Red and Mark Rothko Essay Example

Red and Mark Rothko Paper Roger Kimball’s essay â€Å"Inventing Mark Rothko† begins simply with a quote from Hamlet in which the Queen responds to Hamlet’s inquiry â€Å"Do you see nothing here? † by saying â€Å"Nothing at all; yet all that is I see† (Kimball 55). This enigmatic quote very succinctly sums up the enigma that is Mark Rothko, a Russia-American representative painter of New York School from 1950s to 1960s. Rothko’s signature style is distinctive combination of â€Å"abstractness, simplicity, and sensuous color† (Kimball 59) and misty rectangular fields of color and light. Although many critics, like Harold Rosenberg, disagree, Rothko fought the idea that his works were abstract for the entirety of his artistic career. To reference the quote from Hamlet, what did Rothko see in his art? What was his intention? Are these questions possible to answer? Using John Logan’s play Red as well as Rothko’s own essays on art and aesthetics, both a picture of Rothko’s vision and a rationalization of his insistence that his art is realism are possible to create and it is apparent that Rothko intended a separation between the art and the viewer and for the art to exist as an independent entity separate from human emotion that places art in the realm of abstraction. Yet in the documentary film Rothkos Rooms, ironically, Rothko also envisioned his art causing â€Å"the same religious experience as I had when I painted them† (Rooms). We will write a custom essay sample on Red and Mark Rothko specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Red and Mark Rothko specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Red and Mark Rothko specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer It seems that, according to Rothko himself, what a viewer sees in a painting or what emotions the painting evokes has no bearing on the painting itself. These emotions within the admirer of art are often placed upon the art itself as a way to define the art. However, Rothko might argue that one is not able to define his paintings any more than one might be able to objectively define a human being (Rothko 63). The art itself is the evoker of emotions not the other way around. Rothko seems to have argued that his art has a specific, concrete meaning, which can be explained by the similarity between admiring the beauty of a woman and the beauty of a painting. Rothko wrote that the problem with speaking of art qualitatively—for instance giving a painting the quality â€Å"beautiful†Ã¢â‚¬â€creates a category for beauty itself to exist (Rothko 62). However, Kimball argues that beauty, like the concepts of â€Å"truth† and â€Å"morality† is an abstraction itself because these terms are â€Å"apart from concrete existence† (Kimball 60). He also argues that Rothko’s classic paintings are immediate (Kimball 60) because their meanings are concrete—they are purposed. Rothko’s paintings, Rothko himself might argue, exist with the force of human existence. In the Scene 4 of John Logan’s play the Red, Rothko yells at his assistant Ken, â€Å"you know the problem with those painters? It’s exactly what you said. They are painting for this moment right now. And that’s all. It’s nothing but zeitgeist art† (Logan 33). This representation of Rothko shows how Rothko himself might have differentiated his own art from the art of painters like Andy Warhol. Based on Rothko’s essay The Artists Dilemma and this quote from Logan’s play, Rothko would have argued that paintings like those of Warhol’s are the real abstractions because they are based on a particular moment in time. An individual moment, alienated from the whole history of time, is truly apart from concrete existence. Existence is more the totality of time, space, and history and Rothkos paintings are, as he seems to have suggested, as purposed as any living creature. In â€Å"The De-definition of Art† by Harold Rosenberg, he argues against this idea, saying that â€Å"[Rothko’s] were the first ‘empty’ paintings by an American to make an impact on the public, perhaps because his emotionally charged reds, blues, browns, black-greens succeeded in stirring up feelings—awe, anguish, release—too deeply buried to be brought to the surface by visual metaphors† (Rosenberg 105). With this definition, Rosenberg argues that the viewer and the painting itself are interconnected and the painting can hold no objective existence independent of the viewer. When the audience views the painting and experiences these emotions, it attaches these emotions to the painting. However, Rothko argued that to speak of art in this way—qualitatively—is to give these emotions themselves an independent existence (Rothko 62). Rosenberg called Rothko’s style an â€Å"all-embracing symbolic format† (Rosenberg 107). Rosenberg essentially equated Rothko’s paintings with a literary metaphor in which one thing—a painting in this instance—stands for something wholly different, acting as a symbol. Most dictionaries agree on the definition of the word â€Å"symbol† as a physical object that stands for an abstraction or a sign with some specific meaning. Rosenberg’s terminology may then not be totally off kilter. Does not Rothko himself argue that paintings often evoke particular abstract feelings in the admirer? In this way, are not paintings like symbols, standing in as physical objects for abstract emotions? —not exactly. To view art in this way is to say that the artist intended for an artwork to be symbolic of, let’s say, the sublime. Yet, the viewers, experiencing a piece for the first time, come naked in their emotions as a child experiencing the world for the first time. Whatever emotions the viewer might feel are a product of their own mind rather than a product of the art itself. This is where Rosenberg is most incorrect and where he diverges from Rothko’s apology of his art.

Marijuana Should Be Legalized essays

Marijuana Should Be Legalized essays Slowly, the old man inhales the sweet smelling smoke and instantly relaxes. Time goes by slowly, stress melts like an ice cube, and the man feels a great sense of fatigue. Finally the man can go to sleep and rest in peace. These are just a few of the reasons people smoke marijuana. By making marijuana illegal, the government is deciding for the people what is healthy for them. Decriminalizing marijuana causes more harm than good. The war on drugs seems to be failing to achieve what it is meant for. Illegalizing marijuana violates civil liberties, causes social disorder, and increases crime and violence. The best solution to reduce these problems is to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use. Marijuanas effects are nearly harmless. In fact, lethal overdose of marijuana is virtually impossible (Lowry 36). No one can say the same about alcohol. President Nixon once said, There is little proven danger of physical or psychological harm from the experimental or intermittent use of natural preparations of cannabis... (qtd. in Glasser). The author, Richard Lowry, of Weed Whackers agreed in his article by stating, ...it makes little sense to send people to jail for using a drug that, in terms of its harmfulness, should be categorized somewhere between alcohol and tobacco on one hand and caffeine on the other (36). Not only is this drug practically harmless, but people enjoy this drug for many personal reasons. They smoke it to relieve stress, mellow out, or just have fun (Kalet 82). The British medical journal Lancet could not have said it better by saying, When used in a social setting, it may produce infectious laughter and talkativeness (qtd. in Lowry). The effects of marijuana do not affect anybody else except for the user. If the effects of marijuana feel good to the user and no one else is harmed, why should it be illegal to use the drug? Drug warrio...

Australian Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Australian Economy - Essay Example Figure 1 - Historical real GDP growth in Australia's economy The Australian economy is expected to see a rise of between 3.75% and 4% in the GDP for the 2011-12 fiscal year. However certain estimates see this prediction as too high given the current global economic climate (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2010; Brinsden, 2010). The figure below speaks volumes of the success of the Australian government and the Australian Reserve Bank in keeping the Australian economy afloat (Australian Government, 2010; Reserve Bank of Australia, 2010; Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2010). Figure 2 - Comparison of international GDP growth rates The GDP of any nation is composed of the consumption (C), the investment (I), the net governmental fiscal spending (G) and the net exports (X – Q) which can be expressed mathematically as: Australia’s response to these components can be used to better delineate the response of the Australian government and the Australian Reserve Bank to deal with the ch allenges in the wake of the global financial crisis. Consumption can be used as a major indicator of the economic situation. Australia saw an increase in retail spending of around 0.8% by volume between June 2009 and 2010 which indicates greater consumer confidence (The Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). However there is little denying that the global financial crisis made Australian consumers all the more conservative (Gruen, 2010) as the household savings rate went up by 1.3% by May 2010 (Reserve Bank of Australia, 2010). Given that consumption growth alone is responsible for 1.5% of the growth of the Australian GDP, it serves as an important sector. The GDP also witnessed a boost in investment especially in the mining sector although the government’s new tax on mining was expected to prohibit further growth. The mining industry witnessed a growth in investment of 29% between June 2009 and 2010 which was around 50% more than expected (Pascoe, 2010). As an initial respo nse to the global financial crisis the government spending shot up dramatically but this was slowed down fearing: overstimulation of the economy; crowding out of private investment; placing a large debt burden. The GDP was positively supported by the net exports as the current account deficit first fell and then went into a positive trade surplus. The increase in net exports can be seen to result from increased demand for Australian minerals in the South East Asian market. Moreover contribution from net exports is expected to rise in 2011 as new capital investment is lowered into mineral operations that will remove bottle necks that affect production capacity (Stutchbury, 2010). The policies and approaches adopted by the Australian government since 2008 have been directed at handling the impacts of the global financial crisis. Macroeconomic policies have been specifically designed and geared to minimise damage from the global financial crisis. Moreover another chief aim of these pol icies remains the provision of adequate exit strategies that would be implemented once economic stability is seen on the horizon. The current fiscal stance of the Australian government is more towards contraction as the budget deficit for 2010-11 was some 40.8