An American Treasure...an American Tragedy - Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, Untitled,1949, National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.138 - “Rothko largely abandoned conventional titles in 1947, sometimes resorting to numbers or colors in order to distinguish one work from another. The artist also now resisted explaining the meaning of his work. ‘Silence is so accurate,’ he said, fearing that words would only paralyze the viewer's mind and imagination. (National Gallery of Art)Russian-American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) introduced contemplative introspection into the melodramatic post-World War II Abstract Expressionist school. Rothko’s paintings that used color as the sole means of expression led to the development of Color Field Painting--one of the two most important strains of Abstract Expressionism. (The other was Action Painting.) Color field paintings are characterized by flat expanses of color, with a minimum of surface detail. Rothko believed that optical responses were all that mattered in painting--and that visible subject matter and illusion were unnecessary. A significant figure in postmodern art--it’s unfortunate that the artist came to a sad end. Suffering from ill health--and feeling abandoned by the many artists he’d influenced--Rothko committed suicide at age 67.

Quote of the Day

“The painting has a life of its own.” - Jackson Pollock

A Unique Creation! This spans several posts

Photo: Alejandro Piedra BuenaMEXICO CITY.- Vochol® represents a first in the history of popular arts in Mexico and the world, in which two Huichol families from the States of Nayarit and Jalisco, took the car´s structure as a canvas to paint an original design. The Society of Friends of the Museo de Arte Popular along with the Governments of the States of Nayarit and Jalisco as well as prívate and public institutions have worked on this project for more than a year. 

Celebrating an American Artist - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper - House by the Railroad - 1925 - Oil on canvas - 24 x 29 in. (60.9 x 73.6 cm.)

Edward Hopper, the best-known American realist of the inter-war period, once said: 'The man's the work. Something doesn't come out of nothing.' This offers a clue to interpreting the work of an artist who was not only intensely private, but who made solitude and introspection important themes in his painting. Among the subjects he painted were hotels, motels, trains and highways. He also liked to paint the public and semi-public places where people gathered: restaurants, theatres, cinemas and offices. But even in these paintings he stressed the theme of loneliness - his theatres are often semideserted, with a few patrons waiting for the curtain to go up or the performers isolated in the fierce light of the stage. Hopper was a frequent movie-goer, and there is often a cinematic quality in his work. He transformed the concrete 'public real' into something far more personal and emotional.

"Hopper frequently used a straight. horizontal motif, usually a road or railroad track. to construct the space within the picture and to emphasize the division between the picture space and the viewer's world. Indeed, the more the viewer tries to penetrate the depths of a Hopper painting, the more impenetrable it becomes. What holds the viewer is that the artist's vision seems under control and yet, on closer inspection, the viewer realizes that the visible surface is a tissue of improbabilities and unreadable shifts in space. Hopper's view that nature and the contemporary world were incoherent contributed to his artistic vision." - From "Techniques of the Great Masters of Art"

M.C. Escher - "Drawing Hands" - 1948, lithograph.

M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist, noted for his distinctive prints depicting intricate interlocking patterns and optical illusions. He was especially accomplished in lithography and wood engraving. While Escher’s early work consists mainly of landscapes and townscapes, beginning in 1936 his work became increasingly more concerned with scenes of his own creation, especially with the repeating patterns and spatial illusions for which he is best known. The "Drawing Hands" are a beautiful presentation of the hands of an artist--our hands being one of our most important tools.