Dear Mr. Jewell, : Rothko Manifesto

For Those Who Don't Know

Mark Rothko was a prominent member of the New York School painters. His family emigrated to America, fearing that their eldest sons would be drafted into the Russian Imperial Army. He was awarded a scholarship to study at Yale, but left before graduating, due to the conservative environment. Rothko went to New York and began taking figure and still life drawing classes as well as enrolling at Parsons New School for Design. He is often grouped with the Abstract Expressionist movement, despite his claims that he was not an abstractionist. Rothko was inspired by mythology and the likes of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche.

A Letter Sent to The New York Times

This manifesto was written as part of a letter written with Adolph Gottlieb to the New York Times in 1943. You can read the full letter here.

1. To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.
2. This world of the imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense.
3. It is our functions as artists to make the spectator see the world our way—not his way.
4. We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth.
5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.

I like this manifesto for the same reason I like The Five Points of A New Architecture, it has 5 very concise points. Maybe 5 will be my magic number in my own manifesto. I agree with Rothko over Corbusier, art (the human condition) is opposed to rationality not reflective of it. I agree passionately with every point of this manifesto, to cut a long paragraph short, apart from point three. Yes, I do want my audience to feel strongly towards my art, and I would hope they could resonate with it. But I am not concerned in which way they resonate with it, or forcing the audience see things as I do.

Feel: Process Philosophy

Rothko left his paintings untitled, allowing viewers to respond to the forms that filled them, rather than written clues. Rothko used large canvases without frames, so that the work became one with the audience’s environment. I really like this attitude. It reminds me of Kiarostami and the gaps he leaves in his films for the audience to 'fill them according to how they think and what they want'. I would like my work to be more like this.

“The most interesting painting is one that expresses more of what one thinks than of what one sees.”

In his essay, “New Training for Future Artists and Art Lovers” (1934), Rothko wrote about the creative benefits of approaching art like a child might—instinctively, without the guidelines of instruction. By expressing emotion and experience like a child, an artist can find a unique style.

“[Watching children work] you will see them put forms, figures, and views into pictorial arrangements, employing of necessity most of the rules of optical perspective and geometry, but without the knowledge that they are employing them....their paintings are so fresh, so vivid and varied.”

“As a result of this method, each child works on his own idea, and actually develops a style of his own whereby his work is distinguishable from everyone else’s.”

The term 'inner child' has become a common in pop psychology. It always feels a bit like pseudo-psychology to me. Maybe it's because I'm just eighteen; I don't feel so disconnected from being a child yet.

But I do think you forget quickly. During my teenage years, I've always felt very inhibited and scared to create. Really really scared. I struggled to express myself through layers of self awareness, shame, and anxiety. I think that's what's great about children's art - there is no pretentiousness, it's not convoluted, and it's not self aware. I remember when I began to make art independently (I would have been about 16) thinking, 'Well how the hell do I write poem? What do I do?'. At school I had become so used to being told exactly what to do. I found it difficult to explore something myself - and to even have the confidence to feel like I could figure something out for myself. Which I think is very sad.

As I've gotten older that has begun to ease, but I'm still far from liberated. When I think back, there we're two things that catalysed my liberation:

1. I found someone who really believed in me

Often people say they believe in you, and they mean well. They love you, but they don't believe in you - perhaps they don't even understand you. You can tell when someone really believes in you. To be 16, just beginning to produce little films and scraps of poems, to look into someone's eyes and see them believe in me - I would not be here without that. It was one of my greatest gifts and greatest heartbreaks; I was very very lucky.

2. Morning pages

Writing morning pages has had such a tremendous impact on my ability to reflect, articulate, process, understand myself, my art, and the world. Without discovering The Artists Way (by Julia Cameron) and the exercises within it I would not be half the artist, thinker, or person I am now. So I will rant about morning pages until my voice goes hoarse! The process of morning pages I think has to come up in my manifesto.

Rothko also said that an artist of any skill level should seek to,

'Make his work arresting and provoking of attention.'

and that,

‘The familiar identity of things has to be pulverized’

With Rothko, I am a great admirer of his work. But I wasn't always. Until I researched him for my FMP I used to hate him. I used to think his paintings were so stupid! It took reading about him, being open minded to his process for me to be able to benefit from his work. I've spoken about this before in my Lars Von Trier post - People are often not open minded when they are frightened. People do not like things they can't understand, understandably. There is a place for art like Rothko, Kiarostami, Twombly, Yoko Ono's. I would like for my work to become more abstract, become cerebral (sorry Futurists). My art teacher once said to me, 'The funny thing about Twombly is that only artists seem to like his work'. I started surveying my artist and non artist friends - and she was absolutely right. I don't want to make art that only artists can appreciate. But at the same time, the reward you get from being open minded to work such as those mentioned - it's amazing and it's valuable. During my foundation, I would like to begin to define a balance of abstraction and accessibility. Kiarostami said,

'One must have a realistic expectation for art that is real art, as opposed to what is entertainment.'

Gotthardt, A. (2018). Mark Rothko on How to Be an Artist. Available: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-mark-rothko-artist. Last accessed 28th Mar 2021.

Kedmey, K. (2017). Mark Rothko. Available: https://www.moma.org/artists/5047. Last accessed 26 Mar 2021.

Sterritt, D. (2000). With Borrowed Eyes: Abbas Kiarostami. Available: https://www.filmcomment.com/article/with-borrowed-eyes-an-interview-with-abbas-kiarostami/. Last accessed 10th Sep 202

Unknown. (Unknown). Mark Rothko: The Artist's Reality. Available: https://www.radford.edu/rbarris/art428/mark%20rothko.html. Last accessed 26 Mar 2021.

Unknown. (Unknown). Mark Rothko. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko. Last accessed 26 Mar 2021.

Unknown. (Unknown). Mark Rothko. Available: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/rothko-mark/life-and-legacy/#nav. Last accessed 26th Mar 2021.

unknown. (unknown). Rothko Manifesto: Modernity for the Modern Artist. Available: https://www.studio2a.net/rothko-manifesto-modernity-for-the-modern-artist/. Last accessed 10th Sep 2021.

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