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Functions of Mark Rothko he never failed to divide opinion. Were these giant pictures a new form of art or fuel for the “my son can draw” army? To his critics, Rothko’s writings seem devoid of symbolism or a recognizable message. However, they are currently reassessing the culture in an unexpected way due to the adoption of gen Z art lovers.
Through TikTok and Instagram, videos about Rothko’s work are being viewed hundreds of thousands. One producer said he started making clothes decorated with Rothko’s canvases; someone gives Rothko work to human archetypes, describing Untitled (Yellow and Blue) as a match “a person who wakes up early, drinks citrus juice and their life together – or at least it seems like”. Elsewhere, users compare its atmospheric palette to the wetness of the Cocteau Twins – the dream music group that’s rekindling gen Z right now. As one young artist recently said: “The idea of a date: me, Rothko, and no one says ‘I could have done this.'”
The question, then, is why does Rothko connect so strongly with gen Z audiences? Maybe it’s because the time he’s living in has a lot of interesting things to do with the mind, as well as a lot of connection with the things that are happening in the world. Rothko’s paintings, even on social media, serve as an aesthetic escape from the bombardment of stimuli; his meditation on diversity and finding depth in simplicity is his medicine.
Houston, Texas, is home to the Rothko Chapel. Commissioned by devout French Catholics, John and Dominique de Menil, in 1964, it has one windowless rectangular room with 14 large paintings on display. There’s nowhere else, nowhere to go if you’re planning on taking a quick look at the jobs. It’s a space that creates a subtle presence and creates a lot of interest in his work. According to Chapel’s dating expert Carolyn King, “when we have nothing, we can be confused, confused and uncomfortable; we can allow ourselves to be disappointed and overwhelmed.”
King saw many visitors to the Rothko Chapel. “I see some walking in, turning and leaving. They are not ready for the confrontation.
Rothko once said clearly: “Painting is not a picture of an event; it is an event”. His works are now often seen for the first time through digital mediums, without the vivid shapes, layers of color and precise brushstrokes in which the imagination can take the individual – it is difficult to say how Rothko himself would be satisfied that the audience is introduced to his works in this way.
Natalia Sidlina is curator of international art at Tate Modern, which currently houses Rothko’s Seagram Murals. – a selection of nine works of art in very bright maroons and deep browns, which were sent in 1958. For Sidlina, the proliferation of technology on digital platforms is ultimately a positive development of traditional practices, especially when it annoys some people to visit the works in person. He believes that Rothko would have had the same opinion.
He said: “Rothko didn’t talk about his works or tell people what they had to see or hear in front of them. “I think he would have been interested in remaining and seeing how the next generation of people do his work, in any platform or in any medium, and have an enjoyable experience without having to put a real story on it.”
He added: “I think the fact that he often told people what to think really affected people of that time who often did not want to be told what to do.”
At the same time online, and undoubtedly, Rothko’s works are exhibited in three cultural centers in Florence at the moment: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Palazzo Strozzi and Museo di San Marco. The latter shows Rothko’s paintings together with those of the late Renaissance master Fra Angelico in a regular conversation between Rothko’s son, Christopher, and Elena Geuna. The increased number of these shows will not be detrimental to the show; The videos showing the presentation have already gained huge numbers of views.
There is something strange and beautiful in today’s revival of Rothko: that an artist sometimes criticized as inaccessible and shallow, has found perhaps his greatest resonance with a generation far removed from his own.
