RUDOLPH BURCKHARDT, MARK ROTHKO, NEW YORK, 1960. ALBRIGHT-KNOX ART GALLERY / ART RESOURCE, NY
Mark Rothko, born 1903, an abstract expressionist active in the New York arts scene of the 1940’s, 50’s & 60’s who’s works had a heavy emphasis on colour, form and space.
Number 14
Whilst categorized as being in the school of abstractionism and Colour field, Mark thoroughly objected the term, stating that he wanted to move beyond both classical and abstract art doctrines.
Untitled (Orange)
To Mark, his paintings had their own form and sense of space, they were not two dimensional pictures to be seen only on face value as studies in colour and shape. In his own words…
‘…the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions … The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationship, then you miss the point.’
What has drawn me to the work of Mark Rothko is this sense of form and gravitas at an almost sentient level. Something that can only fully be experienced and felt over read or told about. It’s this sense of form that I believe to be true about brutalist architecture, and that is what I plan to capture and subsequently convey through my photography. There is also a stylistic similarity in the pieces themselves that evoke something similar to the coolness of poured concrete and large flat walls.
Untitled (Black on Grey)
I also plan to work in the style of Rothko on how to best convey and realise the all important sense of form, specifically, using scale and light. Rothko’s works varied in size but all were large, most paintings much taller than their intended audience. Many galleries can struggle to display a large number of his works simply due to a lack of a wallspace. His paintings are best viewed under ambiguous lighting, like that found in ‘Rothko’s Chapel’ (pictured below), where upon which the strong colour elements become abstracted from the background and that is where the core theme of that painting can be experienced.
Chapel interior, 1970’s
It is my plan to print my final images from this project large, maybe A1 or A0. Something that will need to be done digitally, for practical and logistical reasons. I would then ideally mount these on dark mountings and have them framed in strong black frames with adequate spacing between the print and the frame in order to not distract any form from the photographs. I would then hang these pieces just above eye level and angled slightly forwards, I would also experiment with lights and luminosity to try and emphasise the substance of form.
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