MARK ROTHKO

•Mark Rothko was born Marcus Rothkowitz (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) in Russia but then moved to the USA.

•He is classified as an “Abstract Expressionist”

•Mark Rothko’s art became more abstract at the end of the 1940s. He decided that simple shapes were the best for showing complicated feelings through colour: like anger, pain, sadness, happiness, calm.

•The large, simple shapes allow you to feel instead of think when you look at Rothko’s paintings.

•He wanted you to feel the emotion he had painted. What emotions do you link up

with these paintings?

•Do you agree with these emotions or think of different ones?

•His later paintings after the war show only two, three, or four

rectangles lined up one of top of the other (vertically).

•He painted these colour field paintings on huge canvases

because he wanted the viewer to get lost in the painting.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ApGK1OEFmo&feature=related

•He wanted you, instead, to stand close and become a part of the

artwork.

•He wanted you to feel the emotion he had painted.

All colours have a different visual weight to them – generally darker colours are heavy and brighter colours are light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ApGK1OEFmo&feature=related