Thursday, May 20, 2010
infinity
Red, Orange, Tan, and Purple, 1949
With Mark Rothko's paintings, people say that they evoke 'infinity.' Do you see it this way?
My understanding of infinity goes something like this: every 100 years a sparrow flies to the top of a large mountain, and cleans its beak by scraping it on the highest rock. By the time the mountain has been scrapped away to a small pile of dust, that would be the equivalent of the first second of infinity.
I thought of that the last time I stood in front of a Rothko and neither felt an overwhelming sense of infinity, nor had a mystical experience of any kind.
Maybe I've just seen too many Rothkos and they don't pulsate with ethereal splendour for me anymore. Or perhaps I never quite got the wonder of Rothko.
- My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic, p.18