Why is the artist’s work racking up hundreds of thousands of views on social media? For a generation bombarbed with visual stimuli, it seems his canvases offer a meditative escape
The works of Mark Rothko have never failed to split opinion. Were those vast colour field paintings a bold new direction for abstract art or simply fuel for the “my child could paint that” brigade? To his detractors, Rothko’s abstractions appear devoid of symbolism or discernible message. Yet he is currently undergoing an unexpected cultural reappraisal thanks to his adoption by the art lovers of gen Z.
Across TikTok and Instagram, videos centred on Rothko’s work are accumulating hundreds of thousands of views. One creator has begun styling outfits inspired by individual Rothko canvases; another assigns Rothko works to personality archetypes, describing Untitled (Yellow and Blue) as a match for “someone who wakes up early, drinks citrus water and has their life together – or at least looks like it”. Elsewhere, users compare his atmospheric palettes to the hazy melancholy of the Cocteau Twins – the dream pop band also undergoing a gen Z renaissance right now. As one young creator put it recently: “Date idea: me, Rothko, and nobody saying ‘I could have done these.’”
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Why is the artist’s work racking up hundreds of thousands of views on social media? For a generation bombarbed with visual stimuli, it seems his canvases offer a meditative escape The works of Mark Rothko have never f...
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