Mark Rothko said, “Only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless”. Considering how very beautiful his colour field paintings are and that they appear to be of nothing at all, it’s worth unpacking this statement a little in the context of his work. Rothko believed that the role of the modern day painter was to help society to deal with it’s own sense of ‘lostness’, going so far as to describe the making of art and the experience of looking at his paintings as akin to religious experience.
By deliberately withholding an image Rothko created kind of imageless icons. His work intentionally drained of representation, describes an emptiness where something used to reside. Viewers of his canvases may experience a sense of longing when meditating upon them, Essentially his work brings us into contact in one way or another with that which escapes our grasp or vision – creating a longing for the un-seeable, which is perhaps at the heart of spiritual endeavour. Rothko was commissioned to create artworks for a chapel in Houston – here at the Rothko chapel you can visit and peacefully meditate upon layers of soft dark colour that appear black, indigo, purplish when seen at different times of the day.
Indistinct imagery and ‘imagelessness’ invites viewers to experience work more intimately. The selection below speaks to this concept. An extract from TS Elliot’s Four Quartets sets the scene:
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
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