Wonderful article in PORT (a publication on www.portlandart.net "dedicated to catalyzing critical discussion and disseminating information about art as lensed through Portland, Oregon") by Arcy Douglass called "Rothko's Portland" (6/17/09). Here's what Douglass said about it on the Land Arts Listserv:

"...it is about Rothko's reaction to the landscape and his attempt to create a sense of place in his work. This starts with his watercolor in the late 1920's and continues on to his mature paintings.

"It is revealling that the when Rothko starts out as artist he thinks that the best way to convey the emotion of that sense of place when he looks out from the hills around Portland is literally by depicting the landscape. This is would be following in the footsteps of Cezanne and the Impressionists. As he gets older, his ambitions come more in line with his skill set and he slowly realizes that to create that sense of place in his work he would not need the landscape at all. Maybe even that the sense of place that we feel when we look out into the landscape exists not out there but in ourselves.

"I found a couple of things that Rothko had written in high school that have never been published before. There is a short story that he wrote for a local newsletter called Doupon's Bride that is particularly revealing."

It has great pictures and a recipe by Rothko for making art.

"Rothko's Portland": http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2009/06/rothkos_portlan.html

   

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