Mark Rothko, Untitled,1968, Private Collection
Rothko's reading of Nietzsche, the nineteenth-century German philosopher,
suggests that his work could represent the binary opposition
between a rational or abstract element versus an emotional, primal,
or tragic one (referring to Nietzsche's discussion of the polarity
between an Apollonian and a Dionysian principle).
Certain qualities such as radiance or the duality of light and
dark have a long history of symbolic meaning in Western culture
from which Rothko clearly drew. An impression of vast space can
be said to represent the historical concept of the "sublime,"
a quasi-religious experience of limitless immensity in nature.
Conversely, these canvases also produce an environment of their
own, and installations of Rothko's work create the sensation of
a sacrosanct place.
