Things I'm still thinking about a week later: Rothko edition
Two things have stuck with me since last week’s visit to the Rothko exhibition at the National Gallery of Art . First, was the progression from complexity to simplicity in his painting. It never occurred to me that he did anything other than the color field paintings he is famous for. But there are two rooms of paintings tracing his earlier development as an artist. While there are interesting things happening in the earlier paintings, they don’t have the arresting quality of his more famous work.
The idea of starting with this ...
...and ending with this ...
... is something I'm still thinking about a week later.
We tend to assume that artists are born knowing what they want to do. But it's not unusual for an artist to spend years experimenting and learning and discarding before they identify their signature style. Economist David Galenson divides artists into conceptualists, who make their contributions early in their careers, and experimentalists, whose contributions develop later .?
And that’s the other thing that stuck with me. Rothko was 44 when he made his first color field painting. As Galenson points out, conceptualist F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as a mere baby of 29, while experimentalist Mark Twain was 50 when he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Conceptualists Frank Stella and Jasper John did their most valued work in their 20s. But Rothko was an experimentalist whose work didn’t peak until his mid-50’s.?
As someone who is on the other side of 29, and who is still experimenting with creative and expressive vision, it was energizing and exciting to be reminded that that path to those things doesn’t have to be direct.
One of the things that I've appreciated most about LinkedIn's recent evolution is that so many people now use it to chronicle their own search for their expressive vision, whether that's in art or accounting or marketing. There are so many Mark Rothkos and Mark Twains in the world—I hope you'll find that as encouraging as I have.
Happy Friday, happy creating.?
I keep a copy of Malcolm Gladwell's article on late bloomers that I refer to whenever I feel like things aren't moving fast enough in life.
I empower colleagues and partners of the Stand Together community with information, insights, & connections!
9 个月This issue landed at just the right time for me personally - thanks!
Great post! His color fields still suck, though ??
This is exactly why we took the field trip!
Marketing Manager at State Policy Network
9 个月Love this. Thanks for sharing.