Mark Rothko’s “Browns and Blacks in Reds” (1957) in the exhibition “Church & Rothko: Sublime.” Credit… Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and Mnuchin Gallery.
Roberta Smith writes of the Rothko painting that it “presents a glowing stack in brown, red and black on a red ground.”
Frederic Edwin Church’s “Marine Sunset (The Black Sea),” from 1881-1882. Credit… Frederic Edwin Church and Mnuchin Gallery.
She describes the Church painting as “an expanse of shockingly deep red sky with a little sun peeping over a choppy black sea tossing a dark ship.”
Smith describes the colors of both paintings as “blunt” and compares them as follows:
Unburdened by representation, Rothko’s suspended blocks of autonomous color accentuate the strangeness of Church’s palette, especially the array of lavenders, pinks and yellows in his skies.
I always profit from Roberta Smith’s art criticism by feeling that I’ve seen art works (even those I like such as these two) a little more clearly after reading her comments. Her phrase “burden of representation” is striking. In my own modest easel practice, the greater challenge would be to paint non-representationally. In those territories, truly, there be dragons.
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.
EthicalDative 
‘Burden of Representation’
Roberta Smith writes of the Rothko painting that it “presents a glowing stack in brown, red and black on a red ground.”
She describes the Church painting as “an expanse of shockingly deep red sky with a little sun peeping over a choppy black sea tossing a dark ship.”
Smith describes the colors of both paintings as “blunt” and compares them as follows:
Unburdened by representation, Rothko’s suspended blocks of autonomous color accentuate the strangeness of Church’s palette, especially the array of lavenders, pinks and yellows in his skies.
I always profit from Roberta Smith’s art criticism by feeling that I’ve seen art works (even those I like such as these two) a little more clearly after reading her comments. Her phrase “burden of representation” is striking. In my own modest easel practice, the greater challenge would be to paint non-representationally. In those territories, truly, there be dragons.
(c) 2020 JMN
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.