Universal themes in literature and culture

Western Civilization

Life, Death, and Transcendence in 20th Century Western Art

The 20th century in the West will always be remembered as the century that gave us Modernism, a significant arts movement that simultaneously asserted the need to "make it new" while looking to the traditions of the past. Central to the Modernist cause was the theme of life, death, and transcendence - a universal theme that is often overlooked in favor of loftier ambitions of unraveling the Modernist puzzle. In this brief essay, I will investigate the trajectory paved by this spiritual theme through one of the more significant Modernist movements of the 20th century - abstract expressionism. Specifically, I will evaluate the role that life, death, and the yearning for transcendence played in the life and work of one of its central artists, Mark Rothko.

In his book New Art City, Jed Perl argues that the paradox that lies at the heart of the New York School of painters (from which abstract expressionism was born) was the desire for transcendence in a work of art.

It is [the] inward or ideal world which constitutes the content of the romantic sphere," Hegel had written; "romantic art must be regarded as art transcending itself, albeit... In the form of art itself." What Hegel was suggesting was that the artist's immersion in motifs and materials and methods - all the physical characteristics of the work - became the vehicle for an expression so exalted that it defied the physicality of the work that had precipitated it. And if that was a paradox, it was the paradox at the heart of the School of New York (Perl 160).

Of course, the paradox of transcendence in art that the New York School painters contended with extended from a concern with transcendence in life and death. This is perhaps most evident in the case of Mark Rothko.

The romantics," wrote Rothko early in his career, were prompted to seek exotic subjects and to travel to far off places. They failed to realise that, though the transcendental must involve the strange and unfamiliar, not everything strange or unfamiliar is transcendental (Rothko 84).

The key then, for Rothko, was to develop a form of "transcendentalism" involved locating the strange and unfamiliar in every day life. Eventually, this led Rothko into his signature style - that of the "multiforms," two to three blocks of contrasting colors set on a large canvas. The overall effect is one that enraptures the viewer, thus giving rise to a spiritual experience. What was important for Rothko and his followers was to create a form of art that would transcend the aesthetic realm that had limited art for centuries. They wanted art to extend to the spiritual realm, as well as the every day.