What makes Rothko's art so great?
That’s a difficult question to answer for any artist, I think. And, I dislike bullshit artist statements which are an epidemic these days, so words can feel pretty used up when talking about visual art. I do think that, like any art form, when people see these famous paintings, they half forget that they were not painted to cost 40 million dollars and be talked about at cocktail parties, but generally are sincere expressions of the self by people who were compelled to share.
You might see Hopper and feel he communicates a tangible sense of loneliness in the modern world. Maybe Munch has a more dire view, but you feel the isolation in his work. Someone like Klee has a great artistic playfulness and his work, to me communicates that and feels lively. Art is popular, at least partially, because the painter gives us something relatable and compelling.
I don’t think I’d be the only person to say that Rothko communicates a quality of infinite space. The pure color zen some would argue might belong to someone like Yves Klein, but Rothko makes a good case for color as a window into the spiritual. There’s a kind of religious infinity in his best paintings. They are deep but not distracting. This allows the viewer to look and concentrate in a kind of meditative state. Friends have told me all my life that they have sat with Rothkos for long periods of time. I think it’s some version of this quality, however you want to describe it, that has made his work endure over the years. In the art that touches people they see themselves enough to bond to it.
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