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Posts Tagged ‘Mark Rothko’

GF Watts’ After the Deluge

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Quote, tagged , , , , on September 16, 2013| 4 Comments »

Julia Margaret Cameron- Whisper of the Muse-Portrait of GF WattsI came across this photo from Julia Margaret Cameron, a Victorian era  British photographer whose work I find tremendously interesting and forward leaning.  I have featured her work here before, with photos titled Sadness and Iago.  This photo from 1865 is titled Whisper of the Muse/Portrait of GF Watts  once again shows off the painterly eye that marks Cameron’s work as she portrays the renowned painter of the time amid two young girls.

I liked the image and it piqued my interest as to GF Watts‘ work.  I had heard the name but couldn’t recall his work so I decided to give a quick look.  An interesting guy, one who fell from favor at one point after his death and has found renewed interest.  Some of his work is Pre-Raphaelite in its appearance, very appealing and beautiful but falling into the genre to the point it became hard to distinguish it from other painters working in the same time.

But there was a piece that really captured my eye.  Titled After the Deluge (The Forty-First Day) it is an almost abstract depiction of the world after the biblical flood, the sun dominating in bursts of warm tones .  It was such an anomalous and powerful piece, more Van Gogh and modern in feel than Pre-raphaelite.  It evokes Mark Rothko, to bring it even further into the future. I found it just amazing.  It was on display at the National Galleries of Scotland last year in an exhibit titled Van Gogh to Kandinsky/ Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910.  This is how they described Watts’ work:

George Frederic Watts took his role as an artist to a high calling, stating: ‘I paint ideas, not things’. For him, landscape provided elements which he could transform to project profound meaning via natural grandeur, as in his large, imposing painting After the Deluge: The Forty-First Day. This simple image – a vast sun hanging over an expanse of calm, unbroken water – is far from a mere sunset; it evokes the cosmic energy of a star.

I love the quote– I paint ideas, not things.  Something to hold to.  Here’s the painting in question:

george_frederic_watts_after_the_deluge

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Rothko

Posted in Influences, tagged , on August 8, 2010| 8 Comments »

I ran into my neighbor a few weeks back while walking out my driveway to get my newspaper.  We chit-chatted for a few moments and he told me that he and his partner had recently seen the theatrical show Red in NYC.  It’s about the artist Mark Rothko, played onstage by Alfred Molina who gave what my neighbor described as a dazzling performance.

As we parted and I headed back, I began to think of how little I knew of Rothko and his life.  I knew a number of his paintings, especially his signature works which are called multi-forms by critics and collectors.  The pieces shown here are examples of this work.  I have always been drawn to these paintings, especially when confronted by them in museums.  They are normally large in size and have two blocks of color placed one over the other.  They often have a blurred, almost fuzzy appearance created by multiple layers of paint that creates a preternatural glow in some of the colors. 

I have thought many of these to be exceptionally beautiful and meditative,  finding myself mesmerized by the aura of these paintings. I have even referenced these paintings many times over the years as an influence on the forms of many of my own paintings.  But I knew (and still know) little of the man or how he came to this form and style. Or his theories on his work.  It just seemed enough to take that feeling I recived from his work and translated/integrated it into my own, without words and theories.  Even this morning as I write this, I know practically nothing of Rothko, his life or his work prior to the multi-forms that I do know.

Maybe that’s the way it should be.   As Rothko said, “Silence is so accurate.”

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