Seeing Rothko (Issues & Debates)

I am interested only in expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom, - Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970) said of his paintings. If you are moved only by their colour relationships, then you miss the point. Throughout his career, Rothko was concerned with what other people experienced when they looked at his canvases. As his work shifted from figurative imagery to luminous fields of colour, his concern expanded to the setting in which his paintings were exhibited.