Form, Feeling & Faith

Art Criticism in Post-War America:

Analyzed Through the Signature Style of Mark Rothko

There is no such thing as a good painting
about nothing. Mark Rothko
Things are entirely what they appear to be
and behind them, is nothing. Jean-Paul Sartre

1Nothing worse could happen to one
then to be completely understood. Carl Jung


In order to fully apprehend a particular style or era of art, one must also investigate the
various methods of interpretation associated with such art. These methods, often produced
simultaneously with the art they aim to explore, provide insight into the art itself, permitting
access into the social and cultural atmospheres that generate different artistic techniques and
creative processes, perpetuating the art beyond its original sphere. Often times, these methods are
symptomatic of a need to sustain adequate interpretations for a continually evolving artistic
aesthetic; with every innovative and different style of art, an equally fresh method is required to
stay in sync with artistic evolution. Just as the art itself exhibits modern techniques, interpretive
methods must also continually (re)evaluate themselves. This correlative relationship between art
and its systems of elucidation is demonstrated throughout history, and Post-War America is of no
exception.
The duration and gradual conclusion of World War II left America in an exhausted,
unstable state during the nineteen-forties and fifties. Even after Victory in Europe Day in May of
1945, wartime anxieties and uncertainties remained constant in the minds of the American
public. The Second World War set in motion a chaotic aftermath, expressing the elementary
fears and passions of man. Global warfare brought with it intense tragedy and the brutal aspects
of human nature, feelings directly related to the events of the time.
1
These anxieties could no
sooner be forgotten in American society, and such emotions facilitated the onset of an impactful
modern artistic movement never before experienced in the United States.

1
Buettner, Stewart. American Art Theory., pp. 82.
The art produced during the years after the war became the first specifically American
movement to gain worldwide significance, shifting the center of artistic vitality from Europe
(specifically, Paris) to its new domestic address in New York City. Defined as Abstract
Expressionism, this new style epitomized American sentiments and developed itself as an
identifiable and important zeitgeist of the times. The title Abstract Expressionism is derived
from the combination of emotional intensity articulated via an anti-figural aesthetic in works of
art. Coined in 1946 by art critic Robert Coates
2
(after various articles that continually referred to
both terms, thus leading to their inevitable amalgamation), Abstract Expressionism denoted an
artistic style directly expressing ideas about the spiritual and the unconscious mind in rebellious,
idiosyncratic and sometimes nihilistic imagery. Abstract Expressionism represented an anodyne
artistic strategy for artists to abstract meaning and content of their works, to elude the political
influences prevalent during such highly sensitive times. In general, the art of Abstract
Expressionism seized upon the most personal and individual psychic material of the artist,
seeking to express a shared set of values and experiences. In the case of these works, the canvas
must be seen also as a microcosmic reflection of the larger arena of the public realm.
3
The art of
Abstract Expressionism targeted the uneasiness of the American people, providing emotional
refuge to those in desperate need of assurance. Abstract Expressionism affirms its stature as the
quintessential American style, emanated from a myriad of ways in which it constituted a present
phase within a broad history of modern style.
4

Among the artists of Abstract Expressionism, a premium was placed on developing a
distinctive formal vocabulary that was recognizably associated with a particular artist.
5
Within
the New York school, the conception of style closely aligned with that of individualism and
one artist in particular can be noted for this specificity of style. Mark Rothko, born Marcus
Rothkowitz in 1903 in present-day Latvia, immigrated to the United States at age thirteen to
avoid the draft in the Russian army. Marking the start of his artistic career, Rothko settled in
New York City and began painting in the mid-nineteen twenties. After several years of
experimentation with mythological subject matter and multiform compositions, Rothko
eventually arrived at his signature format by 1949. Coinciding with the dates of World War II,
Rothko had invented his own signature motif consisting of two or more rectilinear clouds of
color hovering silently within a vertical canvas. Mark Rothko adhered to this compositional

2
Robert Coates for the New Yorker, 1946, in reference to various works by Arshille Gorjy, Jackson Pollock and
Willem de Kooning.
3
Joselit, David. American Art Since 1945. New York, Thames and Hudson, 2003. pp. 11.
4
Landau, Ellen G., Reading Abstract Expressionism. New Haven, London; Yale. 2005, pp. 13.
5
Joselit, D. pp. 14
formula for the subsequent two decades of his life, only ceasing with the artists suicide in
February of 1970. Over his productive career, Rothko mined this ostensibly simple abstract
hieroglyph in order to produce a wide range of perceptual and emotional effects, ranging from
sunny combinations of orange and yellow, which strike an almost painfully high key, to his very
somber almost monochromatic paintings of the mid-nineteen sixties.
6
This classic Rothko style
produces a perceptual contradiction established between the broad fields of color, which embrace
the viewer in their large-scale format and the zips, the transecting horizontal line through the
monochromatic area of color, upon which the eye can never rest, but rapidly slides back and
forth in an unending hyper-active blink, which serves both to divide and join together the tinted
canvases they transit through.
7
Towards the last years of his life, circa 1964, Rothko received a
commission for the design and decoration of a Catholic chapel in Houston, Texas, courtesy of
John and Dominique de Menil. Dubbed the Rothko Chapel, several dark-colored panels adorn
the walls and invoke the quintessential style of the artist himself. The last works before his death;
the Chapel paintings may be considered the final culmination of the artists career. Rothkos
abstract composition, constituting entirely of hazy rectangular areas of color and gradating hues,
became the archetype of his artistic style and personified the essence of Abstract Expressionism.
Loved or hated, Rothkos mature work in the fifties and sixties was undeniably new and
completely unfamiliar.
8
In the eve and aftermath of World War II, Mark Rothko no doubt
experienced the daily chronicle of evil reported to the American public, including various
refugee testimonies of the war, observing public fears of the Atomic Bomb and the disturbing
accounts of human slaughter. Rothko eventually applied for U.S. citizenship, following universal
trepidations of his Jewish heritage and the widespread paranoia of possible Nazi invasion.
Although permanent residence in New York kept such threats remote to Europe, their infiltration
into everyday American lives attained the war a surreal and symbolic existence. Rothkos
impulse during those years of dread was an eyes-shut flight to primitive beginnings, to the vital
sources of life, art and myth.
9
This attitude represented a blanket rejection of the unbearable
present of modern history in favor of a time when humanity itself was not at a loss. This struggle
between the futility of humankind and the necessity of a reactivation in faith and human nature
expressed itself distinctly within Rothkos seemingly empty canvases, personified in the absence
of imagery yet overwhelming authority of his work. If ever there was an image of the world

6
Joselit, D. pp.23
7
Joselit, D. pp.25
8
Rosenblum, Robert. On Modern American Art, New York, Henry A. Abrams, 1999. pp. 109
9
Rosenblum, R. pp. 102
when all of matter, all of man, all of history might be annihilated, it was to be found in the
pictorial format of a numbing atmospheric void.
10

Rothko enthusiasts agree the act of looking upon one of his classic paintings can be
synonymous with an unmistakable perceptual and bodily effect; however, one would be hard
pressed to find any sort of agreement among those enthusiasts. Mark Rothkos works have been
variously described; his art embodies the transcendental, tragic, mystical, violent or serene, as
representative of the void, as an experience in the sublime, as exhilaratingly intellectual or even
profoundly spiritual.
11
It is within these different areas of interpretation that a new form of Art
Criticism is born; Rothkos paintings represent a unique art, thus no literature was available at
the time of their inception. This lack of information on the time where this stage falls is indicated
by critics expressions of a need for a new interpretive strategy. Sources for the criticism of
Abstract Expressionism can be found in several earlier sources and preceding critical writing;
however, the New Art Criticism developed within post-war America combines with it novel
interests in aesthetics, ethics, political philosophy, Jungian psychology and Existentialism.
12
In
the years after the war, the marketing of art accelerated significantly, with a proliferation of
publications reaching a wider range of audiences then ever before, and a surge of new art
galleries opening in New York City which took advantage of the citys uprising artistic energy
and publicity. During the forties and fifties, a variety of these publications firmly established the
themes, assumptions, intellectual ambiance and contextual parameters that were of interest to
artists and spectators alike. The most prominently featured were those shared expressions of a
heroic belief in the centrality of the individual unconscious and the concomitant desire to
originate a style whose characteristics derived from immediate spontaneous decisions, rather
then a reliance on learned procedures.
13
These publications gave rise to an entirely new body of
criticism, creating a niche for the newfound art historian the critic of Abstract Expressionism.
The meaning and content of artworks is often discerned through the criticism contemporaneous
with the art itself, and in order to accurately account for the conclusions drawn, one must always
consider the art critics validity, success, and lasting significance. Much of mid-century art
criticism is utilized as a means to understand the pictures and activity of the times, providing
useful insight to an artistic phenomenon such as Abstract Expressionism. Yet, whom we identify
as a true critic remains an important point as writers, collectors and artists themselves frequently
commented on the nature of the movement itself. As no formal training was required to write (or

10
Rosenblum, R. pp. 102
11
Crow, Thomas., Phillips, Glenn. Seeing Rothko. Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, 2005. pp.1
12
Foster, Stephen C. The Critics of Abstract Expressionism, pp. 3
13
Landau, E. pp. 5
publish) art criticism, modern day art historians are obligated to identify specific criterion for
establishing a veritable critic. The main task of all art critics is the evaluation of quality in works
of art. However, they part company when it comes to determining on what basis this judgment of
quality is to be made.
14
The conceptual evasiveness of Abstract Expressionism opened the
gateway for spokesmen, with their own agendas, to step into the breach. Given the variety of
descriptions of Rothkos work, how many perceptual experiences might he engage? Do these art
critics all genuinely experience something different, or, perhaps, is the perceptual experience the
same, but the cognitive abilities to identify, process and represent those sensations differ
irreconcilably?
15
The propagation of art criticism articulated basic polarities that would continue
to influence significantly both Abstract Expressionist practice, and the greater elaboration of
contexts for its reception throughout the following decades.
16

The criticism that arose within the nineteen-forties and early fifties in American society
has received the most extensive development, and retained the largest portion of leadership in
ensuing years. The tenets of these methods remain consistent throughout their advancement, and
remain of significant influence on later critics, including those of present day.
17
Due to the
aforementioned features, the specific areas of art criticism examined throughout the subsequent
paragraphs are limited to three specific prevalent approaches: Formalism; Existentialism; and
Spiritualism, and each of their particular assets/limitations as applied to an analysis of Mark
Rothkos specific signature style. Each of these methods must be taken as an individual case
study, dissembling all parts in order to erect a clear, interpretive framework one in which all
claims are measured for validity, objectivity and exposing any and all theoretical contradictions.
While none of these methods are the primary inventions of the art critics who typified them, they
all take precise form within their prosaic scales; each approach designates explicit measures and
sentiments that are strictly adhered to. Here, some techniques emphasize flatness of the picture
plane, while some emphasize illusionistic depth; these are techniques that both depict fullness
and emptiness, openness and closedness. It is within the cross sections of these writings, as well
as their antithetical arguments, that a comprehensive perception can, and should, be approached.
The term Formalism denotes an artistic theory that posits exclusively formal aspects
constitute the value of a work qua artwork, whereas everything essential to its apprehension is
contained within itself. Such formal properties include the works arrangement, composition of

14
Rose, Barbara. Readings in American Art, pp. 31
15
Crow, T. pp. 2
16
Landau, E. pp. 9
17
Foster, S. pp. 3
elements, construction and/or sensual qualities. Its form, emphasizing the purely visual features
and only taking aspects of the medium into account, determines the significance of a work.
Non-formal elements, or life-values such as emotion, morality and content, are artistically
irrelevant within such an approach and of secondary importance. Value is exclusive to the
manner of presenting or expressing the meanings contained within; the meanings themselves
become auxiliary features of the work, of extraneous consequence. According to formalists,
these conventional aspects attain undivided focus because it is only through them that one is able
to value a work of art as a work of art, that is, as an autonomous and self-sufficient object.
18

Noted art critic Clement Greenberg is perhaps the strongest advocate for the Formalistic
approach within Abstract Expressionism. A prolific writer and critic, Greenbergs first published
work, entitled The Avant-Garde and Kitsch (The Partisan Review, 1939) marks the beginning
of his extensive and influential career. His numerous essays and critiques facilitated the
understanding of modern art through a strict adherence to the processes of artistic formalism,
deemphasizing the representational aspects of artworks and concluding that abstract art was the
purest art of all. Throughout his approach, Greenberg insists that authenticity and emotion were
the engines of significant painting; he defines abstraction in terms of a larger supra-personal
development within the history of art,
19
asserting the Abstract Expressionist artists advanced
their art by painterly means, without relaxing the concentration and high impassiveness of
modern style. His method militates a return to Apollonian classical standards, like those of high
Cubism, claiming the superior art of the movement owes its realization to a higher discipline.
Greenberg fervently protested the openness of interpretation that bastardized the Abstract
Expressionist style
20
. In Greenbergs renowned and influential essay, Towards a Newer
Lacoon (1940, Partisan Review), he alludes directly to those classical standards he wished to
reinstate. The objective of modernist painting, to Greenberg, was to analyze and express its basic
constituent conditions as a medium, where emotion transcends the painters own unconscious
drives in order to portray a broad cultural reality.
21
Here, the form of an artwork not only opens
the way to inspiration; it can also act as a means to it, as well as its technical preoccupations.
Greenberg refutes allegations of an anti-historical attitude, claiming it is quite easy to show
abstract art reflects social circumstance of the age. Nothing inside art itself, disconnected with
history, compels it to go in one direction or another. When searching enough, and compelled
enough, then, anyone can generate or discover content within a work of art; however, when the
work succeeds, it does so ipso facto by the content which it conveys, whereas such content

18
Dziembok, B. pp. 187
19
Joselit, pp. 11
20
Landau 21
21
Joselit pp.11
cannot be separated from its form.
22
This content, the values connected with representations of
the external world or evocation of emotions or ideas, retains little or no significance if not
directly associated within the artistic form. Such a separation of content and form embodies what
Greenberg sees as the ultimate problem with art, whereas the emphasis is shifted away from the
medium and erroneously transferred to the subject matter. With such transference, it then
becomes a matter of artistic ability to interpret subject matter rather then an emphasis on artistic
production, creating a regrettable circumstance in which the medium itself becomes a physical
obstacle between the artist and audience, rather then the priority. This circumstance is
representative of previous artistic attempts to achieve allusions by overpowering the medium,
exploiting the practical meanings of objects rather then in savoring their physical appearance.
23

Clement Greenbergs artistic formalism acquires increased stylistic relevance whence
applied to the later art of color-field painters such as Mark Rothko. The vocabulary of
Greenbergs critical method achieves a greater authority with the movements later styles, even if
it does so by accident.
24
Foregrounding the high art qualities of flatness, opticality and purity,
which he believed to be more truly representative of avant-garde thinking, Greenberg applies a
new term: post-painterly abstraction, as demonstrative of artists such as Rothkos more
progressive, self-critical emphasis on hue, physical openness of design, linear clarity and
integrity of the picture plane.
25
According to Greenbergs Lacoon essay, the art of pure form
is capable of communicating sensations as its essential effect, revealing the advantages of
abstraction in art to the avant-garde. Art of this pure form attains a greater integrity and self-
sufficiency, for art that is abstract can be almost nothing else except sensuous. Here, it is by
virtue of the medium that each art is unique and strictly itself; to restore the identity of art, the
opacity of the medium must be emphasized. In a joint statement to the New York Times in
1942
26
, Rothko himself takes a pro-formalist stance, revealing his penchant for the simple
expression of complex thought, stating it is a widely accepted notion among painters that it
doesnt matter what one paints, as long as it is well-painted. Rothkos preference for a
simplistic appearance, and the unimportance of chosen subject matter, seem to endorse
Greenbergs predilection for medium purity. Both the artist and critic converge in their strive for
an art of infinite suggestion, where minimal forms emphasize the proper values of visual art and
the abstract qualities of the work are the only ones that count. As Greenberg maintains in
Lacoon, such abstract art leaves nothing to identify, connect or think about, but everything to

22
Greenberg, Necessity of Formalism, pp. 175
23
Greenberg, Lacoon, pp. 24
24
Foster, S. pp. 88
25
Landau, E. pp. 23
26
1942 Letter to NY Times, Rothko & Gottlieb
feel. The mature work of Rothko may be understood in light of Greenbergs influential
argument that modernist painting arises through a self-critical procedure of stricter and stricter
analysis, leading to the minimal means necessary to produce what the critic regarded as a
superior painting. Abstract art, such as the mature style of Rothko, does indeed lend itself to a
formal approach, where no previous knowledge is required to interpret or appreciate it. If one
must look beyond the work itself and confront it with historical or biographical facts or social or
psychological phenomena in order to adequately understand it, then the work of art must be
artistically defective. Thus, to evaluate a work, one needs no knowledge of the history of art, the
artists biography, intentions or times of society when it was created.
27

Formalism indeed presents the art historian with several significant achievements of its
method, including a contribution to the development of art itself, recognizing the importance of
the uniqueness of individual art forms. A formalistic approach contributes in the elimination of
prejudice and unjust criticism, facilitating the acceptance of Modernist art and propagating the
artistic education of society. Through formalism, the previous one-sided theoretical assumptions
and methodological orientation of artistic study have been overcome, rejecting the enshrining
realist ideals, bourgeois-Victorian interpretations and all-encompassing Victorian moralism
prevalent within antiquated art criticism. American formalist Clement Greenberg assisted in the
acceptance and understanding of Abstract Expressionism, and his involvement in the New
Criticism helped protest the traditional artistic scholarship that did not sufficiently respect arts
autonomy or uniqueness. Greenberg stressed correctly that critical studies in art that focused only
on external factors and conditions, thus ignoring the art itself, was incapable of correct
interpretation and evaluation. In a theoretical evaluation, formalism also attains importance
through several conditions applicable to abstract art and beyond. For instance, formal values are
common to all art forms, in all epochs, but more importantly, are also the only values in common
to all significant works of art and of all masterpieces. As previously mentioned, formal values
are necessary and prove to be sufficient for the determination of value in a work of art; an object
may be qualified as art if its value is based upon formal properties even if it exhibits cognitive
falsehood; however, conversely, a work with valuable insights but no formal values does not
attain the status of a work of art.
28
Formalism itself also helps develop anti-formal theories in
reaction to it, encouraging new approaches to become more sophisticated and moderate while
still retaining an appreciation of formal elements of a work of art. Indeed, many contemporary

27
Dziembok, pp. 187
28
Dzeimbok, 190
anti-formalist methods reject only the tendency towards absolutization of the formal aspects of
art works.
There can be no denial of formalisms many triumphs as an artistic theory, however, in
spite of its many achievements, its limitations should not be overlooked. Generally speaking, one
cannot ignore the obvious implications of applying an approach whose aim is to suppress
emotional content to an artistic movement that values such as its primary means of expression;
the title Abstract Expressionism itself denotes an equal importance on the artists expression as
the method of abstraction itself. The requisite adherence to such a strict theoretical structure
brings with it tribulations and discrepancies, especially among the artists themselves. Abstract
Expressionists rebelled against the idea of geometry, for it represented to them a rational system
that narrowed form and experience into the finite and commensurable,
29
denying Greenbergs
notion of stylistic lineage from Cubism. The art historian, via the formalistic approach, is
instructed to experience and appreciate a work of art exclusively as an object in and of itself, but
there remains a controversial debate on the reduction of the value of the nature and culture of the
artwork; shouldnt an artwork be experienced, interpreted and appreciated within a broader
(artistic and cultural) context? In evaluating a work of art, one must take formal properties into
consideration, but also such ideas contained in the work, such as emotional expressiveness,
fidelity to represented external reality, depth of insight into and analysis of the moral and
psychological problems of man. One cannot disregard such features, as human beings we are
unable, and do not need, to limit ourselves to appreciation of only formal qualities. Greenberg
insisted upon the minimum means necessary to form a painting, but there is a dimension to
Rothkos art that is much rawer and more potent then Greenbergs formalistic approach can
capture. Despite its rigorous pursuit of non-objective self-referentiality, the art of Abstract
Expressionism cannot be limited to an exclusively formalist perspective; it simultaneously points
inward toward the contents of the artists psyche, and outwards towards a universal symbolic
language.
30
Along with a disregard for emotional content, strict adherence in taste for purity kept
critics, like Greenberg, from recognizing wide ranging implications of statements made by artists
themselves, which indicate a larger engagement with the world. In a personal statement issued by
Rothko, he quotes I would sooner confer anthromorphic attributes upon a stone then
dehumanize the slightest possibility of consciousness.
31
Formalism is untenable as a universal
theory of art and artistic values, and it specifically fails when confronted with contemporary
artistic practice and art history. Art itself is never motivated by purely artistic intentions, and it is

29
Rosenblum, book 9 pp. 209
30
Joselit, pp. 33
31
Rothko Personal Statement, Rose, pp. 137
impossible to separate the production of art from the life surrounding it. Whether influenced by
God, individual emotion, patronage or payment, art is consistently indebted to the social situation
in which it is produced. The universality of formalism comes into question regarding its
theoretical inability to deal with literature, photography and other visual arts. How can a
formalist approach be applied to the characteristics of film? Indeed, purely formal values are
important to all art forms, but they are not equally important to all.
32
Formalism is constantly
charged with an unhistorical position, separating art from its appropriate context and becoming
overly dependent on the judgments of history.
Situated on the opposite end of the theoretical spectrum, the body of philosophy known
as Existentialism gained widespread recognition and influence after the Second World War.
Originating in the writings of Sren Kierkegaard and Frederich Nietzsche, and perpetuated by
French philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20
th
century, existentialism emphasized the
conditions of experience of the individual person, acknowledging human emotions, actions,
responsibilities and thoughts. Existential philosophy focuses on the subjective human experience,
maintaining a constant struggle with the meaningless of life and demonstrates the futility of
existence. Within existential vocabulary, drama and action become important facets of life,
where one gives ones own life meaning. The moods of Abstract Expressionism, the rhetoric of
fear and despair, the symbolism of death and isolation are all associated with existential
philosophy. The introduction of Nietzschean concepts into existential discourse in the late
nineteen-forties in New York is one of several factors that helped stimulate the desire to cultivate
recognizable artistic personae, such as Abstract Expressionism. Such concepts provided to
reinterpret artists doubts as the consequence of self-confidence and led to a quest for a greater
mastery of their art.
33
Harold Rosenberg, American art critic and counterpart to Clement
Greenberg, became the authoritative figure on the existential theory of abstract art in the
nineteen-forties. Rosenberg perceived the painting of Abstract Expressionism as an aspiration
not to a conscious philosophical or social ideal, but what is basically an individual, sensual,
psychic and intellectual effort to live actively in the present.
34
Rosenberg, as Greenberg,
remains an influential figure within art criticism, and his famous essay, The American Action
Painters was published in 1952 in the December issue of ARTnews. Congruent with
Greenbergs professional achievements, Rosenberg coins the term Action Painters in regard to
the heightened emotion and physical process of painting of the Abstract Expressionists.
Rosenberg perceived the existential imperative involved in the act of painting, identifying the

32
Dziembok, pp. 192
33
Landau, p.10
34
Landau 14
space confronting the artist at the beginning of his artistic process as nothingness. This space is
filled with the emotional response of the artist at work, filling a void similar to the efforts of the
modern man. To Rosenberg, art derives from the simultaneity of the artists consciousness of art
and his feelings about the state of man. Art presupposes the appropriation of experience by a
sensibility synthesized through the practice of painting, and the survival of abstract art depends
on such inner syntheses.
35
The painters of Abstract Expressionism allowed the artistic process of
creation become a fundamental aspect of its content. Influenced by post-war existentialist
philosophy, liberally leavened by post-war anxieties and Cold War paranoia, artists sought to
externalize their internal psychological reality. The heroic struggle to attain and represent self-
knowledge among these painters grew from their conviction that an individuals personal
existential acts including acts of painting could express a fundamental human nature.
36

Perhaps Rosenbergs most notable retort to the formalistic approach, and also his most
controversial claim in Action Painters, states, the act of painting is of the same metaphysical
substance as the artists existence. The new painting has broken down every distinction between
art and life. Within the same essay, Rosenberg utilizes an existential vocabulary to characterize
the artists canvas as an arena to act and identifies his role as art critic. In order to write about
Abstract Expressionist art, one must recognize the picture as an act in itself, and its value must
be found apart from art. The canvas becomes an event, no longer a picture, invoking the
existential focus on drama and action. Here, the critic becomes a connoisseur of gradations
between the automatic, spontaneous and the evoked as opposed to connoisseurs of quality.
Continuing to eschew formalist analysis, Rosenberg discounted style and valorized artistic
process. In Action Painters, another notable claim is made, where the big moment came when it
was decided to paintjust TO PAINT. The new function of art emerges as a gesture of
liberation from all value: political, esthetic or moral. Rosenberg allegorizes this function in a
metaphor where the Abstract Expressionists took the white expanse of the canvas as Melvilles
Ishmael took to the sea, aligning the artists existential strive for self-definition with the doubt-
ridden protagonist of Moby Dick.
We can discern that the European philosophical model of existentialism guided a distinct
cadre of New York artists, the Abstract Expressionists, to an aesthetic that valorized emotion and
risk. As Harold Rosenbergs projection of a public dimension onto the private act of painting
made clear, individuality was essential to the self-definition of mid-twentieth century artistic
abstraction meant to stand for a universal set of human values and experiences. As witnessed in

35
Buettner, AAP, p. 90
36
Joselit, pp. 18
Rosenbergs Action Painters, existential ideas framed the gestures and motives of the Abstract
Expressionists, whose paintings exhibited the artists strive for self-realization.
37
Rosenberg
recognizes a new function for art as a process of individual thought rather then its execution. The
importance of this new criticism involves a new notion of the intrinsic character of meaning in
art, no longer limited to the scope of the canvas. Rosenbergs criticism embodies the existential
image of a scene of action and the notion of drama in which an actor faces a situation. In an
essay known as The Romantics Were Prompted
38
, Rothko confirms Rosenbergs claim
explicitly when he declared, I think of my pictures as dramas. Shapes are the
performersneither the action nor the actors can be anticipated or described in advance.
Rothko himself, after the onset of the war, took a brief hiatus from painting in 1940 to read
several works by Frederich Nietzsche, among others, and such existential literature had a
profound effect on him. In Rothkos work, fields of non-objective color function as actors in
what Rosenberg described as the arena of the canvas. It is possible to understand Rothkos
distinctive motif of stacked rectilinear fields of color as an anthromorphic theater of perceptual
actions.
39
Upon Rothkos symbolic stage, the perceptual drama derives from the emergence, and
withdrawal, of figure into ground: it is notoriously difficult to determine any precise spatial
mooring among his ambiguous color-fields. Rosenbergs adaption of existential philosophy and
Jungian psychology promoted the creation of art from within the unconscious; offering the artist
an alternative to the fixed rules that previously governed art. This artistic freedom enabled
Abstract Expressionists to explore new approaches, techniques and eliminated preconceived
notions. Counter to Formalism, Rosenberg designated importance to the artists motive for
extinguishing the object in art, denoting formal aspects of color and composition auxiliaries
easily discarded. To Rosenberg, Rothkos empty paintings are emotionally charged, stirring up
feelings of awe, anguish and release and buried too deeply within to be brought to the surface by
visual metaphors.
40
To Rosenberg an action cannot be a matter of taste - it is automatic and
unplanned. Limited to aesthetics, the bureaucracies of modern art such as formalism cannot
adequately grasp the human experience. The glint of color below Rothkos unchanging squares
of silence emphasizes that all differences in individual sensibility amount to nothing more then a
scarcely perceptible nuance against the massive truth of death and nothingness. Nullifying
himself was Rothkos discipline of exaltation. In loneliness and sense of futility, the artist
achieved the universal that was his artistic ambition. Rosenberg describes Rothkos art as
escapist in the deepest traditional sense, rich in the romance of self-estrangement. His canvases

37
Cotkin, George. Existential America, pp. 126-127
38
Title based on first sentence. Shapiro, C. pp. 397
39
Joselit, pp. 23
40
Rosenberg, Rothko, Shapiro, C. pp. 415
are passionate re-discoveries of a state of being, purging themselves of an identifiable self. To
Rosenberg, Rothko posed the anti-self, even stating, I dont express myself in paintings. I
express my not-self.
41

An existential approach to interpretation of artistic value produces theoretical temptations
for the art historian; within a philosophical method, the parameters become flexible and yielding.
The ambiguity of existentialism conceals its disadvantages, and limits its applications for art
criticism. Harold Rosenbergs vocabulary seems interchangeable with Sartres Being and
Nothingness, yet Rosenberg himself never called himself an existentialist. The art historian must
remain wary of such an open-ended approach, one in which the main spokesmen do not even
claim its title. Rosenberg himself admits this limitation, denying the presence of an existentialist
painting. Existentialism is a tendency in philosophy and literature, and never develops a specific
style within the plastic arts. This body of philosophy is not intended specifically for art, and
consequently refrains from providing useful guidelines in such an application. Rosenbergs
profundity and symbolic prose correlate with existentialisms philosophical tenets, but come
under scrutiny in the examination of the work of art itself. Unlike the formalistic approach of
Clement Greenberg, Rosenberg does not include traits of the actual work in his interpretations.
Instead, an existential approach focuses only upon symbolic associations and emotion and falls
short of a literal definition of value. In the refutation of traditional aesthetics, Rosenberg enlists
priority in the act of painting over the physical object; here, the art itself assumes little
importance. His existential approach shifts pure artistic value to the concept of pure value,
creating an indistinct question of the value of the art, which emerges from the process.
Rosenberg aims less at the analysis of a work of art then the discovery of a particular
consciousness and existential feeling.
42
Rosenbergs existential take on Abstract
Expressionism does not bring one very far in terms of understanding the particulars of the
artwork, and his approach solved no problems.
43
Within philosophical considerations,
unconscious desires and drives are identified as the artists proper subject matter, attempting to
externalize and internal psychological experience. But, how does an artist represent such a
mental topography? Here, art inherits the same problems as science an artist working to
generate an image without premeditation is continually confronted with confounding variables
and unable to produce evidentiary proof. Without specific principles, an existential approach
falls short in its application of the interpretation of art; there is simply no way to gauge matters of
the unconscious and their manifestations within artistic practice.

41
Rosenberg, Rothko, C.Shapiro pp. 415-416
42
Foster, S. pp. 26
43
Cotkin, G.
The spiritual in art has been a constant and consistent theme in various interpretative
practices, and perhaps gains its fullest recognition in post-war America since the times of the
Enlightenment. Another method working against the tenets of formalism, spiritualism embodies
the emotional context of the artist in a way that existentialism does not. Thematic associations
with individual feeling and perception are joined with religious experience and sublime
phenomena. Rooted in mid-18
th
century European writings, such as the writings of Edmund
Burke, and the Romantic landscapes of J.W. Turner and Caspar Friedrich, the spiritual nature of
Abstract Expressionism is clearly defined by prolific critic, curator and professor Robert
Rosenblum. Spiritualism gains novel relevance in Rosenblums writing, who points out the
limitations of terms such as Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting to categorize the
artistic movement; the elements of impetuousness and violence are not all pervasive, and they
seem ill-suited to represent Rothkos canvases who achieve their virtue instead through opposite
sensations such as stillness and meditation. As in Rosenbergs existential method, the daily
chronicle of evil and widespread anxiety did in fact have a profound effect on Rothkos art,
however instead of invoking a hopeless sense of futility, it provided the artist with a
transcendental escape. Rothkos images, although abstract, may elicit metaphors within a range
of natural organic phenomena rather then evoking the rational constructions of the human mind.
Rosenblum argues that Rothkos art, reduced to overtly abstract images, evoke a symbolic
moment from the Book of Genesis, providing a religious translation of the natural phenomenon
of a celestial body into a starkly simplified icon.
44
Here, Rothko expresses the brooding element
of the mystical, and the ascetic with a range of gloomy and otherworldly associations.
The context of spiritualism in post-war America is symptomatic of the religious profile of
the country at that point in time. The tendency in the twentieth century was characteristically
non-traditional, following a collapse in religion specifically following the Enlightenment era.
With the on-set of new practices and customs in the eighteenth century, and nominal interest in
figurative Christian iconography, the belief in the spiritual manifested itself instead through
nature and the sublime. The dramatic religious associations, and severe consequences, of World
War II only exacerbated this collapse, fostering such spiritual and mystical impulses after such
an apocalyptic event. Instead of turning to overt religious pictorial for refuge, artists sought a
secularized form of spiritual redemption through modern thought and artistic production. The
modern artists dilemma develops as a search to find, in a secular world, a convincing means to
express religious experience that had all been before channeled through means of traditional
themes of Christian art. Abstract Expressionism thus became a sacred and profane allegorical

44
Rosenblum, pp. 203
epic of biblical, ritual drama and romance for the modern age. Rothkos abstract canvases might
be interpreted as a post-Second World War myth of Genesis, producing awesome simple
mysteries that evoke the primeval moment of creation. This modern religious sentiment is
representative of the quest typical of American painters in the post-war era and their efforts of
pursuit and capture of an elemental image or universal symbol capable of encompassing an
irreducible truth.
Perhaps as requisite for critical acclaim, Rosenblum also coins the term the Abstract
Sublime to characterize the spiritual element in abstract art. This term, explicitly defined by a
1961 article of the same title, recognizes the influence of the Romantic period as the springboard
for modern abstract art. In his article, Rosenblum adopts the sublime from the aesthetic treatise
attributed to Greek philosopher Longinus (circa 100-400 CE). As an aesthetic category, the
sublime is defined as excellence or beauty that inspires great admiration or awe, elevating
something to an unparalleled degree of spirituality or divinity. In Rosenblums article, the
sublime acquires fresh relevance in the face of Abstract Expressionism, defining it as, a flexible
semantic container for experiences of awe, terror, boundlessness and divinity. For the Romantic
painters of the 19
th
century, the sublimities of nature gave proof of the divine, whereas modern
artists achieve the supernatural experience through the abstract medium of paint alone. The
modern painters, as with the Romantics, rejected materialism and sought to escape the
dehumanizing features of a technical society, making an equation between human kind and
nature. With a clever play of words, Rosenblum characterizes this shift from the pantheism of the
Romantics towards the paint-theism of Abstract Expressionists, where art itself celebrated the
mystical understanding between human and nature and the creation of the universe renewed
moment by moment with the artist as active participant.
Rothkos lightly brushed hovering rectangles of color become a modern translation of the
Romantic landscape, updating the same metaphors for a twentieth century audience. By 1949,
Rothko had reached a more absolute statement producing a series of enormous canvases in his
signature color-field style. These canvases, composed of several layers of thin, glowing paint
attain a rare and sensuous poetic magic envisioned through the artists mystical conception of
nature. The canvases suggest the eternal presence of earthly elements such as air and water,
offering a sensuous spectacle of vaporous clouds of color whose mystery is both completely
apparent and impossibly remote. The Abstract Sublime, as proposed by Rosenblum, is the
breathtaking confrontation with boundlessness in which one experiences equally powerful
totality is a motif that continually links painters of the Romantic Sublime with Abstract
Expressionists. In the context of Romantic sea meditations, for example Caspar Friedrichs Monk
by the Sea (1808-1810), Rothkos works reveal similar affinities of vision and feeling. Yet,
literal details are no longer necessary within Rothkos abstract language, and Rothko replaces
Friedrichs ragged fissures with the numbing phenomena of light and void. Alluding to
Friedrichs work, Rosenblum situates the viewer of Rothkos canvases as the monk himself
before the sea, standing silently and contemplatively before the huge and boundless pictures,
on the threshold of those shapeless infinities as expressed by the aesthetics of the sublime. With
no figural insistencies, the floating tiers of tinted light in Rothkos work conceal a total, remote
presence one that we can only intuit and never fully grasp. These infinite glowing voids carry
us beyond reason to the sublime, where Rosenblum believes one can only submit to an act of
faith and let ourselves be absorbed into the radiant depths. In its search for a private myth to
embody the sublime power of the supernatural, the art of Rothko should remind spectators once
more that the disturbing heritage of the Romantics has not yet been exhausted.
45

Robert Rosenblum equates the mid-century spectators experience as a purely religious
one, where one must abandon all measureable reason for mystical empathy. If one is concerned
with the covert religious drama of Rothkos late works, Rosenblum offers the creation of the
Rothko Chapel as evidentiary of the overt glimpses of the artists preoccupations with Christian
tragedy. Being a chapel itself denotes apparent religious associations, complete with triptych
altar-like paintings and Baptistery themed octagonal shape. Rosenblum states, The impact of
unmitigated frontality and symmetry [of the paintings in the Chapel] are equivalent of an iconic
symbol of a religious cult.
46
When inside the Rothko Chapel, Rosenblum also recognizes the
importance of light and shadow relationships. The total immersion in the evanescent phenomena
of colored light and atmosphere create a complete visual environment that becomes an
engulfing shrine for him, a sanctuary from the outside world. To Rosenblum, the chapel hovers
between a shrine of art and a shrine of the spirit, an avowal by a great painter to devote the whole
of his being to the religion of art
47
, making the implicit religious experience of Rothkos art
outwardly explicit. According to Rosenblum, the lack of overt religious content may make
Rothkos surrogate icons and altarpieces, as experienced in a non-denominational chapel, all the
more potent in their evocation of the transcendental. One must wonder: are such analogies of
form and feeling merely accidental, or perhaps reveal such analogies as too powerful to be
simply coincidental?

45
Rosenblum, The Abstract Sublime, book 7, pp. 76
46
Rosenblum, Tradition, book 7, pp. 114
47
Rosenblum, Tradition, pp. 121
In the nineteen eighties, art historian Anna Chave conceptualizes Rosenblums spiritual
theories, proposing innate religious imagery in Rothkos non-objective signature style of
rectangles of color. She argues that Rothkos canvases allude to evident pictorial codes, even as
the artist set out effacing them. Like Rosenblum before her, Chave believed Rothko wanted to
intensify his expression of meaningful subjects by providing visual analogies to figurative
conventions of sacred imagery. In a radical analysis of his work, Chave compares the blurry
shapes and warm color palette of Rothkos No. 17/No. 15 (1949) with those characteristic of
Giovanni Bellinis Madonna and Child (circa 1480). Here, she identifies oblique, nearly effaced
parallels between Rothkos abstract multiform work and the iconological Renaissance
depiction
48
, and correlates several other compositions by Rothko with traditional Christian
themes of the Entombment and the Piet. Chave reallocates Rosenblums spiritual inferences to
implications of more figurative religious vocabulary, notwithstanding the artists Jewish heritage.
Chave ameliorates this discrepancy claiming Rothko to be a religious man without a
doctrine.
49

Rothkos pursuit of the most irreducible image pertains not only to his rejection of matter
in favor of an impalpable void oscillating between the extremes of an awesome mysterious
presence, or perhaps its existential negation, but also to his equally elementary structure, which
is of a numbing symmetry that fixes these luminous expanses in an emblem of iconic
permanence. These voids become metaphorical suggestions of elemental nature and generate
primal energies; Rosenblum identifies these voids not as empty chasms of desperation, but as
inspiring abysses testimony of the power of the sublime. The visual richness of Rothkos classic
works often foster the idea that they are exclusively objects of aesthetic dedication, where an
epicurean sensibility to color and formal paradoxes of the tinted versus the amorphous may be
savored completely. Yet, their somber and mysterious presence, to Rosenblum, is sufficient to
convince any spectator that they belong to a sphere of experience profoundly different then that
of art pour lart. Rosenblum takes the formalist approach into account, however concludes (as
with Rosenberg) that it does not satiate the viewers emotional response. In a personal statement
made by Rothko himself, he quotes I repudiate this denial of the anecdote just as I repudiate the
denial of material existence of the whole of reality. For art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and
the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.
50


48
Landau, p. 51
49
Landau, pp. 51
50
Rose, pp. 137
As with both approaches previously examined, the theological position issued by
Rosenblum also exposes various contradictions that question the validity of his interpretation. In
hindsight of the tragic conclusion to the artists life, one can only surmise Rothkos painful
rejection of spiritual redemption with his own suicide. The desperate isolation Rothko apparently
experienced in his last years is discernable within his darkening palette, directly projecting the
artists own sense of doom. Within traditional religious contexts, the acceptance of suicide runs
counter to Judaic/Christian requisite beliefs to choose life above all, demonstrative of Rothkos
noncompliance to any specific religious conviction. Similar to the immeasurable efforts of the
unconscious within an existential method, the religious imagery within Rothkos works also
remains speculative. The religious experience and transcendental emotions elicited in spectators
of Rothkos work remain highly associational; and it may be wondered how an abstract painting
can possibly be religious in character. Although Rosenblum claims a lack of figurative imagery
may increase spiritual potency in Rothkos work, this deficiency requires additional informative
cues to persuade the skeptical viewer, of which there are none within the abstract picture. To the
sensitive observer, these spiritual associations are created of the same fabric as faith itself;
however, without veritable evidence within the work, it remains up to the spectator himself to
speculate. Does the location of Rothkos works, whether in a chapel or museum, alter their
spiritual suggestivity? The meditative atmosphere inside the Rothko Chapel may confound
aspects of how the works are experienced, taking into account the seclusion and sanctity of the
works in context. Perhaps the poignant enclosure of Rothkos work within a chapel suggests an
alternate viewing experience, albeit less effective. Rothko himself felt his paintings had a life in
the world, recognizing their ability to reach beyond aesthetics, one that was sacrificed by the
detached museum display.
51
Could a quasi-religious function better represent the artists
expression, or would these works elicit the same responses in a museum? It should be noted the
Rothko Chapel was not open to the public until 1971, a year after the artists death. Rothko was
a Jewish immigrant living post-war America, which may account for his desire and capacity to
present such religious themes in abstract terms. Fully belonging to Jewish tradition, Rothko
carries as he does the annihilation of matter and the evocation of an imprecise yet mystical
content to an extreme, according to Rosenblum, whom also, albeit of no coincidence, also
subscribes to the same religious tradition. The spiritual elements may surface as self-fulfilling
prophecy, unintentionally positioning themselves as representations within an art of
inexhaustible possibilities. It seems fairly likely the over-reaching tendency of Rosenblums
religious imagery could be due to the necessity of a newfound spiritual assurance, one in which

51
Buettner, pp. 102
the Holocaust may be identified as a main culprit. Perhaps Rothkos work, created at such a time,
embodies a spiritual essence that cannot be characterized by thematic associations of traditional
religious imagery.
Abstract Expressionism, the first specifically American art movement to gain worldwide
acclaim and stature, has become one of the widely held and extensively researched periods of art
history. Collectively defined by a group of artists living in New York City in the years during
and immediately after World War II, Abstract Expressionism is characterized by its anti-figural
and vivid artworks, which range in a variety of styles, from the violent and aggressive to the
serene and meditative. Latvian-born artist Mark Rothko typifies the painting style prevalent
during the movement, and the signature style he developed in the nineteen fifties represents the
quintessential color-field work. The classic Rothko paintings, his most recognized and celebrated
works, including those commissioned for the Rothko Chapel, comprise of an aesthetic
completely dependent upon rectangular form and juxtaposition of color; Rothko creates a
language of abstract expression through his layers of paint and composition, disregarding
pictorial traditions entirely. It is through this radical abstraction that Rothko embodies an artistic
revolution; the generation of art that represents nothing yet implies everything. The finest
Abstract Expressionist painting never fully resolves itself; the more open the situation, the
greater the suggestive quality.
The period of Abstract Expressionism cultivates a new body of writing along with its
artistic achievements; American art criticism proliferated in the years after the war and continues
to shape contemporary art historical studies and analyses. For the sake of simplicity, primary
focus on three specific approaches; Formalism, Existentialism and Spiritualism, have been
researched and evaluated on each of their individual achievements and weaknesses pertaining to
Rothkos late works. Yet even with the vast amount of information surveyed, these approaches
only function as a minute sample of all the theories and methodologies within and after the
phenomenon of Abstract Expressionism. The ambiguity of content, non-referential and anti-
figural aesthetic, and the highly associational qualities of abstract artworks sanctions a variety of
interpretations and gives on to assorted realms of meaning, including the sacred, the
mythological and the metaphysical. And to further complicate things, all of these categories of
interpretation can, in turn, be supported by certain statements and claims made by artists such as
Rothko himself. Rothko appreciated the suggestiveness of irony, and often admits to saying less
than or opposite of what he actually meant; his indistinct attitude, non-descript art and denial of
labels all provide insight towards his artistic process. As quoted by Harold Rosenberg, what
makes any definition of a movement in art dubious is that it never fits the deepest artists within
it.
52
Indeed, for each theory, Rothko maintains an affirmative statement, accompanied by a
contradictory one questioning the very validity of the critics interpretation.
The oppositional attitudes of American art critics developed from myriad of
irreconcilable differences and strict adherence to their particular theories. The critical canons that
arose pertained to the concept of a work of art as an act of self-expression and as a vehicle of
historical consciousness; disagreeing on the nature of the aesthetic crisis, moral content in art as
well as the overarching function and identity of criticism itself. Where as formalism located
quality exclusively contained within elements of the work, existentialism attributed meaning to
the process of creating while a spiritual approach equates meaning to religious experience. Yet,
even with obvious polarization, all three methods contain considerable commonalities.
Art critics in America took too literally Baudelaires advice that a critic should be
passionate and partisan resulting in several polemical methods in which adherents vehemently
took sides. Consequently, and regardless of stature, the critics designed themselves too closely
with one particular style and have been noticeably blind, antagonistic and insensitive to other
developments. This produced a substantial body or writing all with a common shortcoming,
where American art criticism has often depth, but seldom breadth.
53
However seemingly
different, the critics of the forties and fifties are all confronted with collective problems; the
critics not only struggled with the transcendence of their individual points of view, but also the
widespread skepticism of the great American artist and designation of European heritage as
equation for quality in art, as well as for acceptance of American art in general. Examined at a
distance, each of the three distinct methods contains complimentary elements and mutual
aspects, which float to the surface. Each agrees that Rothkos signature style emerges after 1949,
distinguished by an obliteration of subject matter and a vital utilization of color. All identify
certain formal aspects as central and significant to Rothkos technique, including his lack of
figuration, his massive canvas size, the crucial aspect of color and delicate treatment of light.
Given the variety of methods, each with identifiable limitations and precise tenets,
deciding upon a singular interpretive approach as ultimately appropriate is both counter-
productive and ineffectual. The formulating of a conclusive and universal theory, as applied to
Abstract Expressionism, is untenable; such adherence to a particular method situates the art
historian at square one. Instead, we are challenged to originate a practice less blinkered and more
historically aware, where there is not a single truth, but several, each determined by an

52
Landau, E. pp. 31
53
Rose, pp. 20
intermediate vantage point. Here, an exercise in compromise is required, simultaneously
acknowledging and mediating each critical practice. In a Convergent theory, each of the three
methods are reduced to the common aims and valid points they share, aspiring to eliminate
extremist claims and biases and thus providing an objective framework of interpretation. Such an
inclusionary theory exposes theoretical contradictions and takes controversial issues into
account, seeking to appease the heated debates prevalent in American criticism. This convergent
theory incorporates a comprehensive formal analysis of an artwork, while also exploring the
social conditions, artistic intentions and historical context in which its created.
If an explanation of a work of art is clearly defined beforehand, the viewers primary
impulsive reaction is detracted and confounded. Perhaps abstract art, such as those works in
Rothkos signature style, is better interpreted by an individual experience, either today or in the
future, in a museum or in a private chapel. This experience elucidates meaning by virtue of the
spectators encounter with a work, open to explanation by the beholder alone. By way of
promulgating the individual experience, we are able to expose a more syncopated, social,
political and intellectual context for such a crucial period in artistic development and beyond.