Paris exhibition by Mark Rothko

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The image is not a depiction of survival;

This is an experience...

Mark Rothko

Nowhere in Europe have I seen specified well organized and presented exhibitions of American artists as in France. It's already a sculpture, visited by me, so full and complete an exhibition of an American artist. The first I saw in Paris was Edward Hopper, the second in 2018 Jean-Michel Basquiat, and yet in November of that year – Mark Rothko. In 1 place, at the Louis Vuitton Foundation located in the centre of the Bulonsk Forest, I could admire all crucial paintings of the artist, coming from all phase of his work.

Mark Rothko, or, in fact, Marcus Rothkowitz was born in 1903 in Russia in present-day Latvia in a judaic household with whom he emigrated to the United States at the age of 10 in search of a better life. He studied at Yale University, was a prominent student, but in 1923 he left for fresh York City, where he continued to survey art.

In Russia, as well as on emigration, he faced anti-Semitism, which touched him so much that in 1940 he decided to changeName's Mark Rothko. Both anti-Semitism and the loneliness of the emigrant had a profound effect on his work. The artist's first works were figurative, but already expressive, the form of his painting was greatly influenced by the works of Milton Avery and Henri Matissa. However, the expression and atmosphere of specified images as the 1937 Contemplation, the 1938 "Entering the Underground", and the 1937 work without a title, depicting the underground platform, remind us of the alienation and boundless loneliness in the country of ruthless capitalism, which Edward Hopper showed so perfectly.

Mark Rothko abandons painting for respective years in favour of writing theoretical texts devoted to him. The frightening reality of the early 1940s causes the artist to return to painting – in consequence to the current barbarism of war and demolition – he attempts to formulate universal language. To this end, it reaches for ancient mythology and totemic forms. His paintings were besides full of biomorphic elements resulting from the fascination with surrealism.

Around 1948, Mark Rothko moves distant from figure painting towards expressive abstraction, besides greatly expanding the size of his works, stops giving them titles for numbers or a set of colours so that the audience does not propose anything.

At the beginning of the 1950s, his paintings fill 2 or three-colour rectangular shapes, which overlap an infinite scope of tones, make vibrations typical of his works. The strokes with a specially prepared brush give the canvas a mystery, almost magical character. He is not so much curious in colour as light and what is in color; emotions, memories, desires, joy and hopelessness. He writes about himself: “I became a artist due to the fact that I wanted to bring painting to the level of poignant music and poetry.”

With the passing of years and deepening depression his works darken, become denser, the artist uses mainly 3 colors: red, black and brown, and their formats become even bigger. The artist wants to accomplish an intimate state with these treatments. It is best if there is only 1 recipient at the appropriate distance from the image alone with it.

The artist's last 2 years are a series of minimalist, black and grey canvases. Mark Rothko creates fresh compositions, which consist of 2 sections separated by a continuous line, where the advanced part always fills the black and lower part – grey. The impression of inevitability and passing strengthens the combination of black and grey compositions with 2 monumental sculptures by Alberto Giacometti.

An crucial summary of his work was paintings painted for the Menil chapel in Houston, whose plan is shown in item at the exhibition.

Mark Rothko in 1970, severely ill, internally torn and struggling with depressionand alcoholism at the age of 57 commits suicide in his studio.

Exhibition: https://www.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/events/mark-rothko