The first image shows Rothko early in his career, dealing with representational subject matter in an abstract, simplified way. The second image is from later in his career, when he had eliminated all literal subject matter to create a "non-objective" abstract art consisting entirely of color and shape.
Despite their differences, these two paintings share a common visual language, using stacked rectangular blocks of color. Often we can see hints of an artist's future abstract/non-objective work in his/her earlier, more representational work.
The two images in this set are similar in their simplified color schemes and stacked geometric shapes. The first image (above) shows Rothko early in his career, dealing with representational subject matter in an abstract, simplified way. The second image is from later in his career, when he had eliminated all literal subject matter to create a "non-objective" abstract art consisting entirely of color and shape.
The two images in this set are similar in their simplified color schemes and stacked geometric shapes. The first image shows Rothko early in his career, dealing with representational subject matter in an abstract, simplified way. The second image (this one) is from later in his career, when he had eliminated all literal subject matter to create a "non-objective" abstract art consisting entirely of color and shape.