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The Painter's Keys, a book by Robert Genn

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Rothko Art Quotes - (12 quotes)

Mark Rothko - From the Abstraction category:

I'm not an abstractionist... I'm not interested in relationships of colour or form or anything else. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Colour category:

If you... are moved only by the color relationships, then you miss the point. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Commerce category:

Look, it's my misery that I have to paint this kind of painting, it's your misery that you have to love it, and the price of the misery is thirteen hundred and fifty dollars. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Emotion category:

I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions. And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate these basic human emotions. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Expression category:

I don't express myself in my paintings. I express my not-self. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Imagination category:

This world of the imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Intimacy category:

The reason for my painting large canvases is that I want to be intimate and human. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Miracles category:

Pictures must be miraculous: the instant one is completed, the intimacy between the creation and the creator is ended. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Revelation category:

The picture must be... a revelation, an unexpected and unprecedented resolution of an eternally familiar need. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Risk category:

Art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take risks. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Seeing category:

It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way – not his way. (Mark Rothko)

Mark Rothko - From the Subject category:

It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing. (Mark Rothko)

Editor: Robert Genn

Consultants: Sara Genn, Richard Thompson
Technical Support and Presentation: Andrew Niculescu

Associate Editors:
Scott Altman, Bonnie Austin, Karen Austin, Michele Becker, Joe Blodgett, Norman Brown, Alyce Bryson, Leanne Cadden, Penny Duane, Max Elliot, Derek Franklin, Mardy Grothe, Harry Hartley, Sue Holland, Shawn Jackson, Sue Legault, Tammy McManus, Eric Mewhinney, Bruce Miller, Laura Parrish, Andrea Pratt, Dan Roberts, Shirley Rochon, Gilbert Roy, John Sherlock, Victor Wong,

And many others who have so far contributed one or a few. Please join us and add more at