"Just how powerful is art?" The narrator questions in the first 5 seconds of the video. "Can it feel like love and grief? Can it change your life? Can it change the world?" Though these questions are very broad and common and gives the opening of this documentary of Rothko a somewhat cheesy start, it is a good, honest question while looking at Rothko. The work of Marc Rothko is very powerful, it does not express a certain situation, per-say, but it does express certain feelings. If any work can feel like love or grief, it is the work of Marc Rothko.
The first segment of the video starts with the arrival Rothko's work at the Tate gallery and the connection to his suicide that same day. This is a very powerful way to start a documentary, especially one about an artist who could convey so much of his own pain through his work. We are then introduced to the society and art world of the 1970s when our narrator was accidentally exposed to the works of Rothko and deeply affected. This allows us to understand a personal account of what it would feel like to see Rothko for the first time in his own era. Next we are given an example of what it might have felt like to experience these works and what sort of thought ran through the narrators head.
The second segment started in on the biography of Rothko. In a weird cooking channel explanation of Rothko's childhood. We are introduced to a kid who was always ready to please his mother, work hard and share his knowledge (even when no one wanted him to.) The narrator explains his life through the lens of Judaism and it seems to me, the viewer, that this was either a constant struggle of Rothko's life, or that the writer was anti-Semitic. We then skip back to the recount of the Seagram job. Then back to the 1920's when he dabbled in expressionism. They mention that his work at that point of his life were not good because he was thinking too hard, an interesting point when dealing with art, which walks the thin line between thought and expression.
The third part of the series starts with the subway series. Rothko's colors begin to be questioned, as if the start to his later success. We are told that Rothko called his colors performers. This idea is very interesting, and very true to the visual arts. I think that it can be said that the artist is like a conductor or director, and the colors are the performers. The actor portraying Rothko is somewhat creepy, delivering the real thoughts of a human person in the way you might read Shakespeare aloud in middle school. His Jewish accent seems to come and go with each short quote. The black and white add to the creepiness, as does the swell of the violins in the background. I think it is very interesting that Rothko wanted to bring in the sense of tragedy that his work portrayed to the 4 seasons. I also think it is interesting that the 4 seasons wanted his work which is by the narrator's words funereal. If I had to guess I would say that the hotel had not really taken much but his popularity into account when commissioning him for this job. I liked the idea of his connection to Matisse's "Red Studio" as the thought of "liberating color." I think this might be a good connection, if Rothko had been able to take these ideas away and use them as soon as he was exposed to them.
Part 4 starts with Rothko going on vacation with his family once the Seagram job was finished. The narrator goes into a reported conversation that Rothko had with a fellow passenger on the cruise ship he was aboard, claiming that Rothko hoped that his paintings ruined the appetites of those who went to the Seagrams restaurant. I liked this idea, as it expressed what I had thought about his work in the restaurant. In this section Rothko begins to sell his work. There is a discussion about the difference and battle between prettiness and power. I think this is a very important question in the art world, not just about Rothko. There are many works of art I may consider pretty, but do not particularly move me, and the same is true the other way around as well. I think an artist needs to find which side of art they want to appeal to, the pretty or the powerful, and work until they can appeal to both. This segment also gives a very moving description of looking at a Rothko piece, and it makes me want to visit these works in person. I would like to explore the ragged spaces in between the blocks of color, as those seem like the most important spaces within the painting.
Side note: A random angry comment on the video reminded me of a stand up comedian named Pete Holmes who talks about youtube comments and their negativity. He's a funny guy,
Check Him out Here
Part 5 starts with an introduction to the period of time when Rothko was equal to Pollock and other great artists of the time. I like the idea that he did not like to be complemented on the beauty of his artwork, and that he did not want his work to be soothing. Now we are finally introduced to the reasons behind Rothko agreeing to do the 4 seasons restaurant job.
Part 6 starts with Rothko realizing that the 30 paintings he had done for the 4 seasons were not going to hang in the 4 seasons. He wanted to create a special space, "his space" which I think is the dream of most artists.
The last part of the series starts with the introduction to the cathedral commission in Houston. These large black canvases seem to convey the pain that Rothko was feeling. The quote "It seems he was painting to see how dark he could make the light" seems very appropriate, as well as a literal translation of what he had been metaphorically doing his entire career. His earlier works were very colorful, but still were trying to access the deepest feelings within a person, to find the darkness within someone and bring it out through their viewing of a painting, these works of the chapel seem to be more literally connected to darkness. The end of the documentary is somewhat sappy, but very moving, as we learned a lot about Rothko, his work, and his influence.
