Painters on Painting

Mark Rothko

There are several drafts of this letter to the editor, published June 13, 1943, in which Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb responded to the Times art review by Edward Alden Jewell of their work at an exhibition at the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.
"…We favor the simple expression of complex thought…We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth…it is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted…There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We assert that subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid if it is tragic and timeless."

from www.theartstory.org


Adolph Gottlieb