Orange, Red, Yellow by Mark Rothko evidently describes the abstract expressionist style. The media use of acrylic paint affected the style of the painting. The lack of form in Rothko’s painting can be evidently seen as Rothko painted three rectangular shapes in the centre of the canvas using the colour orange and yellow. By the application of the red opaque paint around the three rectangular shapes, this detaches the shapes from each other allowing the edges of the paint to blend well with the three rectangular …show more content…
By using a very little range of colours in the work, this reinforces the idea of the sublime as the way Rothko painted his work was so gentle creating a sense peacefulness and spirituality in his work unlike, Pollock’s busy gestural paintings. The way Rothko used a mixture of turpentine and acrylic paint on his colour field paintings affected the meanings conveyed in Orange, Red, Yellow as Rothko once stated the aim of creating his colour field paintings was to convey what his current emotions were when he was painting his works. “The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them.”2 Rothko painted the canvas so thinly creating a window overlooking through layers upon layers of paints. The application of media is essential to the meanings conveyed in this abstract expressionist painting as Rothko has a distinct and individual flair, he deliberately used colours to exert influence on the viewer's feelings creating a sense of