Learning Specialist, Carolina Malagamba: As we step into Gallery 403, something these pieces have in common is that they all show big blocks of color and they’re all made by the same artist, Mark Rothko.
Try placing yourself in front of a painting that speaks to you. Next, choose one specific color: look at it up close, take a few steps back, maybe squint your eyes. I think you might notice that there are actually a lot of different shades of that same color in the painting.
Christopher Rothko: He would often start with pen and ink sketches, working out proportions.
Carolina Malagamba: That’s the artist’s son, Christopher Rothko. He’s going to tell us a bit more about how his father made these paintings.
Christopher Rothko: Then he would paint a background color and probably paint several over that in a very thinned-out stain of paint so that these different colors that are layered, one over the other, will shine through. Then he would paint rectangles over that. Then he would stop and look at the painting for a very long time before proceeding with the next step or before deciding that it was done.
Carolina Malagamba: Usually, when we try and find out which way is the top and which way is the bottom, one might notice in which direction the paint might drip.
Christopher Rothko: Typically, the canvases were propped up on blocks near the floor, and he would be up on ladders. Sometimes he would actually turn the painting upside down so as to be able to paint the top section more easily. Which of course makes us all crazy when we try to figure out which way is up and the drip marks are going both directions.
Carolina Malagamba: With Mark Rothko, he thought a lot about how certain colors make us feel, and He was hoping that looking at his pieces was almost an act of meditation. It’s like he created this little room where you can be alone with your feelings. I’m wondering how the colors in this painting make you feel.