MOCA Painting: Rothko

Walking through the MOCA on our field trip, I came across a Mark Rothko painting entitled Black on Dark Sienna on Purple. I’ve always been a fan of Rothko’s work but have never seen any of his work in person so my attention was immediately caught and held when I saw this piece. I studied this for a long period of time, drawn into the sheer vastness. The painting had a large block of black on the top, below that, a block of what he would call purple but seemed much deeper and closer to red. All of this is set on the background of a Dark Sienna brown that ties them all together. Mounted between many other large-scaled Rothko, being in the gallery room alone was imposing but going up to each painting, one is immediately drawn into the colors. As described above, Black on Dark Sienna on Purple is one of his abstract expressionist paintings consisting of very dark colors and one would think this would create a sense of gloom or, with the red, menace but I didn’t feel that at all. Despite the darkness, or maybe because of it, approaching the painting I felt surrounded by the colors, which, up close, still maintained their deep hues. The abstract blocks of color create a strong impression of expression and, despite feelings associated with those colors, rather stirred up emotion of longing and a sense of being lost. I found it amazing that an abstract painting could subconsciously stir up unfounded emotion within the viewer, though I’ve heard his abstract expressionist pieces did this. Moving from piece to piece, a new emotion was conveyed and as a whole, the gallery felt like a cathedral of stained-glass color, inspiring awe and amazement.