I have to disagree on the Rothko, that painting reminds me of early Amtrak interior decorating. IMO, the masters of layering were the Venetians, Rembrandt, etc. Those colors in the Rothko are kind of painful - I don't see much in the way of skill there, or even good luck! However, I admit to not being particularly aware of Rothko, so my opinion is necessarily a first impression and uninformed on that level. I'm not necessarily denigrating color shapes as art either, since of course all paintings, even especially representational paintings, are combinations of nothing more than color shapes.
I'm going to say that the old masters skill with the abstract qualities in their work is more responsible for their greatness than their other technical virtuosity. Now that I have written that down, it seems rather obvious. You are making me think - thanks!
It's not that I look down on abstract art anyway. It's that the art world, and, ironically, the "academics" of today look down on the "representational."
BTW, I've been using the term "representational" rather loosely. Maybe incorrectly. To me it includes more than just the "realists," but includes most of the history of Western Art, even the early stuff (admittedly somewhat abstract) that you spoke of. There is quite a bit of art that is something of a combination of abstract and realism, I guess.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on Christo, there were several threads on his Central Park orange "gates." I consider that stuff to be "art" and happened to have been to Central Park and seen them. OTOH, I figure it to be art in the way that interior decorating is, only it's "exterior decorating."
That's not necessarily a put down, since, IMO, lots of the commercial artists do some pretty great stuff compared to the "fine" artists. They have to, because they must sell it and, once sold, it must do a successful job for the client. In that way, they are more parallel to the old masters, especially the Renaisance masters, than modern fine artists.
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It took me a while to appreciate Rothko. I'll get to him later in my "class." I put him out here to get people thinking....(and complaining, perhaps...) I didn't like him at first, but now I love him. I've read a great deal about him and not all of his works are great (to me), but the ones that are do it fabulously. You'll see why later...