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Mark Rothko & Color
Field Painting
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Blue and Gray 1962
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From
Artlex Web Site
Color Field Painting -
Paintings with solid areas of color covering the entire canvas, as exemplified
in the work of Mark Rothko (American, 1903-1970), Kenneth Noland (American,
1924-), and Jules Olitski (American, 1922-). A type of Abstract Expressionism,
these artists were interested in the lyrical or atmospheric effects of vast
expanses of color, filling the canvas, and by suggestion, beyond it to
infinity. Most color-field paintings are large -- meant to be seen up close so
that the viewer is immersed in a color environment.
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From NGA Website
Mark Rothko - One of the
preeminent artists of his generation, Mark Rothko is closely identified with
the New York School, a circle of painters that emerged during the 1940s as a
new collective voice in American art. During a career that spanned five
decades, he created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting. Rothko's
work is characterized by rigorous attention to formal elements such as color,
shape, balance, depth, composition, and scale; yet, he refused to consider his
paintings solely in these terms. He explained:
It is a widely accepted notion among
painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well
painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good
painting about nothing.
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Mark Rothko
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Rothko's Color Field Paintings
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Figurative associations and references
to the natural world disappeared from Rothko's paintings of the late 1940s.
Linear elements were progressively eliminated as asymmetrically arranged
patches of color became the basis of his compositions. The paintings of
1947-1949 are sometimes referred to as multiforms to distinguish them from the
more distilled compositions that follow. Certain multiforms retain the play of
figure, line, and ground that Rothko employed in his works on paper from
1944-1946, and various textural effects are directly related to his
experiments in watercolor and gouache.
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In these multiforms the liquid paint
soaks the canvas, leaving soft, indistinct edges, while whitish outlines
surround some of the shapes like haloes. Rothko now relied on these shapes,
which replaced the earlier biomorphic motifs, to convey emotional states.
Throughout this series the artist's work reveals a greater breadth of both
composition and scale and a heightened attention to color. At this point
Rothko began to paint the edges of his stretched canvases, which he displayed
without confining frames.
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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.
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By 1950 Rothko had reduced the number of
floating rectangles to two, three, or four and aligned them vertically against
a colored ground, arriving at his signature style.
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From that time on he would work almost
invariably within this format, suggesting in numerous variations of color and
tone an astonishing range of atmospheres and moods.
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Now applied in thin washes (often
composed of both oil and egg-based media), color achieved a new luminosity.
Rothko's technique appears simple, but on close examination is richly varied
in its range of effects. At times, paint can be seen running upward across the
surface; this is because the artist often inverted a picture while working on
it, sometimes changing the final orientation at a late stage.
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In these paintings, color and structure
are inseparable: the forms themselves consist of color alone, and their
translucency establishes a layered depth that complements and vastly enriches
the vertical architecture of the composition. Variations in saturation and
tone as well as hue evoke an elusive yet almost palpable realm of shallow
space. Color, structure, and space combine to create a unique presence. In
this respect, Rothko stated that the large scale of these canvases was
intended to contain or envelop the viewer--not to be "grandiose," but
"intimate and human."
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