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1960s Handbook - Mark Rothko

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"It's like looking into something very deep. You could fall in." So says Mad Men's Ken Cosgrove while looking at the Mark Rothko painting in Bertram Cooper's office. That's a reaction the artist would have appreciated, since he described the work from his most famous period -- large-format paintings of blurry-edged rectangles in complementary colors -- as "intimate and intense."

Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz in 1903, in what is now Latvia, was often classified as an Abstract Expressionist, but it was a label he rejected, saying, "I am not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in relationships of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions -- tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on." His signature style emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and Rothko spent the rest of his life refining this style. By the early 1960s, the artist, who immigrated with his family to the United States in 1913, was selling paintings to the likes of the Rockefellers, and, in 1961, he attended President Kennedy's inaugural ball and had a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

But by then the art world was moving away from Abstract Expressionism and toward Pop Art (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein). And Rothko's color palette grew considerably darker, as seen in the paintings he did for Houston's Rothko Chapel and a series in brown, black, and gray that he worked on from 1969 to 1970. His later work reflected his physical and mental suffering, some have suggested, and, in 1970, Rothko took his own life in his New York studio.

Posted by Carolyn Koo
September 10, 2008 11:26pm

Filed under: 1960s Handbook

Comments

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By Eilujtoo on November 6, 2008 9:00 PM

If you are interested in Rothko's works visit
Tate Modern online
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By ericcooley on January 24, 2009 3:01 PM

While working as Graphic Designer for Experience Music Project (EMP) a few years back, I had the privilege of working on the DoubleTake art exhibit (featuring the private art collection of EMP founder Paul Allen--yes, that Paul Allen), and it's at the screening where I saw my first original ROTHKO up front and in person. The thing that struck me was how BIG his works were, you typically see his works reduced, but in actuality they were enormous in dimension, which makes them all the more impressive.

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By MirandaM on August 19, 2009 8:13 PM

ericcooley:
How incredible you were able to work on the EMP! What a wonderful thing to have on your resume. I signed onto here only to let you know about my jealousy. If only I lived near such great art and music exhibits...

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By jmacek07 on October 13, 2010 1:58 PM

The Mad Men are great for sure!

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By dimitri on November 10, 2010 8:06 PM

While working as Graphic Designer for Experience Music Project (EMP) a few years back, I had the privilege of working on the DoubleTake art exhibit (featuring the private art collection jogos de meninas jogos gratis

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By KateC on December 18, 2010 10:16 AM

Even though I never saw any of your work, Mark Rothko I was impressed by your words.- "I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions -- tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on." Kate

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By Tally on January 16, 2011 9:00 AM

As always, I love the style of the era that the set designers use, and was excited about the conversation of art, especially an adbstract expressionist like Mark Rothko. I loved how Cooper just confessed that it was an investment on his part and basically could care less about it, but that everyone else was drawn to interpret the work in some way. I actually like Rothko and wish I had an original myself, but I can only wish...Actually it is fitting that they chose this artist because he fit well into the theme of this episode including the over ostentatiousness of some of the characters like Don and Cooper. Rothko was said to have hated this attitude and actually dropped a large commission to paint murals in the Ginault store in 1958 b/c he felt it was much too ostentatious. Ironically as his abstract work became more popular he was sought out by the most wealthy and privledged collectors of the era. I guess he didn't get that you have to be a little ostentatious to be able to afford his art. Ginault watch company (www.ginault.com), based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, keeps a comprehensive collections of vintage and new Rolex timepieces to preserve the legacy of Swiss haute horlogerie. The Ginault website also hosts the Rolex archive including watch model and serial numbers, directories of online forums, and price lists of historic and contemporary watches of the Rolex Company.

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Pete

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