Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out book review

Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out

Yale University Press

Mark Rothko.

Chances are that if you have a remote interest in art related matters and visited modern galleries within the last two decades, you would have had the mesmerizing experience that only unfolds its full grandeur in the third dimension, i.e. a Rothko painting.

Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out is Christopher Rothko, i.e. his son’s approach to his oeuvre, which is not further wondrous given that he gave up his academic pursuits to curate his father’s legacy.

The book is a collection of critical essays circled around Rothko’s paintings and its undoubtedly immense impact on the recipients.

What is interesting is that Christopher Rothko manages to debunk many of the myths that surround his old man, who committed suicide in 1970, and illustrated that at the core Rothko’s approach to painting was one of hope and at times aesthetically fragile instead of overly trying to be aggressive.

The personal approach of Christopher Rothko when he details his old man’s techniques and sheds light on inspirations and passions in a straight forward matter-of-factly manner substantiated by in-depth stories that other books on Rothko are devoid of.

I found the chapters detailing Rothko’s infatuation with music and abstract expressionism particularly enlightening as well as the fact that Rothko wrote extensively throughout the 1930s and 40s.

The book is a fluid, intriguing reference piece and effortlessly points out where interpretations of the art world get it wrong.