Description
Mark Rothko created a body of more than eight hundred paintings and over twice that number of works on paper. He represented the branch of Abstract Expressionism in which color, as opposed to gesture, is the dominant expressive element. His works are composed of loosely defined rectangles hovering in a shallow illusionistic space and are thinly painted or stained, containing no lines. The forms create spaces that blend together in an all-encompassing field of color, and the use of large canvases create a monumental yet intimate scale that envelops the viewer. The painting in the Empire State Art Collection is typical, containing a brilliant blue field in which a large greenish blue rectangle floats over a smaller one of purplish blue. Small in comparison to many works in the collection, its large enough to fill the viewers field of vision with vibrant color. The space is elusive as the colors appear to hover in and out, merging in soft, indistinct edges. The work was painted the year Rothko finished his most ambitious project, the murals for the Rothko Chapel in Houston.
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Details
- Work Date:
- 1967
- Location:
- Corning Tower Concourse Lobby
- Dimensions:
- 6'-8" x 69"
- Medium:
- Oil on canvas