures and birds.  He because obsessed with mythology and spirituality.  Toward the end of the decade, his images became less recognizable as objects as he tried to express mystery and feeling.

The last section of the show contained the large color field paintings that were recognizable as his mature style.  The monumental scale is impressive, and the texture and luminosity of the paint comes through as it does not in photographs.

During his lifetime, Rothko wrote about how his work should be experienced.  He said,

“The reason for my painting large canvases is that I want to be intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command.”

“The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!”

After seeing the chronological development of the work, I wondered where and how did he depart from what other artists were doing to develop his own style?  How much did his writing about his work influence how people perceive it?  Does the way the work is displayed change how we experience it?

Of course, there are no easy answers to these questions, but they did make me think about how artists develop and express themselves both visually and verbally.

Do you agree that it’s a good thing if art makes you think?  Do you appreciate art that makes you ask questions?  Would you rather see art that is easy to understand or do you want mystery?  Add your comments below.