Visual Arts | Art & Design

Mark Rothko on How to Be an Artist

The beloved Color Field painter left behind wisdom on what it takes to be an artist, from channeling childlike instincts to taking ego out of the equation.

"“The most interesting painting is one that expresses more of what one thinks than of what one sees.”

Visual Arts | Visual Arts

“Neither Flesh nor Fleshless”

What’s great about Rothko’s paintings is their refutation of language, the way they push back against conclusions.

Thinking about when a painting is done.

Visual Arts | Visual Arts

How we restored Harvard’s Rothko murals without touching them

In 1989, I was a conservation student at the Courtauld Institute in London. During a class on varnish removal, my professor, Gerry Hedley, demonstrated how shining blue light on a picture with yellowed varnish made it seem as if the varnish had been cleaned away—returning the painting to how it originally had appeared.