Mark Rothko gets a lot of pipe from people who don’t “get” his art. But I tell you: with a little prep, time and patience, anyone can “get” his work, or at least take an honest stab at it. Not just, “Huh. Colors. Big whoop,” or the lazy, willfully stupid “My KID could paint that.” Sure. Sure your kid could paint that. Mm-hmm.
I was in DC recently and walked from our hotel down to The Phillips Collection near DuPont Circle. It’s a peach: a human scale collection of top-notch art nestled into a leafy, quiet neighborhood. Two hours and you could enjoy the whole thing. I got there at 5:30. There was good news and bad news. The bad news was that they were closing in 30 minutes. The good news was that there was no admission fee for the final 30 minutes of the day. So, yay. But only 30 minutes. Had to strike strategically.
I got directions to the Rothko Room and took a seat on the large bench in the middle. One other dude was there, in a mind-meld with one of the canvases, so I took the opposite end of the bench, facing away from him at another canvas. Four walls, four Rothkos. Low lights. No noise. Every five minutes we’d shift 90 degrees till we spent time with all four. That’s the way to do it. You sit there, pretty close, and let the canvas envelope you. Then you notice the colors shimmering and vibrating as they do the fandango on your rods and cones. Then you get a feeling. Sometimes in your gut, or in your heart, or your bowels (yeah, it’s not always pleasant), and that’s when you get an inkling of what Rothko was doing. He was shooting for your feelings, not your thoughts. He used your eyes to get to your emotions, painting to evoke feelings.
A great intro to his work is Simon Schama’s Power of Art, the episode on Rothko. This is a good start to your prep work to “get” Rothko. It’s homework, but it’s interesting and well-presented homework. I dig Schama’s series. Watch them all if you can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6xLztH36kY
You could also read the Wikipedia article on Rothko as your prep. The idea is to know where he was coming from, what he was trying to do and why he was doing it.
Then find a proper setting to view his paintings. Someplace quiet, like The Phillips Collection or the Rothko Chapel in Houston. MoMA has some great paintings of his, but it’s usually too crowded to feel them.
Then, for Pete’s sake, spend some time with the paintings. Quietly. Just sit. Absorb. Be still. See what happens.
If you do this, you’ll probably “get” Rothko. Maybe not like him, but get him. If a middlebrow cartoon guy can do it, anyone can.
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