You Became That Color: the Multiforms

Mark Rothko, No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow) (1958)

Mark Rothko, Untitled (1954)

Mark Rothko, Untitled (1949)

Throughout the 1950s-70s, Rothko continued to work on these very large scale colour works. In these colour field works, Rothko typically depicted two or three bands or rectangles of colour (which gave way to the term 'multiform') which appear to float on top of an underlying background colour. This floating or hovering effect is created by the blured edges surrounding each rectangle and the background, and also by the translucent nature of the paint used. 

Rothko refined his style during these years to best create an immersive experience between viewer and painting. He wrote about his later works:  

I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on - and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows I communicate those basic human emotions. 

By seemingly producing subjects so stripped of representation or symbol that they appear to be about nothing in particular, Rothko attempted to create a universal and almost spiritual experience of basic human emotions.

These paintings, although they appear to represent nothing, through the creation of an essentially ambiguous and indescribable background that seems empty, also give the viewer a distinct impression of being simply by the build-up of so many layers of colour. Rothko’s paintings define their own presence and existence – and, as they attempt to evoke an emotional or even spiritual response in the viewer, they clarify the viewer’s feelings and existence as well.

Rothko insisted all of his paintings be hung close to the ground and not be framed so as to strengthen the connection between viewer and painting via blurring the edges of the painting itself; in his own words, “the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea, and between the idea and the observer [...] to achieve this clarity is, inevitably, to be understood."

Most of Rothko’s multiform works are also untitled, or simply given names that either are numerical or just describe the colours present, to give the viewer free reign in the creative process of finding meaning in the piece. The surrounding gallery features several of Rothko's multiform pieces, all of them on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.