Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko's style is known as Color Field painting, a sub-genre of Abstract Expressionism. Think of "Rothko's Rainbow Rectangles": His canvases are dominated by large, luminous, and often hazy rectangular forms of color, stacked vertically.

Key characteristics:

• Large scale: Paintings designed to engulf the viewer.
• Simplified forms: Rectangles and squares, emphasizing color and space.
• Soft edges: Blurring and bleeding between color fields creates depth and atmosphere.
• Thin layers of paint: Subtlety and luminosity, allowing the canvas to "breathe".

Themes:

Rothko aimed to evoke profound emotions in the viewer – feelings of tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and spirituality. He believed his paintings could be a conduit to experiencing universal human emotions, stripped bare of narrative. He wanted viewers to contemplate their own existence and mortality in the presence of his art.