MARK ROTHKO'S SUBJECT MATTE

Like some other artists of the New York School, Mark Rothko insisted on the importance of subject matter to his art, even after his paintings became highly abstract. According to Rothko, his subject matter was "the human drama" and "human emotions." This thesis suggests how Rothko's mature paintings may be said to have subject matter and what the substance of that subject matter may be. Rothko's interest in the "universal" theme of myth--the theme of the human life cycle--is closely examined. The conclusion is drawn that the subjects immanent in Rothko's mature paintings concern the life cycle: birth, death, rebirth; and the microcosm-macrocosm correspondence: the structure of the human figure as it mirrors the structure of the universe. It is shown that Rothko's Surrealist pictures treat these themes in ways that essentially conform with Western pictorial tradition; and that the mature paintings retain the basic traditional structures of, for example, Pieta scenes or portraits. Rothko's mature paintings are said to constitute "image-signs" or visual analagons of such scenes and of the structure of the human form as it parallels the (conventionally delineated) structure of the universe: the microcosm-macrocosm correspondence.