The Painting that Changed Mark Rothko’s Career

In this episode of expert voices, David Galperin examines the painting that entirely shifted the remaining decade of Mark Rothko’s career. In 1958, Rothko’s transforms his color palette into the somber, meditative colors intended to provoke a submersive, awe-inspiring event upon viewing. Learn how in Untitled (Black on Maroon), Rothko embarks on this endeavor for the very first time. Untitled (Black on Maroon) is a highlight of the Contemporary Art Evening auction (28 October 2020, New York).

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[willieluncheonette]

Was lucky enough to see him seated alone at table in MOMA's garden one day. I went over and told him I loved his paintings but was too shy to say anything else. He thanked me and I left. Have since read much about him and what I love above all is how generous he was with his money. Always asking young artists he knew if they had enough money when he met them. Surely a sensitive soul like Mark is now enjoying a wonderful next life.

[TheStockwell]

The speaker keeps repeating an important thing about Rothko's works - that standing in front of them has an impact you don't get from seeing them in books or in YouTube videos. It's like the difference between seeing online photos by Ansel Adams and having one right in front of you. Generally speaking, YouTube is the best place to learn about Art and the worst place to experience it. 🐧

[joymcguire]

Beautiful description of Rothko's work!

[MA-P]

I love that his work spoke volumes to Mr. Rothko however and any energy or beauty escapes me. I’m study and making paintings myself but I get nothing from these works or abstract art for that matter. Glad others enjoy the artwork experience.

[KokiKokimemon]

No fluctuations the artist knew what his project was an optical expression and an entrant into his space this was a special pass which his audience experience but again undoubtedly a journey into his paintings is like a great experience 🎉

[talkandedit]

Rothko is a true artist, no matter what people say. I sense more freedom and feeling from his paintings than I do from algorithmized and glorified character illustrations from the 'gram that an AI can easily replicate.

[waylonwraith]

In Signs of the Times: Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man, David Lehman writes: “When an abstract painting by Mark Rothko is described as ‘a palimpsest of traces’ in which the painter’s ‘image-sign enabled him to elide or dismantle such conventional binaries’ as birth and death, we suspect that the student may have spent more time mastering Derrida’s vocabulary than looking at Rothko’s pictures” (31). Maybe so, but the suspicion would be unfounded (presupposing, as it does, a reductive reading of “palimpsest of traces” that presumptuously confines it to a tidy kind of conceptual impressionism that WOULD be palpably inappropriate as a full description of a visual artwork, as it makes no mention of such factors as color, content, form, and so forth). Yet the kind of deconstructive art criticism Lehman derides is not nearly as unsuitable as he assumes. “Palimpsest of traces” may sound unnecessarily vague, but one shouldn’t just assume that any vagueness is unnecessary. “Traces of WHAT?” We may not fully know, but Rothko’s paintings are exactly that: luminous multi-metaphorical signifiers, picturing not emptiness but FULLNESS, strangely stuffed with traces. Psychic sediment sifted from visual history. The reified residue of art-historical memory? The word “palimpsest” comes from the Greek palimpsestos, a combination of “plain” (i.e. again) and “psestos” (i.e. rubbed smooth). Thus, the word quite precisely contains one of Rothko’s main methods. To assert that the work elides such binaries as birth and death may be less beautiful than what Simon Schama says of the work, that Rothko manifests “the poignancy of our comings and our goings, our entrances and our exits, our births and our deaths; womb, tomb, and everything between” (Power of Art). Words like elide and binary may be less “poetic” in the usual sense, yet gesture in the direction of a similar sense of the sublime. “Elide” comes from the Latin “elidere”, meaning “to crush out”. Pigment, Rothko’s primary tool, is itself a crushed-out substance, and is, in some subliminal sense, always alluding to rebirth, resurrection. So the statement is not as unsuitable as Lehman assumes. ——from Christopher Forgues and the Poetry of Comix (2020) by James D Bowman 3

[michaelmcginsie]

Depending on the distance between you and the painting, you see black on maroon. It’s that simple

[thomsonmaclean]

So Rothko couldn't bring himself to install his works in such a commercial environment, so now they are valued at approximately $25, 000, 000- to $35, 000, 000- by Sotheby's. Sign of the times.

[glennbolder]

His work was well placed satire. He must have died laughing.

[peterfoerderer]

They say there's a sucker born every minute. I say it's way more than one.

[RobertaFierro-mcub]

The Maroon and Black painting always reminds me of a dreamy window..

[Uprising]

Emperor's clothes are so beautiful. Can't you see?

[ImagineGTAVI]

Rothko created an "essential" art piece with those works, and I think that says it all about a lot of art.

[stonew]

I think so much is being read into his works that isn't really there. It's incredibly simplistic, yet art historians and intellectuals want to imbue it with all this meaning. The only thing that I can relate to is them saying that it's introspective.

[MattsCrazyArt]

The most beautiful artist in this video...

Is the speaker that can use the most luxurious language imaginable... to describe utter bullshit. The emperor has no clothes.

[plowdensmith]

Very interesting film - thank you so much!

[GrandMasterImperatoriELUSCOENS]

that looks like a 15$ painting to a toddler could make that.

[Zincink]

When I look out of the red window I also see darkness.

[damoclesvi]

This is the equivalent of “I didn’t do my homework but I’m still smart so give me a good grade”.