Mark Rothko and White Noise
8:00 AM
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| Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1968 |
What do you see?
Behind the vibrant scarlet and haunting black, lies the story of a lonely,
neurotic, and insightful man. The painting hits you, and leaves you dumbfounded while you search for words to describe how you feel. The colors drown
you in their dark pallete, and make you gasp for air. The massive rectangles
berate the viewer from their silent background.
The viewer feels
as though Rothko is in on the secrets of life. He put life onto a canvas for
the world to decipher. Some of his work rings happier and lighter. Yet in his
work Untilted, painted in 1968, there are no peaceful undertones.
Instead Rothko paints a picture of the eternal truth, - every human being is
dying. The canvas forces the viewer to see death is imminent and everywhere.
Much like Jack Gladney in Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise, there comes a time when people must accept their
fate. White Noise written in 1985, focuses on the life of Jack Gladney, a
college professor, as he confronts his fear of death. The obsession with
mortality becomes heightened when a drug called Dylar becomes available to help
alleviate the fear of dying. As Delilo writes, “No sense of the irony of
human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet
ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die”. There
is no way to avoid it, and we are intelligent enough to realize death has a
place in our lives. The realization separates humans from animals.
Rothko does an imaginable deed painting
death. Human suffering comes to life on the canvas. Yet, maybe Rothko is giving
the people the push they need. If you can confront death, and acknowledge it, perhaps you can truly live.
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