I was also excited that they even addressed the ART ISSUE!
There was so much going on during these times in art, it was incredible.Please read my blogs on ILLUSTRATORS DURING THE 1960'S.tag illustrators.

I am glad there is someone else interested in the suject of ART during these times.

You must be my age, because you can't type, either.

Cooper pretty much made it plain that the art work was an investment NOT a statement.

What did Jane call it? Smudgy squares? I agree, but to each his own. I thought it was funny that Harry felt he had to acknowledge the painting in the first place.

Around the time the episode takes place, Rothko felt like he was starting to be ignored & that young pop artists were the new thing. Joan - Jane, anyone?

Loved it!

i have a full size print of a rothko from the same series (it's blue green, don't know what it's called) and since I prefer abstract art, I love it!
But true, to Bert it's an investment first, a work of art second.

Well, it certainly was orange!

I loved the Sal/Ken interaction as I mentioned under the episode 7 thread. I think that may be where Sal started to "fall in love" with Ken.
And who would have thought, that Ken, the more superficial guy in the SC office would be so deep!!
I was as shocked as Sal!

If Bert Cooper is still alive he pretty much is made in the shade just with that painting...

Thanks for all of your comments, and yes, donnaann, I'm a sucky typist, (or is it keyboardist these days) Anywho, I thought that it was great that they addressed the art of the time. I have read your threads on the illustrators.
Yes, I thought the art was a great reveal for Ken's character as well. It sure got Sal's attention! He was genuinely turned on by Ken's insight on the painting.
Can anyone gander what the painting is worth now?

60's child: Why are you surprised about Ken? He's the one who got the story published in The Atlantic Monthly. He's a very talented guy, wasting his talents as a pimp on Madison Ave.

About a year ago, a Rothko was sold for something like ten million I think.

I just checked online, seventy million in 2007.

The painting was kind of a Rorshach test - Jane and even Sal didn't "get it" but Ken did. Seeing a Rothko in real life is so different from a print - the colors play against each other and seem to visually move and vibrate.

So what is so great about "smudgy squares"? It's how they express the times in which they were created. Remember the young ad guys saying, we don't want to be instructed by the older generation, we want to just "be". And Ken says, there's no book explaining the Rothko, it just "is".

Does anyone know which specific Rothko painting that is? I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

I use to clean windows for a living in a rich island neighborhood, and we knew the housekeepers at this one particular house, and they had informed us that the painting in the livingroom was purchased for $2 million. It looked almost identical to the one in this episode. I did some research, because, I always wondered if that was just a bunch of malarky, and I found that the highest sold Rothko went for over $70 million. It makes me want to go paint some blob squares!!

flowerpower said, "Seeing a Rothko in real life is so different from a print - the colors play against each other and seem to visually move and vibrate."
I agree. I have seen originals and they are fascinating to just look at.

I wish my print was real! than i'd be able to auction it and retire.

I was surprised that Harry was so ignorant of art, or claimed to be. Didn't he tell Don last season about the series of abstract handprint-photos he had done several years before? I thougtht he was an arty guy.

Anyone notice how the camera made the Rothko morph into the elevator doors, and then the elevator doors morphed into a ground-up shot of the SC building? Really cool.

By the way, Bert Cooper: Someone asks you what you think of a painting and it's "none of their business!"? Jeez, old man, loosen your argyle and lighten up!