Page 306 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
Transitional period (1946–1949), transitional in the sense that it bridges his earlier myth- ological and surrealist work with his classic abstract painting, is marked by an increased reduction to abstract forms. This transition occurred through the rise of the so called multiforms – a term that was ascribed to the works of this period after Rothko’s death. Organically arranged, blurred colour blocks, which characterise the paintings of this period are rendered with transparency by applying distinct thin layers of paint (see im- ages 6, 7 and 8).9
Interestingly, as observed by John Gage, Rothko’s myopia, which like Matisse he had from an early age, is likely to have affected Rothko’s attitude toward viewing distance.10 In this respect, it does not come as a surprise that Matisse’s painting entitled The Red Studio (image 9) was a modern painting to which Rothko felt most deeply attached. Roth- ko recalled studying this painting of Matisse for months – upon its acquisition by the Museum of Modern Art (New York) in 1949.11 Therefore, perhaps even more than the ef- fects of Rothko’s acute case of myopia, the absolute treatment of colour by Matisse might have influenced Rothko’s subsequent conviction that his own work should be viewed at a distance of no more than eighteen inches. Thus, from 1949, the Classic and most impor- tant period of Rothko’s work had begun, where his blurred vision was turned into a clairvoyant seeing.
1. Mark Rothko, Self-Portrait, 1936, oil on canvas, 81.9 x 65.4 cm (32.1⁄4 x 25.3⁄4), Collection of Christopher Rothko.
9 This is noted by many researchers of Rothko’s work. See: Jacob Baal-Teshuva, Rothko (Taschen, 2003), 45.
10 John Gage, “Rothko: Color as Subject,” in Mark Rothko, ed. Jeffrey Weiss (Washington: National Gallery of Art, in association with New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998), 254.
11 Ibid, 261.
304