Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Color Blocks and the Rothko and Frame exhibits at PAM

My painting "Playing With Rothko"
Last month I saw two outstanding exhibits that couldn't have been more different at the Portland Art Museum.  Painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970) received his early art education at Portland's Museum Art School. His distinctive stacked blocks of "floating, saturated color and transcendent calm" are minimalist and all about color relationships. Many of the paintings seem to hum with a deep spirituality. (His work inspired the construction of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, which I had the good fortune to visit a couple years ago.) Upstairs at PAM was an exhibit of  John Frame's work that, in contrast to Rothko's, was sculptural, detailed, and imbued with deep and confusing meanings. I found Rothko's work direct, accessible and calming while Frame's work seemed complicated and left me feeling unsettled, even though I did like being challenged by it. Dinner at Higgins Restaurant just a couple blocks away from PAM was the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon and you can bet the conversation was lively!

"White Center" by Mark Rothko
When I got home I decided to play around with Rothko's style ("Playing With Rothko"). Pastelist Jala Pfaff has done a series of pastel paintings in a stacked color block style reminiscent of his work; here's an example.She's very prolific, as you can see from the photo of her studio!

"Untitled 183" by Jala Pfaff
Jala Pfaff's studio

2 comments:

  1. I would have loved to have seen this Rothko exhibit. Your interpretation is quite nice and Jala Plaff's work beautiful too, thank you for sharing this exhibit, your practice and your find on the web.

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  2. Hi Lisa: Thanks for stopping by--it means a lot as I follow your blog and am a big fan of your work.

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