Mark Rothko and the Development of American Modernism 1938-1948
Author(s): Jonathan Harris
Source: Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1988), pp. 40-50
Published by: Oxford University Press
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Mark Rothkoand theDevelopmentofAmericanModernism
1938-1948
JONATHANHARRIs
C.. . negationis inscribedin theverypracticeofmodernism,as theformin whichartappearsto itselfas a
value ... thatnegativity
does not appear as a practicewhichguaranteesmeaningor opens out a space
forfreeplay and fantasy... but, rather,negation
appears as an absolute and all-encompassingfact,
somethingwhich once begun is cumulativeand
a factwhichswallowsmeaningaltouncontrollable;
gether... We have an art in which ambiguity
whichis on thevergeofproposing
becomesinfinite,
and does propose- an Otherwhichis comfortably ineffable,a vagueness,a mere mysticismof
sight.'
T. J. Clark: 'ClementGreenberg'sTheoryOf Art',
Critical
vol.9, no. 1, September1982.1
Inquiry,
'Abstractart cannot be disposed of by a simpleminded evasion. Or by negation. We can only
disposeofabstractartby assimilating
it,by fighting
our waythroughit.Whereto? I do notknow.Yet it
seemsto me thatthewishto returnto theimitation
ofnaturein arthas been givenno morejustification
thanthedesireofcertainpartisansofabstractartto
legislateitintopermanency.'
ClementGreenberg:'TowardsA NewerLaocoon',
PartisanReviewvol. 7, no. 4,July-August1940.2
'It was withthe utmostreluctancethatI foundthe
figurecould not servemy purposes... But a time
came whennone ofus could use thefigurewithout
it.'
mutilating
Mark Rothko,speakingat thePrattInstitute.3
This articleis an attempttoconsiderand drawattention to an early 'moment' in the career of Mark
Rothko,a conjunctureroughlyspanningthe ten
yearsbetween1938and 1948,and as suchinvolvesa
consciousshifting
ofscrutiny
awayfromthe'classic'
or paradigmaticpaintingproducedin the 1950sand
1960s- the celebrated'floatingfieldsof colour' in
suchworksas Untitled
(1954)or Orange,
RedAndRed
(1962). I shallargueherethatthebasis forRothko's
later, characteristicpaintings*can be found by
examiningthe historicaland political contextin
whichhe foundhimselffromthe late 1930sto the
late 1940sand byconsidering
theworksofartwhich
he produced duringthose years. In that ten year
period it is possible to track the path Rothko
followedfroman (alwaysambivalent)commitment
to a pictorialrealism found,for example, in his
40
Subway(1930s) (Fig. 1), to the adoptionof what is
commonlyacceptedas his 'abstract'format,
withhis
painting Multiform(1948) (Fig. 2). This decade
contains, then, the works of the 'break', when
Rothko,as he himselfsaid in 1958,'withtheutmost
reluctance'foundthat'thefigurecould notserve'his
purposes.
The 1950s saw the rise of the AbstractExpressionistartiststo institutional
and criticaldominance
in America.This processwill be discussedshortly,
because Rothkois generally
understoodbothas lone
geniusand as exemplary'colour-field'
painter.The
elaborationand institutionalisation
of Modernist
theoryas a criticalorthodoxyoccurredduringthe
1950s and 1960s and, therefore,
in the 1940s the
envelopingof Rothko'sworksand ideas in various
formsof Modernistexplanationwas stillto occur.
Indeed, Clement Greenberg,the most influential
criticcommitted
tothesupportofartistslikeJackson
Pollock and MorrisLouis in the post-warperiod,
can be foundin 1940 vacillatingtowards,but not
necessarilyarriving
at, an abstractnewerLaocoon.4
Althoughit is possible to agree that 'Modernism'
(witha capital 'M') has a verybasic genericconsistencyas a clusteroftheories,ideas and aphorisms
('art-for-art's
sake', the beliefthat modern art is
made forno particularsocial purpose,thatit exists
and should be judged 'on its own terms'), this
clusteris no monolithor statute:'Modernism'draws
on a myriadofphilosophicalbases,withtheoretical
Fig. 1. Mark Rothko Subwa
MarkRothko.
THE OXFORD
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C.1936. Estate of
ART JOURNAL-
11:1 1988
Fig. 2. Mark Rothko: Multiform,1948. Pace
Gallery.
reflexivity
rangingfromthe rhetorically
'rigorous'
(Greenberg's'ModernistPainting'5)to the rhetoricallyloopy (Hilla Rebay's anticipationof the 'harmonicconvergence' God was a Modernist- in
her article'The Beauty Of Non-Objectivity'6).
In
relation to Abstract Expressionismand Mark
Rothko'spaintings,threereasonablydistinctforms
of Modernismhave been presentedand stillhold
criticalsway.ClementGreenbergbelievedthatArt
should developin an almost'scientific'
or 'clinical'
way: modernpaintingsshouldexaminethemselves
as material formsand procedures,not produce
'images' of the world,but referto themselvesas
unique and irreducibleformsof material,cultural
and cognitivecreation. Greenberg's 'technical',
almostpuritanicaldisregardforpleasureas a necessarycomponentofhis criticalactivity
also debarred
anyfanciful
concernforthemetaphysical
orspiritual
dimensionofArt.'Harold Rosenberg,in an influential article firstpublished in 1952, stressedthe
productionprocess of those he called the 'action
painters',arguingthat as a vital formof creative
activitythe act of applying paint involvedboth
temporaland spatialdimensionsand was therefore
relatedto thebasic existential
intimately
conditions
of human beings. Following Jean-Paul Sartre's
philosophicaldirectionelaboratedwithinthe tortuouspagesofBeingAndN;othingness,
Rosenbergsaw
the paintingactivityas necessarilyrelatedto the
possibilities
ofhumancreationand hencecentralto
theweighty
conceptoffreedom.8
As willbe shownin
what follows,freedombecame forRosenberg,for
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ART JOURNAI. -
Rothko himselfand for many other Modernist
criticsand laterhistorians,definedessentiallyin a
negativeway: freedomfrompolitics,freedomfrom
havingto representthe world and freedomfrom
whatThomas B. Hess has called 'thecollectiveethos
or style'.9
Apart fromthese two fairlyspecificpositions,
which shared at least the idea of separatingthe
activity
ofpaintingfromthatwhichwas regardedas
extraneous,a broader admixture of Modernist
writingshas seen Rothko's paintingsas abstract
works which raise, embody or imply mystical,
metaphysicalor transcendental
themes:the lifeof
humanbeingsin relationtoquestionsofThe Infinite
(God, Life/Death,etc).10This is certainlythe more
popular articulationof Modernism,elaboratedin
exhibitioncatalogues,coffee-table
monographsand
newspaperand televisionprogrammes.Withinthis
plethoraofeulogies,however,itis significant
to note
thatelementsdrawnfromGreenberg'sand Rosenberg's seminal essay have some place, and again
tendto stressthenatureofRothko'spaintingas an
autonomous process and product.As a teeming
pond of ideas, then, Modernism constitutesthe
dominantmode of understanding
modernart and
Rothko'swork.Though diverseand in no sense a
coherentor intended project,Modernism is the
explanatorymodel or paradigm on which most
critics,curatorsand arthistoriansdrawto describe
and evaluateRothko'spaintingsand thoseofother
AbstractExpressionist
artists.
This articleis an attemptnotonlytolocatehistoricallyand politicallythe conjuncturewhichsaw the
developmentof the negativemodels of freedom
impliedin Modernistcriticism,
but also to explain
Rothko'srejectionoffiguration
and his adoptionof
theabstractstylewithwhichhe is now dominantly
associated. It will become clear that these two
developmentsare closelyrelated,thoughI wantto
stresstheir particularhistoricalcontiguityrather
than any necessaryor a priori theoreticalarticulation. The transcendent,
metaphysicaland universalisingqualities attributedto Rothko'spaintings,
and recently
in
eulogisedbypastand presentwriters
the catalogue forthe Tate GalleryRothkoexhibition,must also be seen as the productsof a very
particularhistoricaland social moment in the
historyof the Americanavant-garde."That 'transcendence',so exaltedby Modernisthistoriansand
was thetranscendence
critics,
ofa particular
political
and ideological conjuncture,where what was at
stakewas the possibility
and desirability
ofartand
artistsbeingexplicitly
and organisationally
engaged
in politicalstruggleand debate. The attractionof
thistranscendence
to themiddleclass has been well
characterised
byT. J.Clark:
The bourgeoisie
has a smallbutconsiderable
interest,
I
believe,in preserving
a certainmythof the aesthetic
consciousness,
one wherea transcendental
ego is given
something
appropriate
to contemplate
in a situation
11:1 1988
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41
of
anddeformities
thepressures
from
detached
essentially
becausetheclassin
is considerable
Thatinterest
history.
questionhas fewotherareas(sincethedeclineofthe
and
sacred) in which its accountof consciousness
phrased."2
canbe at all compellingly
freedom
Rothko's career,ratherthan being rehearsedad
can
spiritualachievement,
nauseamas a triumphant
fromtheruinsoftheSocialistand
be seenas a retreat
Communistoppositionin Americain thelate 1930s
ofcorporatecapitalismas
and fromthefinalvictory
developthemotorofAmericansocialand historical
ment. The chauvinisticcelebrationof 'American
AbstractExpressionism'by Modernistcriticsand
historiansand of Mark Rothko's location within
that,in the contextof the Cold War and the U.S.
economic,politicaland militarydominanceof the
ofwhatwe
'Free World',was a directcontradiction
know of Rothko's and JacksonPollock's political
and hostile
beliefs,whichhad been anti-nationalist
and dominanceofcapitalistsociety.13
to theinterest
To attemptto recoverthe specificpoliticsof that
'moment'in the 1940sand to relatethecultureand
politicsof the Depressionto thatof the Cold War
may enable us to understandthe historicalreasons
why the idea and dream of the 'unhistorical',the
'timeless' and the transcendentalbecame so
appealingto a generationof previouslypoliticallycommittedartistsin America.
The so-called 'Triumphof AmericanPainting',
announcedby IrvingSandlerin 1970 was, in fact,
domithe triumphof the criticaland institutional
nance of Abstract Expressionism,both as an
'official','high', ModernistAmericanstyleand as
thelatestparadigmfora universaland international
modernartmovement.One necessaryconditionfor
ascenthiswas the economic,politicaland military
dencyofthe United Statesafterthe Second World
theinauguration
ofNew York
War,whichpermitted
capitalforthe avant-garde
Cityas the international
and the hub ofmodernart'sproduction,economic
exhibitionand criticallegitiexchange,institutional
mation.14The dominance of American Abstract
Expressionism,produced through such crucial
facilitating
agenciesas the Museum ofModernArt
(MOMA), the Guggenheim Museum and the
dealing galleriesof BettyParsons,Sam Kootz and
SidneyJanis(whoall handledRothko'sworkduring
the 1940sand 1950s)involvedwhatmightappearto
be a paradox. On the one hand, AbstractExpressionismwas hailed as a distinctlyAmericanart,
broughtabout by theterminal'declineofcubism'15
and thereforeof European artists.On the other
ofa
hand,itwas also celebratedas thedevelopment
independentofany
Moderniststyleand sensibility
particularnation.It was seen both as the glorious
floweringof an indigenoustraditionof American
of
Modernistartistsand as the latestinstantiation
avant-garde.Paradoxicalalso is
the trans-national
oftheTriumphofAmericanPaintthepresentation
ing both as an undeniableZeitgeis1, a teleological
42
and yetalso as a happyand unexpected
imperative,
result of the collision of circumstances.Emily
thislatteremphasiswell:
Wassermanrepresents
tobelieve
Intheearly1900sitwouldhavebeenfarfetched
American
artwouldbe
thatwithin
fifty
yearsa distinctly
audience.16
acceptedandadmiredbyan international
Whatwas impliedin thisprocessoftheacceptance,
by Europe, of the arrivalof American Abstract
as the next authenticgenerationof
Expressionists
Modernistartists?'Acceptance'meansboth'to take
willingly'and 'to concede'. The acquiring of
'consent'can be a messybusiness.The conceptof
hegemonydevelopedbytheItalianMarxistAntonio
Gramscientailedthe processof securingconsent,
persuasionand coercion,for
throughbothrhetorical
a particularidea or end. Laws are proposed as
reasonable(worthyofrespect);yetin theabsenceof
compliancetheymust be enforced.For Gramsci,
hegemonywas a politicalprocessthroughwhicha
particularsocialclass 'nationalises'itself:whena set
of specificeconomic,social and ideologicalvalues
and beliefsbelongingto a particularclass, whose
material intereststhey serve, are generalisedas
withina particular
'national'or 'universal'interests
society.In replacingor dominatingthe values and
beliefsof otherclasses, those that are generalised
become hegemonic:represented
and believedto be
'in the national interest'and constitutingwhat
Gramscicalled a 'commonsense'.17
This is what happened to American Abstract
Expressionism,the 'New York School' and Mark
Rothko's paintings:propagatedby MOMA, the
of
thewritings
cataloguesand booksofarthistorians,
critics,the sales pitch of dealer galleries,and, as
recent historicalresearch has shown, the tacit
economicsupportofC.I.A. backedagencieslikethe
arts magazine Encounterand the more open
patronageof the U.S. State Department,Abstract
was represented
as theparadigmatic
Expressionism
of
high Moderniststyle the 'Free West' afterthe
Second WorldWar.18Counterposedto the censorbanalityofSovietSocialistRealism
shipand stylistic
enforcedby Stalin after 1934, the paintingsof
Rothko,Pollock,de Kooningand Newmanbecame
'weapons of the Cold War', vehiclesfor cultural
The
diplomacyand signsof 'culturaldemocracy'.19
involvement
of the C.I.A. is discussedin detailby
David and Cecile Shapiro:
Abstract
becamethestylemostheavily
Expressionism
forreasonsthat
dispensed
byour[theU.S.] government,
werein partexplained
byThomasW. Bradenin a 1967
thatappearedunderthetitle'I'm GladTheC.I.A.
article'
is Immoral' in the SaturdayEveningPost . .. Braden,
executive
secretary
oftheMuseumOfModernArtfora
shortperiodinthelate1940s,
joinedtheCentralIntelligenceAgencyas supervisor
ofcultural
activities
in 1951,
and remainedas directorof thisbranchuntil1954.
Recognising
thatcongressional
approval
ofmanyoftheir
projects
wasas likely
'as theJohnBirchsociety's
approvTHE OXFORD
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ART JOURNAL-
11:1 1988
Rothko's case in particular,the 'mystery'of his
paintings.23Rothko's paintings seem to exlude
polysemy,their ontological and epistemological
Cold War against communismhere and abroad ...
wherehave theycome from?
ineffable:
significance
Braden,possiblytakinghis aestheticcue fromhis
What does theirdense opacityrepresent?Rothko's
theexportof
MuseumofModemArtyears,supported
readthroughtheprismsofeither
post-warpaintings,
Abstract Expressionismin the propaganda war ...
existentialistaesthetic or
Rosenberg's
Harold
BackedbymoneyavailabletotheC.I.A. and supportive
rigorous formalism still
Greenberg's
Clement
Braden'sbranchbecamea
Expressionism,
ofAbstract
- to most - mysterious
and unyielding:
remain
Congressand sendingabroad
meansofcircumventing
profound and
meaningless;
and
meaningful
intervention.20
federal
without
art-as-propaganda
vacuous; activeand immobile;an openingand a
reluctanceto showhis
closure.Rothko'swell-known
through
partlybecause he thoughtcritics,
In this respect the paintingsand individualistic paintings,
weremade
oftheAbstractExpressionists
triedto 'fix'and close theirsignifistatements
theirwritings,
to formpartoftheU.S. 'culturalMarshallplan', an
cance, can be explained more adequately by
designed to complementthe
ideologicaloffensive
examining the political and historical context
whichtheU.S.
industrialand financialintervention
whereinRothko(and otherAbstractExpressionists)
dynamisethe
topropup and eventually
orchestrated
opted for,were propelled toward and came to
capitalistnations of WesternEurope against the
'accept' thetypeofabstractpaintingwithwhichhe
In the contextofNew
threats (and promises) of Soviet communism.21 and theyare now identified.
the
Representedas the'universalFreeStyleoftheWest',
York between1938 and 1948 can be identified
the large agitatedcanvassesofJacksonPollock or
circumstanceswhich led Rothko to say, in his
Rothko'sfloatingfieldsof colourbecame emblems
statement entitled 'The Romantics Were
ofthefreedomofliberalAmericansociety:beacons
Prompted':
of individualism,unfetteredactivityand creative
in
ofthingshas to be pulverised
The familiar
identity
risk,proposedas possibleonlyin a truedemocracy.
withwhichour
associations
thefinite
orderto destroy
That the U.S. Governmentinvolved itselfin
enshrouds
every
aspectofourenvironment.24
society
variousopen or tacitways withthe rise to institutional and criticaldominanceof AbstractExpresWhat were the finiteassociationsand the familiar
sionism is now relativelywell-known- this
identityof things which Rothko wished to see
of Abstract
revisionist
period in the historiography
pulverised?Are theyto be understoodas comforExpressionismwas largelyconfinedto the midan abstractrejectionofan abstract
tablyunspecific,
1970s.The New rorkTimesartcriticHiltonKramer,
social and historicalworld,or as minutelytangible
launchedan attackon thewriters and relatedto be situationartistshad foundthemalso predictably,
relationshipbetweenthe U. S.
the
who addressed
selvesin fromthemid-1930sonwards?
artistsand on the
Stateand AbstractExpressionist
'freedom'and 'risk',celebrated
The existentialist
magazine,whereMax
editorialboard of Artforum
by Harold Rosenberg, had been grasped more
Kozloff and Eve Cockcroft'sarticles appeared.
accuratelyby ClementGreenbergas a situationof
Kramer's riposte, entitled 'Muddled Marxism
alienation.Writingin 1948,Greenbergarguedthat
thoughpredictreplacesArtCriticismat Artforum',
is
'isolation,alienation,nakedand revealedto itself,
able, was too vociferousa polemic.22A handfulof
of
our
true
which
the
age
reality
theconditionunder
articlesin an artsmagazine,and eventhe publicais experienced... Isolation is, so to speak, the
tionof SergeGuilbaut'slengthybook in 1983,was
This was
naturalconditionofhighartin America.'25
unlikely to destabilize critical and institutional a positionclose to the one Rothkoalso adopted in
- as theTate Gallery'srecentexhibition
orthodoxy
1948:
And in any case, the
and cataloguedemonstrates.
of
revisionistargument left intact the leitmotif
is difficult
for
tohisactivity
ofsociety
The unfriendliness
and ModernistcriticalorthoAbstractExpressionist
canactas a lever
toaccept.Yetthisvery
theartist
hostility
doxy in general:the beliefthat the value of these
and
a falsesenseofsecurity
Freedfrom
fortrueliberation.
worksofartcan be establishedabsolutelyindepentheartist
canabandonhisplasticbankbook,
community,
withinwhichtheywere
ofsecurity.26
dentlyofthecircumstances
justas he hasabandonedotherforms
producedand gainedcriticalsupportand acclaim.If
value (or 'quality') is, within Modernist terms,
'Society'meantforRothkotwo specificthings.The
twosensesindicatewhatcould be called thedouble
logicallyunrelatedto socialor historicalexplanation
genealogywhich linksa
alienationwhichhe feltin the period 1938 to 1948
-save with a formalist
Rothkopaintingwitha Mondrianor a Matissefrom
(and after).In thelate 1930s,Rothko,employedon
theNew Deal FederalArtproject,an activemember
earliergenerationsofartistswho are seen as constitutingtheModernistpantheon-then addinga few
of the Artists'Union and the AmericanArtists'
involvingthe
(perhaps) surprisingdeterminations
Congress against Racism and Fascism, holding
beliefs,was involvedin a prosocialist-anarchist
C.I.A. or the State Departmentunsettlednot one
ofqualityand in
oftherecognition
iotathecertainty
longed argumentwith and against the organised
withsuchorganisaingMedicare',he becameinvolved
tions as the Instituteof Labour Researchand the
intheAmerican
NationalCouncilofChurchesas fronts
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43
Left's advocacy of socialistrealism as the proper
stylisticvehicle for revolutionarypainting, as
dictated by the Comintem and representedin
Americaby the editorialpositionof ArtFront,the
newspaperoftheArtists'Union. Withinthisradical
groupsand
politicaland artistic'society'ofleft-wing
Rothkofoundhimself,along withother
affiliations,
artists,profoundlyat odds with Stalinistpolitical
Ten yearslater,in 1948,
and culturalorthodoxy.27
along withPollock,Newman and Gottlieb,Rothko
was apparentlytransfixed
by the threatof worldwide nuclear annihilationand by the gathering
in America.28
momentumofanti-subversive
hysteria
The verypossibilityof speech, of painting- of
communicationat all, in this
adequate referential
context- was feltto be jeopardized. Pollock's
drawing War (1946 or 1947) was one of the last
works beforehis celebrated'drip' period, which
containedanyrecognisableimageryor conventional
spatialcomposition.BetweenaboutJune 1947 and
April1948 RothkopaintedNumber18, de Kooning
26A,1948,paintingsin
Paintingand PollockNumber
or iconiccontentofrepresentawhichthereferential
tionwas expunged.In 1947the U.S. StateDepartment'sOfficeofEducationhad announcedits'Zeal
For AmericanDemocracy'programme;in August
the American Federation of Teachers produced
pamphletsshowinghow to understandand counter
At
'the strategy
and tacticsofworldcommunism'.29
about the same timeJ. Edgar Hoover and Tom
organisedthesoClark,theU.S. Attorney-General,
called 'Freedom Train', a patrioticmuseum-onwheels touringthe nation, to coincide with the
coming electionin 1948. The day that Congress
debated the implementationof the Truman
Marshall Plan, the National Guard conducted a
practicebombingraid on Washington,a 'lobbying'
viewpoint
techniquedesignedto makethemilitary's
on the matterof U.S. securityobvious. Guilbaut
arguesthatalthoughRothko'sand Pollock's work
it was intendedto be expressive
was non-figurative,
of a subjectivestate:anxietyabout the stateof the
worldin the nuclearage.30Loathingthe groupsof
artistswho had moved towardsa totallyuncritical
duringtheSecond
supportfortheU.S. Government
the
national
chauvinism
mounting
WorldWar and
afterthewar in America,Rothko'sresortto theuse
oftitlesreferring
to ancientmythsforhis paintings
fromAntigone
(Fig. 3), in 1941,was partofa strategy
to transcendthe oppressivecontemforattempting
porarypoliticaland ideologicalcontext.31Rothko's
sense ofpersonaloppressionwas expressedin what
amounts to a plea in 'The Romantics Were
Prompted':'It reallyis a matterofendingthissilence
one's arms
and solitude,ofbreathingand stretching
again.'
At about the same time as Rothko wrotethis,
Rene d'Harnoncourt,curatorat the Museum of
Modern Art,announcedthathe regardedmodern
symbolofAmericanDemocracy
artas theforemost
-a
symbol of 'infinitevariety'and 'ceaseless
44
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~iO
Privatecollection.
Fig. 3. Mark Rothko:Antigone.
32 The senseofimmobility,
constriction
exploration'.
and mutenesswhich Rothko and othersfeltwas
being presentedby d'Harnoncourtand later by
many othercritics,curatorsand historians,as an
indexofthehealth, vitality
and optimismofthenow
most powerfulnation-state
on earth.It is no coincidence that the hegemony of high American
modernism and its internationalisingcritical
doctrine celebrating the fecund creativityof
U.S. democracywas accompanied by the simultaneoushegemonyofArthurSchlesinger'spoliticalliberalismand the structural-functionalist
sociology
of Talcott Parsons, which extolledthe virtuesof
integrationand harmony, with the American
nation-state
as theculminationof
again represented
world historyand civilisation.33
D'Harnoncourt's
article perhaps representsthe firstinstitutional
validationof modernism'scriticalhegemonyin the
UnitedStates,thevalidationwhichwas to empower
materially- throughthe dealing and curatorial
practicesofmuseumsand artgalleries- thebelief
thatAbstractArtequalled Freedom.
Donderoevowedtohwec
aeemny orgnsto
ifg Aeitcad
If the coupling of Moderism with American
anmommunists
amongt intsemembers,leveng
ciftheyl
nationalismthroughthevehicleofAbstractExpressionism
a hecoplanned
state
are.
undentified'
wand
'cleaof upmthe
affairs,
represents
paradoxicalto
the
historical
claims
to neutrality
given avant-garde's
evenopen
and
to national
eniefieald,t
including
thihejr
system'.35
the
the
vru.s.o
chauvinism,
hostility
situationwas further
confusedby thefactthatwhile
d'Harnoncourtwas celebratingAbstractExpresGovceernmsepeent's
formalrsinvstigationaolCmuns
sionism's essential 'democratic'
nature, other
membersofthe government,
such as Congressman
George Dondero,werecondemningabstractartas
'shackledto communism'.34The idea thatmodern
art was alien and therefore
subversivehad been a
beliefheldconsistently
byartcriticsand artistsgoing
backtothefirst
showingsofEuropeanmodernismin
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ARTJOURNAL
-
11:1 1988
in America,whichhad startedwiththeFish
activity
Committeein 1931,had alwaysbeen intimately
tied
of culturalorganisations.The
to the investigation
Dies Committee,which became the House UnAmerican ActivitiesCommitteeafterthe Second
World War, investigatedcommunistswho were
reportedlyactivein the New Deal Federal Music,
Theatre,Writingand ArtProjectsin the late 1930s,
and became especiallyactiveafterthesigningofthe
Nazi-SovietPact in August 1939. Those investigationsand 'publicidentifications'
(prosecutions
being
impossible,as being a memberof the Communist
Partywas nevermade illegal) of supposed subversives withinthe Federal Art Project - of which
Rothkowas an employee- eventuallycontributed
to the discreditingand abolitionof the Projectin
1942, although it was effectively
destroyed as
nationalschemein 1940.36
The eventsin New York around the FederalArt
Project,the Museum of Modem Art,the Artists'
Union, the American Artists'Congress and the
newspaperArtFrontin the late 1930s providethe
othercontextforunderstanding
Rothko'ssocialand
politicalalienation.Withtheend oftheFederalArt
Project,mostofRoosevelt'sNew Deal policieswere
superceded by national productionfor the war
effort.It was emphaticallythis re-energisation
of
privatecorporatecapitalism(especiallyweaponsand
munitionsproduction,subcontractedby the U.S.
Government), rather than Roosevelt's Stateinterventionist
'New Deal' policies,deployedduring
the 1930s,whichled to the economicrecoveryand
then supremacyof the USA afterthe war.37The
AmericanArtists'Congress,ofwhichRothkowas a
member,had attemptedto supportboththeFederal
Art Project and what it regardedas the socialist
'state-managerial'
aspectsoftheNew Deal, whileat
thesame timecomingto termswiththedominance
of Stalinismboth in the SovietUnion and in the
communistpartiesofwesternEurope and America.
WithRoosevelt'sdefactocapitulationto the power
and interestsof corporatecapitalismand to the
right-wing's
mordantattackson the New Deal's
welfare programmes- and especially on the
fundingofculturalactivity
throughthe FederalArt
Project - the American Artists'Congress was
slammed as a Stalinistcoterieand in 1940 split
internallyover the issue of supportforthe Soviet
invasionof Finland,the signingof the Nazi-Soviet
Pact, the Moscow show-trials
of 'the LeftOpposition', and a host of otherissues with rockedthe
organisedAmericanLeft.38
The supportforSoviet
socialistrealistpaintingin Americaalso came under
attack: the politicaland artisticorthodoxyestablishedby the Comintern,controlledfromMoscow,
was assailed both by the rightwing and by the
followers
ofTrotskyin America.Therewerestrident
calls forthe 'returnto the aesthetic',forthe end of
whatwas called 'social painting'and fortheartistto
createwithoutconstraining
reference
or adherence
to politics,ideology,nationalismor anythingelse.39
THE
OXFORD
ART JOURNAL -
This freedom,which the artistwas supposed to
experienceas the authenticconditionforthe productionofGreatArtand whichis stillcelebratedas
the conditionenabling Rothko to paint, was an
historicaland relativesortoffreedom.It
extremely
of
meantthereleasingofartistsfromtheconstraints
the FederalArtProject,the AmericanArtistsCongress and the AmericanCommunistParty.This
'release' was intendedto returnthe artistto the socalled'freemarket';in otherwords,tothepatronage
This was the
and entrepreneurs.
ofthecorporations
situationRothkofoundhimselfin after1940.
inthelate
Rothko'spoliticalbeliefsand affiliations
1930s and early 1940s are still relativelyterraincognita,thoughit is commonforwritersto referto
him as an 'anarchist'and even more common for
committedmodernisthistoriansto point out his
oppositionto socialistrealism.' It is knownthathe
was an activememberoftheArtists'Union,thathe
attendedmonthlymeetingsand agitatedalongwith
JacksonPollockfortheCityofNew Yorkto build a
municipalartgalleryto showtheworksoffederally
employedartists.Rothko also attackedthe newspaperArtFrontbecause ofwhathe saw as itsslavish
devotionto Stalinistculturaldogma. He was partof
a dissidentgroupwithintheAmericanArtists'Conofdebateon
gresswhichcalledfora greaterdiversity
both political and artisticissues. Led by Meyer
arthistorianthenteaching
Schapiro,theTrotskyite
at Columbia Universityin New York, the group
includedotherartistssuchas MiltonAvery,Adolph
Gottlieb,Jose de Creft,Ilya Bolotowskyand the
writerLewis Mumford.On 4 April1940theAmerican Artists'Congresspassed a motionsupporting
the U.S.S.R.'s invasionofFinland.Large groupsof
artistsand writers,
bothin and outsidetheAmerican
CommunistParty,resignedfromtheCongressand
Gottlieband Rothkocalled for
Avery,Bolotowsky,
Two monthslater
thecreationofa neworganisation.
the Federationof Modern Paintersand Sculptors
was createdand, in an inauguralstatement,condemned any artisticnationalismas detrimental
to
the developmentof modernart.41The splitin the
Congress was to some degree engineered and
encouragedby PeytonBoswell, the editorof Art
Digestmagazine,who forsome monthshad been
pressuring
thosehe regardedas the'trueliberals'to
takecontrolfromthosehe calledthe'artpoliticians'.
Boswell singled out the artistsStuart Davis and
JeromeKlein as 'Stalinists'and he claimedthatthe
AmericanArtists'Congress,undertheirleadership,
comparedwiththe Ku Klux Klan. Boswell linked
togetherthe production of 'experimental'and
'progressive'- by which he meant abstractartistswiththeirneed fora 'liberalorganisation'to
look aftertheirinterests.
This 'experimental'paintingwas definedas authenticartpreciselybecause it
excludedpoliticalreference.
Boswellclaimed:
The 'socialdemocratic'
paintings
shownbytheAmerican
mightbe just
Artists'
Congressat theirlastexhibition
11:1 1988
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45
that,but are theyArt?... They may be everso democ-
ratic,butaretheyArt?42
This was probablya positionsimilarto thatheld by
Rothko at about the same time, but Rothko's
like that of Jackson Pollock and
committment,
BarnettNewman, was to a non-doctrinal,nonrealistpainting,intendedby the artiststo be emblematic of an anti-State capitalist and
politics.It is likelythatRothkosupanti-totalitarian
portedthe argumentsin the 1938 manifestocalled
'Towards a Free, RevolutionaryArt', writtenby
Leon Trotskyand Andre Breton, aided by the
Mexican artistand communistDiego Rivera.43A
year later, in August 1939, Clement Greenberg
positionfroma neotheorisedthispolitico-aesthetic
Trotskyiteperspective,in his influentialessay
'Avant-Gardeand Kitsch'.44In thishe arguedthat
abstractart and the avant-gardeprovidedthe only
criticaland progressiveelementin a world threatenedbythetriplepoisonsofcapitalistmassculture,
GermanFascismand SovietStalinistCommunism.
however,
Rothko'scontemptforculturalorthodoxy,
socialist
at
doctrinal
directed
was not uniquely
to
writers
tend
Modernist
aesthetics,although
Cultural
of
the
As
co-chairman
presentit thisway.
Committeeof the Federationof Modern Painters
and Sculptors,Rothkoand AdolphGottliebwroteto
theNewrorkTimesinJune 1943:
We assertthatthesubjectis crucialandonlythatsubject
matteris valid which is tragicand timeless... Conse-
itmustinsult
ifourworkembodiesthosebeliefs
quently
decoration,
attunedto interior
anyonewhois spiritually
of
overthemantle,
pictures
ofthehome,pictures
pictures
prizepurity-in-art,
theAmerican
Scene,socialpictures,
theWhitney
theNationalAcademy,
winning
potboilers,
tritetripe,
theCorn-Belt
buckeyes,
Academy,
Academy,
etc.45
The liberalismof Boswell,and laterthatofd'Harorder
noncourtand Schlesinger,was of a different
from Rothko's comprehensiverejectionof both
nationalistand regionalistaestheticsand politics.
Similarly,Rothko also rejectedand scorned the
artistscommittedto whathe regardedas 'aesthetic
formalism',those belonging to the American
AbstractArtistsgroup,formedin 1936.
acceptanceand criticalvalidaThe institutional
tion of Rothko'spost-warpaintingswas no automaticprocess,thoughitis oftenpresentedas suchin
The declineof
standardhistoriesofAmericanart.46
'social painting' and the appearance and then
dominance of abstractart has been presentedin
Yet whatin
as an inevitability.
Modernistretrospect
fact characterisedcritical discourse in America
duringand evenaftertheSecond WorldWar was a
strongbelief in what can be called 'democratic
of
prescription
: a resistanceto stylistic
eclecticism'
any sort,seen as the particularevil of totalitarian
societies.For a period betweenthe dominanceof
1930s 'social painting'and 1950sAbstractExpres46
sionism,'Good Art' was not identified
in termsof
stylisticregularities,formal devices or gestural
predelictions.'Good Art' was considered to be
definedin termsof the presenceof skilland technique and could be identified
in any style.Forbes
Watson,the editorof TheAmerican
MagazineofArt,
arguedin 1939:
The pureabstractionist,
thebitter
urbancommentator,
themanwhogoesbackto thefarm,
mayall be equally
goodandequallybad as artists.47
NathanielPousette-Dart,writingin the magazine
ArtandArtists
of Todayin June 1940,said thatthe
choiceofanyone stylewouldreduceAmericato the
conditionofGermanyor theSovietUnion:
is atthemoment
ina veryhealthy
America
condition
for
theveryreasonthatit has no one individual
or group
it.InAmerica,
theartists
stillhavefreedom
of
dominating
wemustfight
anditistheonething
expression
toretain48
Two yearslater,the CityArtMuseum in St Louis,
Missouri,organisedan exhibitioncalled Trendsin
American
Paintingof Today.The catalogue author
claimed to be able to identifyno less than seven
different
stylesin AmericanArt:'realism','romanticism', 'expressionism', 'fantasy', 'surrealism',
This diversity
was
'abstraction'and 'primitivism'.
proclaimedas thedefiningfeatureofAmericanart,
an 'inescapabletruthabout theAmericanpainting',
of the artist.
relatingdirectlyto the 'individuality'
Only monthsafterthe abolitionof the FederalArt
Project,we hear thatthe artist'createsforhis own
sake and forthosewho followhim,but he does not
paintforsociety'ssake'.49
There is, then,in the early 1940sin America,a
criticaldiscoursewhichoscillatesbetweencoupling
and uncouplingpoliticalliberalismwith abstract
itself
art:howa democracyshouldrepresent
(toboth
its own citizensand to the outsideworld)is, fora
while,indeterminate.
Opposed to doctrinalsocialist
as a symbol
realism,abstractartcan be represented
of freedomand choice. But at the same time,the
articulationof U.S. democracywithabstractionis
temperedby its linkingwitha diverse'equality'of
The resistanceto
different
stylesof representation.
in Americahad also been a tradistylistic
orthodoxy
tional resistanceto the developmentof an indigenous Modernism:whatThomas Hart Bentonhad
called 'Ellis Island Art'.50
Americanhighculturein
themid-1940sis thuspulledtwoways- backto the
'New Deal' and America'sparochial,domesticselfexaminationand forwardto the 'Great Society'of
the 1950s and America'srepresentation
of itselfas
thesignoftheFreeWorld.
The Museum ofModernArtitself,
thepantheon
of European 'Moderns' in the 1930s,was not sure
about the possibilityof an authenticmodern art
emergingin America.Alongwithsocialistorganisationslikethe AmericanArtists'Congress,MOMA
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ART JOURNAL-
11:1
1988
supported the continuationof the Federal Art
Projectand believeditsabolitionwould be a serious
blowtoAmericanculture.5"
It can be argued,in fact,
that MOMA activelyignored and discouraged
Americanmodernistartistsin the 1930s.Excluding
anyindigeneousartistsfromthe Cubism
AndAbstract
Artshowin 1935and leavingout theabstractpaintings and designs submittedby federalartists
- for
includingsome laterAbstractExpressionists
theNewHorizons
In American
Artshowthefollowing
year,theMuseum's attitudeprovokedtheAmerican
AbstractArtistsgroupto picketand leaflettheinstitutionin 1940.In thepreviousyear,MOMA's Artin
Our Time exhibitionhad presentednineteenthcenturyAmericanartists,and a fewfromthe early
twentieth,along with works by Picasso, Braque,
Leger and otherEuropean artists.As late as 1948
mostcriticspreferred
whatwas called a 'moderate'
formofmodernart- comfortably
'School ofParis';
Emily Wasserman's Best of Art index, which
publishedselectedworksfromamong 50,000considered,includednotone fromRothko,Newmanor
Gottlieb.Artistswho are now firmlylocated as
primarily'pre-war',such as Philip Evergoodand
StuartDavis,wereincludedinstead.52
While the AmericanAbstractArtistsgrouphad
..
.-
.... ^ .
.
been formedin 1936,Rothkohad helpedto organise
anothergroupcalled 'The Ten' in thepreviousyear.
This included de Kooning, Gorky,Pollock and
Gottlieb.Known also as the 'Whitneydissenters',
theTen gainedthereputation
ofbeingrevolutionary
outcasts,despisingboth the art establishment
and
the social realistleftorthodoxyalike. Rothko'sown
1930s canvases - those that survivedthe massive
destructionof Federal Art Projectwork - show
murky,ratherindeterminate
interiors
and studiesof
attenuatedfigures,done in a loosely'expressionist'
mode and resembling,in mood, the urbanalienationscenesofEdward Hopper and the Soyer
Brothers.
A recurrent
and popularthemeat thetime
withNew Yorkartistswas thesubwayscene(Fig. 4),
showingalienatedfigures
movingpastor standingin
doorwaysor stationplatforms.Like Interior
(1932)
(Fig. 5), theyare as sombreand rectilinearas his
post-warabstractions.Along with the artistsBalcombeGreeneand GeorgeMcNeil,Rothkohad agitatedforArtFronttoconfront
aestheticdebatesmore
openly and especiallyto considerthe issues surroundingabstractart.Accordingto Dore Ashton:
Rothkoloathed everything
that smackedof social
realism;fulminated
againstsuchfavoured
as Joe
figures
.
.
.:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
^_.,;
O,
..
,,
,,,.,
............................
... ^r
..... ..
,
.
A.
'0!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'0
W:
Frg.
4.
Mark
Rotho:'
Fi4 Mar
.G ;
THE
O. XFORD.
,
J
C
.
ART
.
xlJOT
Rotko
: ,::2.
e
.............
\I
-:: 11
THE OXFORD ART JOURNAI1.
1
Subway
Scene,
Suwa
Scene 198
1988
1938.
Estate
of
stt
Mark
f
__:z
Rothko.
akRoho
..7.....
I 1:1 1988
This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Fri, 2 Aug 2013 13:54:33 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
.
.
i
47
.
Fig. 5. Mark Rothko: Interior.Estate of Mark
Rothko.
as little
whomhe regarded
Jonesand WilliamGropper,
better
thancartoonists.53
Boswell,fromArtDigestmagazine,also argued,in
December 1939, that the so-called 'proletarian
school'was misled.In thepursuitofa properunderstandingofRothko'srejectionofrealismthedanger
to avoid is thatofcollapsinghis oppositionintothe
politicalliberalismpropagatedby Boswelland later
by generationsof modernistcriticsand historians.
Rothko's political position at this time can be
antilibertarianism,
describedas an anti-capitalist
statistand involvinga rejectionof Soviet Communism,GermanFascismand Americancorporate
capitalism.54
Rothko'sadoptionof abstractionin his painting
from 1948 onwards was not equivalent to the
abandoningof 'content'.As he argued in the New
rorkTimes:
aboutnothing
Thereis no suchthingas a goodpainting
... This is theessenceofacademicism.55
Five years later, in 'The Romantics Were
Prompted',he said thatalthoughhis formsin paint
visible
'haveno directassociationwithanyparticular
experience,in themone recognisestheprincipleand
passion of organisms'.56What can be called
Rothko's'aestheticvitalism',whichis supportedby
the popular 'modernistmetaphysic'throughwhich
his paintingsare understood,can be seen from
48
anotherpositionas a 'content'whichdenieda range
of possiblefigurations.
Backed intoa corner,away
fromthe dead ends of socialistrealism and the
dominant cultural formsof American capitalist
societyRothko'sconsentto and acceptanceofwhat
became his classicabstractpainting,such as Orange
Andrellow(1956),can be seenas theconsequenceof
a radical negation of other,arid alternatives:'a
strategyof negation and refusal... not an unreasonable response to bourgeois civilisation'.57
With the decline in 'democraticeclecticism'in
painting and criticismin America during the
period 1938 to 1948 and the later institutional
empowerment of a de-politicised 'aesthetic
discourse',AbstractExpressionismand Rothko's
paintings achieved dominance and paradigm
status.Modernisttheory,not as a formalist
purism
developedby ClementGreenbergin the 1960s,but
as a heterogeneous,
aphoristic,tautological,rambling,metaphysical,
eulogistichagiographyachieved
unconthelevelofa 'commonsense': conventional,
tentiouscriticaland humanistwisdom, as deepseated as our convictionthat the earth rotates
around the sun.
By 1939 Boswell was arguingthat Europe had
'tossedthe torchofcreativeexperimentto the long
extendedhand ofAmericanartists'.In Februaryof
thefollowing
yearhe announced'the returnto aesthetics':'thatold IvoryTower did have itspoints'.58
Artwas to be fortheLeft,theRightand theMiddle,
and themiddleclasshad thebesttastein Art.Moreover,it had the buyingpower.NationalArtWeek
replacedtheFederalArtProjectin 1940and in 1941
ThomasJ. Watson,thepresidentofI.B.M. corporation, took over as chairman.The artistElizabeth
in 1973,said thatit
Olds, speakingin an interview
was around thistimethatartistsbegan to 'smudge
a recogoutanypartoftheirpicturethatrepresented
nisable object. That would be illustration,they
said.'59As earlyas 1938 Chaning Pollock,the art
criticforTheAmerican
declared:
The trueartist
doesn'twantto be encouraged.
He is an
internalcombustionengine. For everygreat artist
I'll showyou500whofound
producedbyspoonfeeding,
theirownnourishment.60
In 1941, Rothko'sAntigone,
the firstof the Greek
myth paintings,arguably began the flightfrom
realistrepresentation
and sethimon theroad to the
classiccolour-field
paintings,
thetranscendent
pools
oflighthe was to paintuntilhis deathin 1970.From
titles- OmenOf TheEagle,Synran
archetype
Bull
Rothko'sprogressiveexpulsionof representational
specificitywas indexed throughthe designation
Untitled
and thenby serialnumbersand colours.
A timehad come,Rothkosaid, when'none ofus
could use the figurewithoutmutilatingit'.61The
passingoftheFederalArtProjectand thepassingof
figuration
in the workofRothkoand otherAmerican artistsin the 1940s constituteda somewhat
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ART JOURNAL -
11: 1 1988
ambiguous and empty'triumph',both for thousandsofartists
wholostall economicsecurity
and for
the AbstractExpressionists,
those one-timedissidents,soon to be installedand institutionalised
as
theofficial,
high-cultural
producersoftheascendant
AmericanEmpire.
Notes
1. Clark's articleand the debate that followedbetweenhim and
Michael Friedis includedin theanthologyPollocke After:TheCritical
Debate, edited by Francis Frascina, Harper & Row, London, 1985
pp. 47-88.
2. Also publishedin theabove anthology,
pp. 35-46.
3. Firstpublishedin an articlebyDore Ashtonin TheNewYorkTimes,
31 October 1958.This and otherstatements
by Rothkoare includedin
theTate GallerycatalogueMarkRothko,
London, 1987,pp. 76-89.
4. See note2.
5. Firstpublishedin ArtsYearbook,
no. 4, 1961.This is includedin the
anthologyModernArt & Modernmsm,
edited by Charles Harrisonand
FrancisFrascina,Harper& Row, London, 1982,pp. 5-10.
6. Firstpublished as an exhibitioncatalogue forthe Solomon R.
Guggenheimcollectionof non-objectivepaintings,1937. This is also
includedin theanthologyModern
Art& Modernzsm,
pp. 145-148.
7. Greenbergwas littleinterested
in the subjectivity
oftheartistshe
This is perhapsillustrated
regardedas significant.
byhisstatement
at the
end of the Open University'Modern Art & Modernism' television
interview
whenhe observedthat'Pollockwas fullofshit,likeeveryone
else.'
8. Rosenberg's article,'The AmericanAction Painters' was first
publishedin ArtNeews,vol.51, December 1952. This is reprintedin
Harold Rosenberg:The Tradition
oftheNew,Horizon,New York,1959.
9. In De Kooning,
GeorgeBraziller,New York,1959,p. 36.
10. One ofthemoreinteresting
accountswithinthisrubricis Robert
Rosenblum's TheNorthern
Romantic
FromFriedrich
Tradztion:
To Rothko,
Thames and Hudson, London, 1975.
11. Arguably,the Tate Gallery'sreproduction
of criticalarticlesby
RobertGoldwaterand David Silvester,writtenin 1961,demonstrates
thatnot onlyRothko'spaintingsbut also their'proper'sensitiveinterpretationand evaluationare regardedas 'timeless'and unchanging.
12. T.J. Clark:'Arguments
AboutModernism:A ReplyTo Michael
Fried',firstpublishedin ThePolztzcs
editedby W. J. T.
ofInterpretation,
ofChicago Press,Chicago and London, 1983.This
Mitchell,University
articlein also included in the anthologyPollocke After:The Critical
Debate,pp. 81-88.
13. As Pollock said in 1947: 'The idea of an isolated American
painting,so popularin thiscountryduringthe 1930s,seemsabsurdto
mejust as theidea ofcreatinga purelyAmericanmathematics
orphysics
wouldseemabsurd. . . thebasic problemsofcontemporary
paintingare
independentofanycountry';includedin theanthologyeditedbyH. B.
Chipp: Theorzes
of ModernArt: A SourceBook by Artzstse Critics,
ofCaliforniaPress,Berkeleyand Los Angeles,1968,p. 546.
University
14. See SergeGuilbaut'slengthystudyofthisprocess,HowNew York
StoletheIdeaofModern
Art:Abstract
Freedom
Expressionism,
e theColdWar,
ofChicago Press,Chicago & London, 1983.
University
15. This was thetitleofClementGreenberg's1948article,published
in Partzsan
Reviewvol. 15,no. 3, March 1948.
16. EmilyWasserman: TheAmerican
Scene:EarlyTwentzeth
Century,
Lamplight,New York,1975,p. 1.
17. For a seriesofinteresting
and different
accountsoftheworkand
of Gramsci'sideas, see Chantal Mouffe(ed.): Gramscie
significance
MarxzstTheory,
Routledge& Kegan Paul, London, 1979.
18. A collectionof articlesdealingwiththisprocessis includedin
Pollocke After:TheCritical
Debate,pp. 89-183.
19. See Eva Cockcroft's
article'AbstractExpressionism,
Weapon Of
The Cold War', in theabove anthology,
pp. 125-133.
20. David and Cecile Shapiro'AbstractExpressionism:The Politics
of ApoliticalPainting',firstpublishedin Prospects
3, edited by Jack
Salzman,1977,and includedin theabove anthology.
TIlE
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-
11:1
21. See Christopher
Lasch's article,'The CulturalCold War: A Short
HistoryoftheCongressFor CulturalFreedom',in theanthologyedited
byBartonJ.Bernstein:Towards
A Neew
Past:Dissenting
EssaysinAmerican
History,
Vintage,New York,1969,pp. 322-359.
22. Publishedin TheNewrorkTimes,21 December1975.
23. The relationship
betweentheworksofRothkoand otherAbstract
Expressionist
artistsand the involvement
of the C.I.A. is not a simple
causal one. Attackson the attemptsto link the two have usually
consistedin accusingthosewho asserta definiterelationship
ofholding
to a 'conspiracytheory'wherebytheC.I.A. 'planned' or evencommissioned artiststo produceabstractpaintingsforcovertuse by the U.S.
State.This is damaginglyto caricaturetheaccountsand argumentsput
forwardby Cockcroftand others.For a difficult
thoughenlightening
discussionoftheproblemofcausationin relationtoworksofart,see Art
& Language: 'PortraitOf V. I. Lenin', in the anthologyModernism,
Criticism,
Realism,editedby CharlesHarrisonand Fred Orton,Harper
& Row, London, 1984,pp. 145-169.
24. FromRothko'sstatement
in 1947,republishedin theTate Gallery
catalogue,pp. 83-4.
25. From 'The SituationAt The Moment',PartisanReviewvol. 15,
no. 1;January1948,pp. 81-84.
26. From'The RomanticsWerePrompted',op cit.
27. For an informative
accountofRothko'sactivities
in the 1930s,see
Dore Ashton'sAboutRothko,
OxfordUniversity
Press,New York,1983.
thefirst
threechaptersofSergeGuilbaut'sHow
28. See, in particular,
& the
NewYorkStoletheIdeaofModern
Art:Abstract
Freedom
Expressionism,
ColdWar.
29. ibid.,pp. 146-147.
30. Max Kozloffoffersa similaranalysisin his article'American
PaintingDuringthe Cold War', in Pollocke After:The Critical
Debate,
pp. 107-123.
31. Such a group of patriotswas the Artists'Council forVictory,
establishedin 1942who,accordingto theirownclaims,were'alivewith
whichstirstheirsoulsto producetheirbestworks'.
patriotism
32. Fromd'Harnoncourt'sarticle'Challenge& Promise:ModernArt
& Society',ArtNews,November1949,quoted in SergeGuilbaut'sHow
New YorkStoletheIdea ofModern
Art,p. 189.
33. See ArthurSchlesinger'sThe VitalCenter:ThePolitics
ofFreedom,
RiversidePress, Boston, 1962 and AnthonyGiddens discussionof
Americanstructural-functionalist
sociologyin TheConstitution
ofSoczety,
PolityPress,Cambridge,1984.This is also discussedin Culture,
Media,
Language,editedby StuartHall, DorothyHobson, AndrewLowe and
Paul Willis,Hutchinson,London, 1981: 'This was the period - the
1950s- of... massivedependenceon Americantheoriesand models.
functionalist
and integraButAmericansociology.. . was systematically
tive in perspective.It had abolished the categoryof contradiction:
and of "tensionmanagement".It
instead,it spoke of "dysfunctions"
claimed the mantleof a science.But its premisesand predispositions
werehighlyideological',(p. 20).
34. Dondero's speech in the U.S. Congressis republishedin H. B.
Chipp's Theories
ofModern
Art,pp. 496-497.
interestedin investigating
the newly
35. Dondero was particularly
establishedArtistsEquity League and the artistsDavid Fredenthal,
WilliamHayterand MitchellSiporin- all ofwhomhad been involved
withtheLeftin Americaduringthe 1930s.
36. See R. D. McKinzie's accountof the declinein supportforthe
FederalArtProjectin his TheNewDeal ForArtists,
PrincetonUniversity
Press, Princeton,1973, chapter9, 'ReliefArt on the Defense 19381943'.
37. See Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy'saccount of thisin Monopoly
and Social Order,Modern
Economzc
Capital:An Essay on theAmerzcan
Reader,New York, 1968,'The AbsorptionofSurplus:Militarismand
Imperialism',pp. 178-217.
on theLeft,
38. For an account of this,see Daniel Aaron: Writers
OxfordUniversity
Press,New York,1977.
39. See PeytonBoswell,editorial,ArtDigest,May 1940,'Shelvingthe
AmericanScene'.
40. See Dore Ashton:AboutRothko.
41. Their statement
reads: 'We condemnartisticnationalismwhich
negatestheworldtraditions
ofartas thebase ofmodernartmovements.'
42. ArtDigest,editorial,May 1940.
43. See the extractfromthisin H. B. Chipp: Theorzes
ofModern
Art,
pp. 483-486: 'The aim of thisappeal is to finda commongroundon
1988
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
49
thebetterto
and artists,
writers
whichmaybe reunitedall revolutionary
ofthatartitself
bytheirartand to defendtheliberty
servetherevolution
against the usurpersof the revolution.We believe that aesthetic,
philosophical,and politicaltendenciesofthe mostvariedsortcan find
here a common ground. Marxistscan march hand in hand with
rejectthe reacanarchists,providedboth partiesuncompromisingly
tionarypolice-patrolspiritrepresentedby Joseph Stalin . . .', p. 486.
positionwas expressedin a short
BarnettNewman's anti-capitalist
yearsago
1962,whenhe said: 'Almostfifteen
in ArtinAmerica,
statement
[i.e. 1947]Harold Rosenbergchallengedme to explainwhatone ofmy
paintingscould possiblymean to theworld.My answerwas thatifhe
and otherscould read it properlyit would mean the end of all state
That answerstillgoes.'
capitalismand totalitarianism.
44. First published in PartisanReview vol.6, no. 5, Fall 1939.
Debate,pp. 21-33.
Reprintedin Pollock& After:TheCritical
pp. 77-78.
45. Reprintedin theTate GallerycatalogueMarkRothko,
intheTwentieth
Painting
46. For instance,see BarbaraRose: American
Century,
Skira,London, 1980,chapterthree.
MagazineofArt,December1938.
47. American
1940.
ofToday,June-July
48. 'FreedomOf Expression',Art& Artists
49. 'Trends In AmericanPaintingOf Today', CityArtMuseum,St
by PerryT. Rathbone.
Louis, 1942,written
50. Bentonhad rejectedParisianmodernismsometimeduringthe
period 1916-1920and, along withGrantWood and J. S. Curry,had
formedwhatbecame knownas theRegionalistmovementin American
painting,specialisingin thesortofsceneswhichRothkoabhored.
51. In a letterwrittenby the presidentof MOMA, A. Conger
50
Goodyear,to HolgerCahill,directoroftheFederalArtProject,in early
1939.
Art,
52. See Serge Guilbaut's How New YorkStoletheIdea ofModern
p. 183.
p. 31.
53. AboutRothko,
54. There is no reasonto suppose thatthispositionchangedin the
1950sor 1960s.AlongwithPollockand otherartistswho had adopted
oppositionalstancesin the1930s,Rothko'spost-warartcan be seenas a
ofhis negationofpoliticaland social realities.
continuation
55. In theTate Gallerycatalogue,p. 78.
56. Ibid.,p. 84.
About Modernism:A Replyto Michael
57. T. J. Clark: 'Arguments
editedby W. J. T. Mitchell,1983
ofInterpretation,
Fried',in ThePolitics
Debate,p. 82. At this
and in the anthologyPollock& After:The Critical
pointitis prudenttosaythatmyaccountofRothko'spainti- in no way
corswhich
presentsitselfas 'full' or 'complete' in termsof tP
'influenced'his workor the rangeofideas whichhe c,ew on - either
beforeor afterthe war. It has examinedRothko'sworkas a seriesof
negationsand refusalspartlyin order to counterthe banalitiesof
criticismand praise which stresshis workas an incessantparade of
positivities.
58. ArtDigest,May 1940.
59. Interviewrecordedin the BereniceAbbottarchive,Archivesof
AmericanArt,New YorkCity.
60. In The American,c.1938, clipping found in the Archivesof
AmericanArt,New YorkCity.
61. In theTate Gallerycatalogue,p. 86.
THE OXFORD
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ART JOURNAL -
11:1 1988