Rothko at the Tate

This was a large exhibition at the Tate and there were quite a few people there on the day we visited – I would have preferred fewer people so I could sit and admire the paintings quietly. The gallery I enjoyed the most was that containing the Brown and gray paintings. For me they are the ones that best reveal Rothko’s skill. I could have sat and contemplated them for hours – there seems to be so much subtle colour in them. I prefer them to the Seagram murals with their large rectangular shapes which I find don’t allow contemplation because you are following the shapes round rather than just enjoying the colours. Interestingly, I had always thought that Rothko’s works were flattened by reproduction but when I went to buy some postcards I found that the colours in the Black on Gray series were more lively than in the gallery. In the gallery I had found the black overpowered the grey but it didn’t do so in the postcard reproduction.