Lot Essay
The European Surrealists had opened doors to a new reality by evoking ancient myth and Freudian symbolism of the subconscious, and in painting moved beyond the traditional polarities of naturalism and abstraction which had defined the mainstream School of Paris. Among American artists of the 1940s, Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb were especially fascinated with myth:
"Rothko's style has a latent archaic quality which the pale and uninsistent colours enforce. The particular archaization, the reverse of the primitive, suggests the long savouring of human and traditional experience as incorporated in the myth. Rothko's symbols, fragments of myth, are held together by a free, almost automatic calligraphy that gives a peculiar unity to his paintings -- a unity in which the individual symbol acquires its meaning, not in isolation, but rather in its melodic adjustment to the other elements in the picture. It is this feeling of internal fusion, of the historical conscious and subconscious capable of expanding far beyond the limit of the picture space that gives Rothko's works its force and essential character." (H. Putzel, Mark Rothko, Paintings, exh. cat., Art of the Century, New York, 1945, n.p.).
Rothko was moving towards a middle ground between surrealism and abstraction, and as his interest in myth subsided, the abstract possibilities inherent in Surrealism appeared to hold greater promise. The calligraphic drawing of Mir and Masson were influential at this juncture, and paintings like the present work are characterized by a graceful linearity which suggested anthropomorphic forms, set against a pale diffused ground.
"The luminosity, flatness, frontality and close-value colors ascribed to the period of Rothko's great breakthrough in 1949-50 are already characteristic of these watercolors and pastels of the mid-1940's. Many of them are among his most beatiful works. Contrary to the opinion of some critics, who maintain that Rothko could not draw, and even of the artist himself, the calligraphy of this period is brilliant. There is about them a decided air of confidence, accomplishment and quiet pleasure. Their forms, almost liberated from myth and referential imagery, border as never before on the totally abstract and are brought into perfect harmony with the formal requirements of the picture plane." (D. Waldman, Mark Rothko 1953-1970: A Retrospective, exh. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1978, p. 48).
"Rothko's style has a latent archaic quality which the pale and uninsistent colours enforce. The particular archaization, the reverse of the primitive, suggests the long savouring of human and traditional experience as incorporated in the myth. Rothko's symbols, fragments of myth, are held together by a free, almost automatic calligraphy that gives a peculiar unity to his paintings -- a unity in which the individual symbol acquires its meaning, not in isolation, but rather in its melodic adjustment to the other elements in the picture. It is this feeling of internal fusion, of the historical conscious and subconscious capable of expanding far beyond the limit of the picture space that gives Rothko's works its force and essential character." (H. Putzel, Mark Rothko, Paintings, exh. cat., Art of the Century, New York, 1945, n.p.).
Rothko was moving towards a middle ground between surrealism and abstraction, and as his interest in myth subsided, the abstract possibilities inherent in Surrealism appeared to hold greater promise. The calligraphic drawing of Mir and Masson were influential at this juncture, and paintings like the present work are characterized by a graceful linearity which suggested anthropomorphic forms, set against a pale diffused ground.
"The luminosity, flatness, frontality and close-value colors ascribed to the period of Rothko's great breakthrough in 1949-50 are already characteristic of these watercolors and pastels of the mid-1940's. Many of them are among his most beatiful works. Contrary to the opinion of some critics, who maintain that Rothko could not draw, and even of the artist himself, the calligraphy of this period is brilliant. There is about them a decided air of confidence, accomplishment and quiet pleasure. Their forms, almost liberated from myth and referential imagery, border as never before on the totally abstract and are brought into perfect harmony with the formal requirements of the picture plane." (D. Waldman, Mark Rothko 1953-1970: A Retrospective, exh. cat., The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1978, p. 48).