Research Paper on:
Artist Mark Rothko's Development

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
initial work was very easily understandable in terms of subject matter. His later work, was completely void of subject matter as it presented the viewer with nothing but a few  colors, as little as two colors, and very square or rectangular shapes, often limited to two shapes. In the following paper we look at two of his earlier surrealistic paintings  and then take a look at two of his abstract expressionist paintings. The paintings in the surrealistic period discussed are Gethsemane from 1944 and Sea Fantasy from 1946. The paintings  from the abstract expressionism period are , Untitled from 1949 and No. 2 (No. 7 and No. 2) from 1951. Surreal Paintings In understanding the painting titled Gethsemane  (1944) we must take into consideration that Rothko was finding the Old and New Testaments to be a very powerful source of inspiration for his work. The title of this  piece "refers to the garden near Jerusalem that was the scene of the agony and betrayal of Christ. In a radio broadcast Rothko" was asked the following question: "Are not  these pictures really abstract paintings with literary titles?" (Anonymous Mark Rothko, 2002; early1.html). His answer was as follows: "If our titles recall the known myths of antiquity, we have used  them again because they are the eternal symbols upon which we must fall back to express basic psychological ideas. They are the symbols of mans primitive fears and motivations, no  matter in which land or what time, changing only in detail but never in substance....Our presentation of these myths, however, must be in our own terms which are at once  more primitive and more modern than the myths themselves--more primitive because we seek the primeval and atavistic roots of the ideas rather than their graceful classical version; more modern than