Mark Rothko

In the interest of making semi-regular and smaller updates to my blog, as opposed to writing essay-length entries bi-monthly, here is a quick contribution.

In two weeks, it is the anniversary of the death of Mark Rothko. Most people will generally recognize Rothko as the abstract expressionist responsible - along with the likes of Barnett Newman - with the popularization of "colour fields". Personally I've always liked his works, despite what I feel is a lack of underlying talent in their making - however in discussing Rothko fully, I could easily go down the rabbit hole of the interpretations of art (a la Duchamp), and I will defer simply to the fact that I would hang a Rothko on my wall because I think they are nice to look at.

The Guardian Arts section has a fantastic article on Rothko's biggest commission, his subsequent rejection of the money and donation of the completed works to the Tate, which added a complexity to the man and his works I hitherto was unaware of.

To commemorate, my Flickr icon has been changed to a Rothko painting for the next two weeks.