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| UNIVERSAL YET HIGHLY PERSONAL PAINTINGS Stella Pelše | |
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American painter Mark Rothko (born Marcus Rothkowitz, 1903-1970) is one of the few personalities of world-wide prominence whose origins are to be found in Latvia (as another example one could mention the English social historian, philosopher and essayist Sir Isaiah Berlin). A special series of events is organized to celebrate Rothko's centenary in Latvia this year; an exhibition of painter's original works at the State Museum of Art in collaboration with National Gallery of Art in Washington, the U.S. Department of State and the Rothko family (September 22 - November 30). An international conference "Mark Rothko: Dvinsk (Daugavpils) - the Starting Point" with participants from France, Great Britain, Russia, Switzerland, Latvia and USA will take place in Daugavpils, September 24-25.
The son of a Jewish pharmacist whose parents emigrated to Portland, Oregon, in 1913 to search for wealth and security (there had been Jewish pogroms in the tsarist Russia of that time) becomes one of the most outstanding representatives of the so-called iconic trend of Abstract Expressionism. On the one hand, he proved that "American dream" can be realized - despite of his origins and social status he attained the very heights of world fame and earned secure place in the art-historical canon of modernism. On the other hand, his turbulent biography marked by financial distress, depressions, alcohol and, finally, suicide reminds of a quite traditional Western image of an artistic genius as an outsider and sufferer. His works from the 1950s onwards are unmistakably recognized in the largest museums of the world. They consist of two or more quadrangular color-fields that feature some residues of the geometric abstraction, at the same time these areas with unstable, fluctuating boundaries suggest transience and potential change. This "classic" period has its prehistory that might be more familiar to professionals than to the general public. During the late 1920s and 1930s Rothko paints figural works that demonstrate some resemblance to Pablo Picasso's and Henri Matisse's massive, distorted figures and Giorgio de Chirico's Metaphysical Painting. In the 1940s Surrealist tradition that was important in the genesis of American Abstract Expressionism becomes prominent, opposed to both Piet Mondrian's geometric style and Realist tendencies popular in the 1930s. Rothko's Surrealist, biomorphic compositions with subjects drawn from classical mythology can be compared to Marcel Duchamp's, Max Ernst's, Joan Miro's and Paul Klee's formal means of expression. In the late 1940s Rothko invents partly geometric color fields with soft edges. This a-tectonic chaos of the so-called multiforms is then stabilized in the well-known, meditative compositions. Do they really express "a frightening sense of the absolute that resembles the primitive force of Old Testament justice" (Jonathan Fineberg. Art since 1940: Strategies of Being. - London: Laurence King, 1995. - P. 107.)? Or rather these images are attempts to "tame" the unknown and overcome the fear by means of visualization and meditation? The series of upcoming events would deserve a closer look into history, i.e., the planning and realization of this centenary project. Marcia Carlson (wife of Brian Carlson, US Ambassador to Latvia), who works on this centenary project, tells the details: - In Daugavpils several years ago, Farida Zaletilo had a vision: she knew that American abstract painter Mark Rothko was born in her city - and virtually no one knew about it. She started gathering archival and reference materials about Rothko and his family, and she started to campaign for a celebration of the artist - and his roots - in September 2003, the centenary of his birth. By 2002, Farida had prepared a traveling exhibit about the artist, and she presented her ideas to US Ambassador to Latvia, Brian Carlson, and me, when we visited Daugavpils. We, in turn, took her ideas to Riga, where plans for a series of commemorative events began to emerge - and where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Culture and the US Embassy. Plans will become reality: an exhibit of originals in Riga, a permanent exhibit of custom prints in Daugavpils, an international conference on the artist in Daugavpils, an education program for school children, screening of a movie about Rothko, a concert of music inspired by Rothko, and a web site. Regarding the exhibit in Riga - several fortuitous ideas came together: Laili Nasr insisted that Rothko posters could not begin to compare with original works; Rothko's son, Christopher, promised to support efforts to borrow originals from the National Gallery, the largest holder of Rothko works; and finally, when the Embassy called the Education and Cultural Affairs office of the State Department, the person who took the call was Leanne Mella, a former curator who worked on the Rothko estate and knew the family. A very unique three-way partnership emerged, which produced this month's exhibit of 21 original works at the State Art Museum. - In the case of the events Visual Arts Magazine Studija asked some questions to Laili Nasr and Renee Maurer, the curators of Rothko's exhibition. What have been the basic principles of selecting works for this exhibition? The exhibition "Mark Rothko: A Centennial Celebration" is organized on the occasion of the centennial of Rothko's birth. It provides an overview of the artist's oeuvre from his early representational works of the 1930s to the mythic, surreal and multiforms of the 1940s, culminating in the classic paintings of the 1950s and 60s. The exhibition highlights some of his most significant paintings while showcasing works on paper not exhibited before. Our extensive research for the catalogue raisonnē of Rothko's works on paper has led us to a close investigation of the artist's experimental approach to painting materials and techniques, demonstrated by his use of a wide variety of wet and dry painting materials often used in varying combinations, applied to a variety of supports, ranging from high grade art papers to ordinary stationary. The works on paper in this exhibition provide a small sampling of this variety. The exhibition also aims to demonstrate Rothko's experimentation, discovery and resolution of a variety of thematic and technical issues in paintings on canvas and those on paper simultaneously. We therefore have grouped both the paintings and the works on paper together, placing them in a loose chronological sequence. The exhibition begins with Rothko's earliest representational works on paper and paintings from the 1930s. One of the first drawings, near the entrance of the exhibition, is a gouache on construction paper that may be an early self-portrait. As viewers continue through, they see paintings and works on paper from 1940s that show Rothko's interest in Surrealism and his exploration of mytholocial themes in the early part of that decade. By the end of the decade, his images begin to dissolve into "multiforms" and finally resolve themselves into the classic bands of color that most viewers find familiar in the mature work of Rothko from the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibition concludes with the last painting created by the artist - a striking vibrant canvas soaked in variations of red. Rothko has strictly denied that he is an abstractionist and emphasized that his art is not about color relation-ships as such but about "...basic human emotions‑- tragedy, ecstasy, doom..." (Diane Waldman. Mark Rothko 1903-1970: A Retrospective. - New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1978. - P. 58). Do you think the capacity of certain formal elements to convey these emotions is or might be independent of particular place and time and in principle accessible to everybody? Or is their potential firmly grounded in the particular historical context of American Abstract Expressionism? It is without a doubt that Rothko and his fellow Abstract Expressionists were affected by the repercussions of World War II and thus the formal elements in their work were developed in part as a response to a specific context within history. At the same time, Rothko and many other Abstract Expressionist artists intended to create a more universal means of communicating emotional states that would transcend time and place. These artists were searching for a type of visual vocabulary that would encompass the same fears and anxieties humankind had experienced throughout history. In light of their interest in universal themes and in response to events shaping their immediate milieu, Abstract Expressionists sought to create timeless, universal, yet highly personal equivalents of tragedy, ecstasy, and doom; emotional experiences they believed were associated with the basic conditions of human existence. In doing so, they looked broadly at the history of art from western and nonwestern traditions, beginning with prehistoric man, up to their contemporary context and resolved that non-representational art was the best means to express their own subjective emotions and consciousness. In a famous statement from 1943, Rothko, Gottlieb and Newman explained that they "favor(ed) the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has an impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth... There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject-matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art." Rothko's oeuvre, created over the course of four decades, seeks to express and communicate the essence of what is universal and transcendent, yet highly individual and subjective and for that reason it continues its broad appeal and attraction for a wide range of viewers. Rothko's work is firmly grounded in the context of Abstract Expressionism, yet it is highly unique and individual, it is a production of its artistic and socio-political milieu, yet timeless and eternal. It remains relevant now as it once was. What, in your opinion, is the most essential and worthwhile feature in Rothko's paintings? It would seem appropriate to say that it is their ability to evoke strong emotional responses within viewers that mirror simple and complex, personal and universal concepts by means of a reduced yet highly potent visual language. Rothko was very interested in creating a distinct visual experience. In exhibitions, he often hung his paintings low and close to one another so that when a viewer looked at several Rothkos together, they felt overwhelmed and enveloped by their power. "I paint very large pictures... to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience... However, you paint the larger picture, you are in it." The ideal distance to experience his work is 18 inches from the painting to draw viewers in closely. Rothko believed that an explanation for his paintings "must come out of a consummated experience between picture and onlooker. The appreciation of art is a true marriage of minds". The painting becomes a vehicle for the viewer to connect with their individual emotions. "... The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them." How could you describe art historians' opinions on Rothko's art in the context of present intellectual climate? Is he still mostly considered as a respected classic or a representative of a somewhat by-gone era of high modernism? Art historical scholarship concerning Mark Rothko is active and continues to grow. As mentioned earlier, the National Gallery of Art is assembling a catalogue raisonne of his works on paper. Rothko is now recognized and revered as a post-war American master. He is also considered amongst the most important artists of the twentieth century. The last decade offered a reexamination of the Abstract Expressionist movement and a variety of thoughtful publications and exhibitions on Rothko. "Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas" (1998), the first volume of the catalogue raisonne of the artist's oeuvre, provides a comprehensive thematic and formal examination of the Rothko's entire body of paintings on canvas. The National Gallery of Art's retrospective exhibition "Mark Rothko" (1998-1999) and "Mark Rothko: A Consummated Experience Between Picture and Onlooker" organized by Fondation Beyeler, Basel (2000-2001), were two consecutive traveling monographic exhibitions which offered viewers insightful new perspectives on the artist's oeuvre and creative influence. In interviews, many active contemporary artists, both European and American, such as Sean Scully, Elsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Gerhard Richter, Robert Ryman, George Segal, and a subsequent generation of artists have acknowledged the impact and lasting influence of Rothko's art on the development of their own work. Rothko said: "The progression of a painter's work, as it travels in time from point to point, will be toward clarity: toward the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea, between the idea and the observer." | |
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