My sort-of useless college degree is in Art History, which I don’t regret at all because I enjoyed the classes so much, and it introduced me to so many artists that I still find meaningful to this day. Like the abstract painter Mark Rothko. Seeing pictures of Rothkos doesn’t really do them justice; they’re very large works, and when you’re in front of one it’s a completely different experience as you get pulled into and absorbed by these vast areas of blurry-edged color, your perception reduced to this chromatic experience, lost in it and also guided by the choices of the artist. I love them. And, even better, I think you can argue that Rothko did many paintings of taillights.
Like up top there; that’s a box taillight, from a Jeep or delivery truck or even, singly, a Corbin Sparrow.
It was the Bishop who first put this idea into my head, and now I can’t shake it; I’m not sure Rothko was aware he was painting taillights, but I think he almost certainly was, deep, deep down. Even more remarkable is that the taillights he was painting seem to be ones from a decade or more after the times he painted them, so I think he was getting some sort of visions from a taillight future, perhaps from that mystical Dimension Taillight that must exist somewhere in the spectrum of the universe, where taillight light and souls are formed.
Anyway, if you look for Rothkos with red, orange, yellow in the title, you’ll find taillight paintings. Sometimes, even recognizable ones. Like how this one, Orange and Yellow, a 1950s-era work, looks like a Yugo taillight:
…or maybe this 1958 piece, Number 13, which predicts the Peugeot 504 Wagon’s taillight color order with shocking accuracy:
…and then there’s Yellow, Cherry, Orange from 1947, feeling a lot like a Suzuki Etseem taillight, perhaps seen through a rainy windshield on a cold night:
… and the 1950 work White Center (Yellow, Pink, and Lavender on Rose) suggests a faded Volvo 140 taillight or perhaps a 140 taillight with the brake light illuminated, blowing the red into a more pinkish hue:
There’s so many, and we could go on and on, and I encourage you to do just that in lieu of work today. It’ll be enriching to some deep part of your soul that you don’t even have a name for, I promise.
Also, remember, just like taillights, Rothkos can’t really be captured in photographs. They’re best experienced live, so I encourage anyone who is near a museum or gallery with a real, full-size Rothko to seek it out, and just stand in front of it for a while, looking, really looking, not at, but into.
Same goes for the next taillights you see, too.
I love Rothko and i love this
I’d like to see an older Benz with the standup hood ornament replaced by a big chrome version of an Ed Ruscha “OOF”.
I had to write a paper on Rothko’s work that was hanging in the Milwaukee Art Museum once upon a time (maybe 2010?) (Green, Red, Blue) That was three pages of the most mundane interpretation of two primary colors and one secondary color that i think i’m still dealing with the after effects of brain cell death.
i didnt know you were an art history major though, im sure college was definitely a more fun time for you than it was for me
This totally blows away Monet’s tie-rod phase.
What a fantasy world he painted, where any shadetree mechanic could unwind the set nut with a languid flick of the wrench. Me, I moved up through (with ample PB Blaster and swearing) wrench, adjustable crescent, slip joint pliers, propane torch, and I finally cut the goddamn thing off with an angle grinder. After I did that, I put it in the bench vise just to see if I could break it loose. I could not.
Fuckin Impressionists, man.
I don’t get the appeal of Rothko
its harmless – hotel lobby shit. I dont get the worship, like many abstractionists I feel like he is only famous because he is the first one to do it.
You Sir have the makings of an art dealer. All that is required for seemingly worthless doodles, scribbles, and paint barfs is a plausible explanation of its relevance, and a wealthy dupe.
In the bowels of an automaker’s design studio, an otherwise unemployable art history grad was given a seemingly benign task to design taillights. Digging out hangover-infused memories of that segment on Mark Rothko, the ne’er-do-well illustrator puts paint to paper and creates bi-color and even tri-color masterpieces that will revolutionize the vehicle visibility industry. A designer is born.
Thank heavens he wasn’t a Picasso buff.
Toyota hired that guy for the previous generation Prius.
Well, now I can’t unsee that. Was Rothko a founding member of the taillight enthusiast club?
Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’ is massive and it’s an actual picture. 😉
But yes, seeing large works of art up close and discerning the mechanical process of applying paint is fascinating.
I did a study on Mark Rothko during college, so your article stirred a lot of fond memories. So, are the Rothko Chapel works a prophetic anticipation of tinted taillights?
What happened to the Rothko chapel makes me so sad.
This is both the beauty and horror of a liberal arts education.
Nah. Beauty all the way.