For those Rothkos do not make a statement; rather, they raise a demand, or more precisely maybe, a question. The kind of questions, though, that the Kabbalists raised, the kind larger than the sum of their possible answers- nothing can exhaust them.
There is a moment in looking at those Rothkos when we stop looking at them and they start looking at us- at, and if we are not careful, if there is not enough of us there, straight through us. We can't help ourselves; those Rothkos keep bleeding out of aesthetical categories and into ethical ones.
Not, is it beautiful? But rather, how should one lead one's life?
Text: Lawrence Weschler, Expressions of an Absolute, in Everything That Rises:A Book of Convergences
1 comment:
I find these words to be very, very agreeable. I saw an excellent exhibition of his black paintings recently at the National Gallery of Art. Those paintings were signposts for me. I felt like they understood me, and I liked them. I was challenged and encouraged.
"for here there is no place / that does not see you. You must change your life." - Rilke
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