Mark Rothko: Incredible and Ingenious Artist

by Phoebe Clark

Rothko Red Room

Mark Rothko is arguably the most renowned and famous abstract artist, deservedly known for his huge canvases of 2 or 3 coloured squares layered over each other to create an overpowering and mysterious piece of art. Many don’t appreciate his work because they are foolish enough to believe that the techniques he used are simple and anyone could do it, when in fact on that scale and to create a high standard, it is incredibly difficult. 

In his earlier works he used bright colours that worked so well together to create a piece as a whole, as opposed to just squares of colour. In all his paintings the undefined edges of the squares give the piece an ethereal quality, especially when paired with the way he layered colours so each layer was slightly visible.

Rothkos can only truly be appreciated and his reasoning reigning true, when they are viewed in person, in a gallery such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao or the Rothko Red Room in the Tate Modern. He created 798 pieces over his lifespan, the compositions becoming increasingly darker and medatative in his final years until his eventual suicide. The Rothko room in the Tate consists of a series of 9 paintings all maroon, dark red and black originally intended to be in the four seasons restaurant. I visited this room a few years ago and immediately fell in love with them because when you’re in front of a Rothko, especially these solemn, tragic ones, and your vision is filled with dark shapes layered you feel a spiritual feeling of doom, which is exactly what he intended when creating them. 

I love his work because he used something so simple to create an overpowering, transcendent experience for all his viewers. It has been known for people to meditate in front of this particular series as Rothko killed himself while in his studio, surrounded by this material. Many believe that his tortured spirit is trapped and captured within his paintings.