The first retrospective in France dedicated to the artist Mark Rothko (1903-1970) since the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1999, the exhibition currently on show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton is one of the most important ever mounted for the Latvian artist.
Leading collectors (institutions and private individuals) have not hesitated to provide almost 115 works by the artist, retracing his entire career and helping us to discover an artist with many different styles.
His beginnings in figurative art marked by the Great Depression
The starting point for the exhibition is the 1930s and its Great Depression. Mark Rothko was a recent graduate of the Art Students League in New York, where he studied briefly with Max Weber, who encouraged him to work in a figurative style reminiscent of the work of Paul Cézanne.
The artist's earliest known works depict street scenes and interiors with figures that evoke a sombre, gloomy atmosphere in the aftermath of the First World War. His style is characterised by deliberate distortions of the subjects and a coarse application of paint.
Untitled (String Quartet), 1935, Oil on hardboard 70.8 x 91.4 cm, Copyright © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
Seeking his artistic identity
From the 1940s onwards, images of everyday life quickly became outmoded. Mark Rothko wanted to express the tragedy of the human condition, so he considered different artistic styles. He tried his hand at abstract expressionism alongside his friend Jackson Pollock, and then surrealism in works devoted to the themes of myth, prophecy, archaic ritual and the unconscious.
‘It was with the greatest reluctance that I realised that the figure could not serve my purposes. ... . But there came a time when none of us could use the figure without mutilating it’ (Mark Rothko).
Mark Rothko, Hierarchical Birds , 1944, huile sur toile, Don de la Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.20
Towards abstraction
Figurative associations disappeared at the end of the 1940s, giving way to asymmetrical splashes of colour.
Liquid paint soaked the canvas, leaving soft, indistinct edges that expressed emotional states.
His work reveals a greater breadth of composition and scale, as well as greater attention to colour in shades of yellow, red, ochre, blue and white.
In the early 1950s, Rothko refined his style and found his artistic identity: floating rectangles aligned vertically on a coloured background. Rothko would eventually work mainly in this format, using numerous variations in colour and tone to suggest an astonishing range of moods and states of mind.
In 1958, the artist received a major commission for paintings for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, which he eventually failed to deliver, thus keeping the entire series.
He offered nine of his paintings to the Tate Gallery, which reserved a room exclusively for them. All these unique pieces are currently on show in the artist's retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Mark Rothko, Sans titre (Croquis Seagram Mural) , 1959, huile et techniques mixtes sur toile, Don de la Fondation Mark Rothko, Inc., 1986.43.156
The consecration
From 1960 onwards, Mark Rothko became increasingly famous. Museums such as the Phillips Collection in Washington and the MoMa in New York devoted rooms and major exhibitions to his work. The artist moved from shadow to light, while his canvases, on the other hand, darkened spectacularly, as shown in the Black and Grey series of 1969-1970. Rothko increased the subtle perception of his canvases, making it painstakingly difficult to distinguish between form and content.
Mark Rothko, No. 4 , 1964, technique mixte sur toile, Don de la Fondation Mark Rothko, Inc., 1986.43.152
At the end of the 1960s, the artist's physical activity was considerably reduced by a heart condition that prevented him from painting large canvases. Physically ill and suffering from depression, the artist took his own life on 25 February 1970 in his studio. He will forever leave his mark on art history for his crucial role in the development of non-figurative art.
These masterpieces are brought together at the Fondation Louis Vuitton alongside the great figures of Alberto Giacometti, creating a poignant tribute to this emblematic artist.
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