- Mark Rothko was a pioneer of [[Colour Field Painting]] where he reduced his paintings to colour alone. - Rothko viewed [[Reductionism]] as necessary and in focusing on colour searched for a new style of abstraction that could transcend art forma and reach the infinite. - Rothko said “A painting is not a picture of an experience. It is an experience.” - Rothko Chapel is said to be the culmination of his work which included a small skylight since Rothko wanted his paintings to not be seen only under a specific lighting and to change through the day. ![[Black Stripe 36 - Mark Rothko.png]] --- In focusing on color, Rothko was searching for a new style of abstraction that would link modern art to ancient mythic and transcendent art forms that reach out to the infinite. - [[Reductionism in Art and Brain Science]] The fact that Rothko did not want his pictures fixed by an unchanging light—by one optimal effect—is critical for Rothko’s self-interpretation. . . . This relinquishing of one effect, of one exact illumination in this ecumenical chapel might be seen as symbolic: as a renunciation of one truth, as the impossibility of favoring one light over another light. - [[Reductionism in Art and Brain Science]]