So happy you ended by reaffirming Rothko’s work. It is not the artist who thinks of the tide he may flow in, that work is done by the influencers at the dam.
Thank you for this retrospective of insight. May I add that quite of few of the new realist and Pop Art works were intended and do include a critique of the 'plastic' degradable aspect of American pop culture, such as "F-16" by Rosenquist, "WHAAM" by Lichtenstein, "Car Crash" and deadening image repetitions by Warhol, "Star" by Segal, and, importantly, more broadly, a critique of the Post-War cultural communication system, the illustrator methods of analog pin-stripping, news printing dots, and the repeating bludgeoning by the media. Note that the artists themselves were highly aware and self-critical too, as in "POP" by Lichtenstein. These Pop artist were not so much in the middle to the transcendental painters,as playing both ends against themselves: American Promo Culture is a horrid, mighty force.
I especially like your calm observance of "The Look ", required in sales and marketing for products, including high art. "The Look" does need to be seen as a whimsy, because, after all, in or out of "look", devotees and buyers are financing the expanding market of Rothko paintings, putting a price behind their belief, whether founded or not, two generations later. Often it does take two generations of seeing into visual works to understand the meanings and the values of those meanings.
It would seem that the circular discussion of meanings keeps going around and widening out on the Transcendental Ab-Ex paintings, perhaps because a deep human dilemma is involved: A leap of faith.
So happy you ended by reaffirming Rothko’s work. It is not the artist who thinks of the tide he may flow in, that work is done by the influencers at the dam.
Interesting, informative and insightful piece clarifying different Modernist directions.
Thank you for this retrospective of insight. May I add that quite of few of the new realist and Pop Art works were intended and do include a critique of the 'plastic' degradable aspect of American pop culture, such as "F-16" by Rosenquist, "WHAAM" by Lichtenstein, "Car Crash" and deadening image repetitions by Warhol, "Star" by Segal, and, importantly, more broadly, a critique of the Post-War cultural communication system, the illustrator methods of analog pin-stripping, news printing dots, and the repeating bludgeoning by the media. Note that the artists themselves were highly aware and self-critical too, as in "POP" by Lichtenstein. These Pop artist were not so much in the middle to the transcendental painters,as playing both ends against themselves: American Promo Culture is a horrid, mighty force.
I especially like your calm observance of "The Look ", required in sales and marketing for products, including high art. "The Look" does need to be seen as a whimsy, because, after all, in or out of "look", devotees and buyers are financing the expanding market of Rothko paintings, putting a price behind their belief, whether founded or not, two generations later. Often it does take two generations of seeing into visual works to understand the meanings and the values of those meanings.
It would seem that the circular discussion of meanings keeps going around and widening out on the Transcendental Ab-Ex paintings, perhaps because a deep human dilemma is involved: A leap of faith.
So informative. Thank you.
Spot on. If you're empty, Rothko's empty. If not, not. There is no dilemma.