a picture lives by companionship

I've a great affection for the work of the abstract expressionists who painted in New York in the 1940s. Online images can only remind you of the powerful emotions they communicated and that pitifully little.

Still . . .

Here is a Rothko with some of his words and words of another who appreciates him.

“A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world.” — Mark Rothko

{source: eaobjets.files.wordpress}

"Art radiates emotion that, when it works, is felt by the viewer. I often think of painting as a kind of time machine. The painter captures more than simply a likeness of the subject in oil; the painter also captures the emotion that he, the painter, was feeling and wants to convey. Long after the painter is dead, the painting continues to broadcast that emotion to the viewer." — Michael Rosenblum

{source: rosenblumtv}

"It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing." — Mark Rothko

{Mark Rothko in his West 53rd Street studio, c. 1953, photograph by Henry Elkan; source: nga}

The National Gallery of Art (US) has an online Rothko Gallery. Of the man, the NGA curator says:

One of the preeminent artists of his generation, Mark Rothko is closely identified with the New York School, a circle of painters that emerged during the 1940s as a new collective voice in American art. During a career that spanned five decades, he created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting. Rothko's work is characterized by rigorous attention to formal elements such as color, shape, balance, depth, composition, and scale; yet, he refused to consider his paintings solely in these terms. He explained: "It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing."