The progression of a painterโs workโฆwill be toward clarity; toward the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea, and between the idea and the observerโฆto achieve this clarity is, inevitably, to be understood.
Mark RothkoArt to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.
Mark RothkoIt is the poet and philosopher who provide the community of objectives in which the artist participates. Their chief preoccupation, like the artist, is the expression in concrete form of their notions of reality. Like him, they deal with the verities of time and space, life and death, and the heights of exaltation as well as the depths of despair. The preoccupation with these eternal problems creates a common ground which transcends the disparity in the means used to achieve them.
Mark Rothko