untitled (plum and dark brown) - 1964your paintings are like my films. they are about nothing... with precision
michelangelo antonioni to mark rothko, during a visit to rothko's studio in 1962, according to motherwell and peter selz
see temps mort: rothko and antonioni by jeffrey weiss
found in mark rothko published by skira - 2008
for the complete story
5 comments:
(sorry for the lack of posts lately... rough times... hope to change the frequency soon)
I'm curious to know what was Rothko's honest reaction to this. Perhaps he appreciated Antonioni's words but Rothko thought his paintings had content.
He said once: "I'm not interested in the relationship of colour or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on...The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience as I had when I painted them."
As for Antonioni, I think he values his films too much by calling them "about nothing."
Very nice blog!
i believe this nothingness is the ultimate expression, everything else seems unimportant
i think that is what attracts me so much to rothko especially, and partly to antonioni
I think I agree with you... but not with Antonioni.
Nothingness, especially when its opposite is also expressed, is hugely important. I'm thinking especially of D.H. Lawrence.
Greatest art make me feel the whole cosmos disappear, and make me "see" that being and nothing are not so different after all.
Brakhage made a movie called "Cannot Exist" then made another one called "Cannot (Not) Exist".
I agree that Rothko makes us feel a lot about the great Nothing... I don't think that's true for Antonioni but then again I haven't seen that many because I didn't love what I saw.
yes, that is why i said partly,
antonioni was attracted to nothingness, from watching his films, though "nothing" like rothko, fontana, yves klein, agnes martin, etc. i do have trouble with his work sometimes
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