Untitled (Blue, Yellow, Green on Red)
Mark Rothko
MARK ROTHKO, 1954. OIL ON CANVAS.
Having studied under the father of Color-Field painting himself, Josef Albers, Mark Rothko took the genre in new and staggering directions. Applying thin layers of diluted oil paint, painstakingly slowly so as to build up soft hues on the canvas such that the works are almost luminous in their color, Rothko wanted to control the viewer on a carnal level. He removed the intellectualism of Albers and many of the abstract expressionists around him. Instead, he didn’t want the viewer to try and rationalise the work or any feelings it provoked - Rothko tried to find an innate, visceral science to color that when executed in tandem and relation to each other, as seen here, could bring the viewer on a preset journey of emotion. It is for this same reason that almost all of his works were unnamed - any context outside of the experience of viewing them felt unnecessary and could detract from the deeply human experience of hues and shades affecting oneself.