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him both as a man and as an artist. By 1949, she implies, the long
haul was reified in color. For those who believe meaning inheres in
paint, it is not too farfetched to say that by this time Rothko has
earned the right to claim that his veils of color express the meaning
of his experience. In this way, Ashton presents a compelling case for
his canvases being thought-paintings, symbolist vessels whose mean–
ing we might voluntarily recreate in contemplation.
Ashton so deliberately insists on Rothko's content that in
reading her biography it is difficult to see his paintings merely as
products of taste and sensibility. But this common misapprehension
greeting Rothko also afflicts other painters, who, like him, are as
profound as they are decorative. Bonnard, too, who died in 1947 as
Rothko reached his artistic maturity, was said to be facile and agree–
able. Ashton would seem to be readdressing similar misreadings of
Rothko by focusing our minds on Rothko's artistic intentions, doing
honor to the art by doing honor to the man. Only by tactful indirec–
tion does she imply Rothko's refusal to acknowledge the social- and,
one must say, human - context of which his paintings became a
part. Though Ashton is explicit about Rothko's failings in her book
New York School: A Cultural Reckoning,
here she only implies the ab–
normality of Rothko's desire to control critical responses to his work
and the normality of the world's ignoring, misperceiving, and over–
rating his art all at once. Her book does suggest some disapproval of
Rothko, but only through her cumulative emphasis on Rothko's
wanting to "control the situation." First introduced as the need for
formal control, it assumes the weight of an obsessive, Jamesian
motif, as this attitude affects the quality of Rothko's paintings. To
Ashton's credit, she introduces into her largely tender portrait of
Rothko the skeptical criticism of Robert Goldwater and Brian
O'Doherty, as well as her own disappointment at the outcome of
Rothko's control of the installation of the Houston chapel.
Ashton is silent on appraising the art. She does not
discriminate among works or phases within Rothko's oeuvre.
About
Rothko
thus presents an appreciation, albeit an elevated one, of the
meaning of Rothko's life work. But it is a censored meaning and
without the judgment that would make this lenient tribute a true
critical biography.
In her book on Rothko, Ashton pays tribute to William Seitz,
saying of him, "His deep intelligence sifted responses and shaped a
picture of the movement that has never been surpassed." As art
historian, curator, teacher and painter, Seitz brought to the task of
