Every year I spend the summer in Washington DC. My favorite part about staying there is the opportunity to visit the museums, and especially the National Gallery of Art and the Phillips Collection Museum, which houses works produced by some of my favorite artists. One artist in particular, Mark Rothko, has always been a painter whose style has moved me deeply. Even the first time I was able to experience his works in person, I found the literal experience of viewing the painting to be anything but the act of simply viewing, but more of dwelling IN the painting. When one sees his pieces in person, as opposed to mere photographs, one is able to feel what the artist felt, in the sense that it was not about a picture, but about an experience. This idea is inherent with being in the very presence of his works. One doesn't look at his paintings and walk on by, but sits and dwells in the color and is very aware of the enveloping color. And upon sitting long enough and going into the experience well-informed, knows that the color is meant to bring about or perhaps trigger, emotions or feelings within the viewer. In this regard, I would argue that Rothko's paintings are perfect examples to accompany the notion that perhaps art is not the painting itself, a noun, a picture, but that art is the experience that the viewer undergoes as he is within the integument of color created BY the painting.
http://www.phillipscollection.org/collection/rothko-room/
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