Page 320 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes

Byzantine Painting through Contemporary Eyes
daughter Kate Rothko Prizel had once noted, “many of his bright paintings he would view as the reflection of the tragic”32 – a case which affirms that his darker pieces should not be identified with pessimism but with an exalted kind of seriousness.
Shortly after the earlier cited excerpt from The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche explains the essential functioning of the Dionysian dance within the Greek Tragedy: “In successive waves, that primal cause of tragedy (the Dionysian or dithyrambic dance) radiates out the vision of the drama, which, as a dream-like appearance, is of epic form. On the other hand however, as an objectification of the Dionysian state, it does not represent the apol- lonian release into phenomenality, but it crashes the individual and it makes him one with the primal being.”33 In accordance to Nietzsche’s view cited above, one could con- clude that the genesis of tragedy has the abstract, non-representational and consequent- ly non-thematic hypostasis. In this particular sense, beyond the Dionysian dance itself, there is no traceable source (explanation) of tragedy; the tragedy thus has no reason, it stems from its own self, whereas drama, according to Nietzsche, is “the Apollonian rep- resentation of Dionysian ideas and influences.”34
Our view is that, partly due to Nietzsche’s influence, Rothko’s works of the classic period, especially his so called somber paintings, discreetly surpass pessimism by psy- chologically adjusting to it, and even further, by turning it into a natural state of mind in order to see beyond it more objectively, in order to see the inner Light – no matter how dim it may appear. This is achieved by Rothko most effectively through his gradual re- duction to a calmer – somber palette. Therein, Rothko’s somber works of the classic pe- riod authentically project both the subtle presence and the seeming absence of what might be called uncreated light, a Byzantine term for describing the visionary hesychast experience.35 As we shall discuss later in this chapter, the influence that Nietzsche’s vi- sion of tragedy exercised on Rothko’s classic works, was wondrously paired with Roth- ko’s idiosyncratic usage of colour – particularly with his usage of white.
32 This statement by Kate Rothko-Prizel is recorded in a television interview: Teresa de Vito, M. (2007) Kate Rothko: About my father Mark. Part two. Accessed 12 March 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nr7Mo-3EFA&translat- ed=1. In the same interview, Kate Rothko Prizel states: “One of the greatest misconceptions regarding Rothko’s very latest group of paintings, ones he painted just before his death in 1970, is to associate the dark colour palette with his mood at the time.”
33 Νίτσε, Φ., 100. Our translation of: «Αυτή η πρωταρχική αιτία της τραγωδίας ακτινοβολεί προς τα έξω, σε δια- δοχικά κύματα, το όραμα του δράματος, που, ως ονειρική εμφάνιση, είναι επικής μορφής, από την άλλη όμως, ως αντικειμενοποίηση διονυσιακής κατάστασης, δεν αντιπροσωπεύει την απολώνεια λύτρωση μέσα στη φαινομενικότη- τα, παρά θραύει το άτομο και το κάνει ένα με το πρωταρχικό ον.»
34 Ibid.
35 We have discussed the influence of Hesychasm on Late Byzantine painting in the second chapter of this book.
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