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Rothko
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Message
Posted
I watched an interesting programme on the BBC last night by Simon Schama about Mark Rothko, about whom I knew very little.
I came away thinking he was an arrogant, obnoxious man who painted badly when he was young and got progressively worse through his life (although he may have been kind to kittens and puppies for all I know!)
A man who can compare himself to Michaelangelo and Rembrant while slapping black paint onto a huge canvas with a decorators brush made me laugh out loud.
Schuma of course had an hour to fill so we got the usual bollocks..... a black rectangle made him feel that 'all human emotion is here'....no it wasn't, it was a black rectangle and that's all it was. Even Schama said that Rothko's early work 'wasn't very good' which is a remarkable admission for such a programme.
Has anyone else seen it? Am I doing the bloke a disservice?
Posted
I don't pretend to understand abstract art, never-the-less some of it appeals. The kind I definitely don't like is that of Rothko and others... like Franz Kline. I watched the Schama programme a while back in the hope that I might understand the work better. It merely confirmed my bad opinion of him. I recall Schama getting ecstatic about the fact that Rothko had left patches of bare canvas around the edges of some of his paintings, and giving fanciful notions about how this was some kind of breakthrough.
I do find some abstract art beautiful, but don't do it, couldn't do it, myself. I wouldn't know what I was trying to achieve.
Generally I also enjoy Schama's documentaries. Which was why I gave this one a go. I guess , as ever, it all boils down to that fact that people like different things. In art, I think that's a good thing, even if I don't like all of it.
Posted
Had a friend years ago who had a Rothko print in her lounge, basically a red square that everyone pretended to like. Really can't expend any of my energy on painted squares that are meant to show me the meaning of life.
Obviously we all like different art styles, but in the instance it's a no from me.
Posted
We don't get these documentaries of course but this thread prompted me to look up his paintings (I knew a little about what he did but wanted to see more before giving an opinion). I'm afraid they don't particularly express emotion to me (that could be my fault rather than the paintings though!) As Julie said, we all like different styles.
