Large Red Block Abstract, Mixed Medium, Original Painting

Large Red Block Abstract, Mixed Medium, Original Painting French School, c. 1990’s signed indistinctly on the bottom of the painting Mixed medium on canvas, unframed Canvas size: 40 x 29 inches Colourful painting that is fabulously understated. The mix of bold red and gritty texture make this abstract piece wonderfully timeless. This blurred block of colour is inspired by the iconic artist, Mark Rothko. His collection of ‘multiform’ paintings were a follow on from colourful Matisse (who was an inspiration of Rothkos). The year 1946 saw the creation of what art critics have termed Rothko’s transitional “multiform” paintings. Rothko never used the term multiform himself, yet it is an accurate description of these paintings. Several of them, including No. 18 and Untitled (both 1948), are less transitional than fully realized. Rothko himself described these paintings as possessing a more organic structure, and as self-contained units of human expression. For him, these abstracts were devoid of landscape or the human figure, let alone myth and symbol, possessed their own life force. They contained a “breath of life” he found lacking in most figurative painting of the era. They were filled with possibility, whereas his experimentation with mythological symbolism had become a tired formula. The “multiforms” brought Rothko to a realisation of his mature, signature style, the only style Rothko would never fully abandon. Condition report: The painting is in good and sound condition.