re: #318 wrenchwench

Nice to see all that Catlin getting exposed. I see they haven’t found a place for the Rothko. I went to a Rothko retrospective before I knew anything about him. His squares kept getting darker and blacker until the end, where I learned that he had committed suicide. Maybe the Rothko should go live with Basement Cat.

Heh.

A lot of times with modern art, it’s the story that goes along with it that’s important. The surrealist Rene Magritte often depicts figures with their faces obscured in some fashion. When Magritte was a child, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself; Magritte followed her footsteps to the riverbank and discovered her body, with her nightgown wrapped around her face.

Once you know this story, you will never look at Magritte’s work the same way again.