Adventure.

Rothko, No. 8, 1949

The appreciation of art is a true marriage of minds. And in art, as in marriage, lack of consummation is ground for annulment.

The point at issue, it seems to us, is not an “explanation” of the paintings but whether the intrinsic ideas carried within the frames of these pictures have significance.

We feel that our pictures demonstrate our aesthetic beliefs, some of which we, therefore, list: 

1.  To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks. 

2.  This world of the imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense. 

3.  It is our functions as artists to make the spectator see the world our way—not his way. 

4.  We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth. 

5.  It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.

- Mark Rothko

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