Page 339 - Uros Todorovic Byzantine Painting Contemporary Eyes
P. 339
Chapter VI
The three triptychs presented on the previous page, convey just how close to Rothko’s classic style we arrive, by simply excluding figures from Late Byzantine (and Russian) icons and replacing them with the colour of their backgrounds. For example, Rothko’s work Red, Yellow, Red shown on this page in image 28, can particularly be interpreted as an abstract version of a traditional Russian icon, where the dominance of red over other colours is emphasised in order to create the mood of the Resurrection.
28. Mark Rothko, Red, Yellow, Red, 1969, oil on paper mounted on canvas, 123.2 x 102.9 cm, private collection.
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