How Did Mark Rothko Influence The Art World

What was interesting about painting squares? One painter did it for a living. Mark Rothko was a postwar abstract expressionist born in 1903 and died in 1970. He painted surrealism and then began painting abstract art, forming his signature format, rectangles. His surrealism included painting scenes in everyday life with haziness and dark colors until he drifted into abstract expressionism. Some critics believe his art was unimportant, but some think he greatly impacted abstract expressionism. Rothko was an important figure who contributed to the development of the abstract art world because of his style, his death, and the meanings behind his paintings.
Mark Rothko influenced the art world with his unique style of expressionism, such as his

The quote is a direct reliable quote from the late artist that supports why he liked to paint pictures with such emotion and the use of his personal ideas. The paintings created an effect that captured its audience, “Instead, his virtually gestureless paintings achieved their effects by juxtaposing large areas of melting colors that seemingly float parallel to the picture plane in an indeterminate atmospheric space” (Rothman). Rothko’s simple paintings used complex elements of the canvas to create effects to the masterpiece, such as contrast, and the merging of colors to make the illusion of one painting with multiple pieces that connect. It supports that Rothko’s art was beautiful with a different view instead, on the effects that it creates altogether. Some people viewed his art with much content and skill but some viewed Rothko’s paintings as nothing but rectangles, only to discover they have hidden beauty. According to Natalie Kosoi, “…Rothko’s paintings- because of reduction of painterly means (figures, line, space, and eventually even color), which resulted in almost monochrome paintings, are on the verge of “nothing”.

Although some people believe Rothko’s art is nothing, many spectators are affected by the meanings behind his paintings. “Rothko first worked in a realistic style that culminated in his subway series of the late 1930’s, showing the loneliness of persons’ in drab urban environments” (Britannica). His depression was reflected in his earlier artwork of drab scenes with faceless people in their everyday life. It started his career until he began studying with other artists. It supports that Rothko’s ideas reflected onto his paintings and left a meaning behind what he created on the canvas. A quote from Rothko himself, “I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions- tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on- and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate these basic human emotions” (Buckley). The acquired quote from the artist reveals his true goal/theme in painting that wants to affect his viewers with. He wanted to connect with the peoples’ emotion and inner thoughts to receive a deep reaction to his art. It directly supports that Rothko had a desired meaning behind his paintings that he intentionally wanted to cause in the spectators. “His later works frequently consist of floating rectangles of luminous color on enormous canvases that manage to simultaneously convey a deep sensuality and a profound spirituality”