MARK ROTHKO AND FRANCIS BACON
Mark Rothko retrospective, The Tate Modern, London Francis Bacon retrospective, The Tate Britain, London Two simultaneous retrospectives of two major 20th century artists seems indulgent, also the decision to depict Rothko as a major modern, Bacon as a major Brit. However, perhaps this division is telling and necessary. Rothko's painting is obviously hardly painting in the traditional sense but that's not the point, is it? It's an architectural style of painting, his works sit well in large buildings like the Tate Modern or in the skyscrapers of New York, Frankfurt or Tokyo. The dimensions of his canvases are a statement of their own, his work is consistently bold and large with a masculine and legitimate bravura. But the works are essentially viewed in their context, just as the music of Mozart or Schubert (cited as influences on Rothko) need to be set in their specific contexts as well as being liberated from that by the process of analogy. It's clear in Rot