Gradient Art: what is it? Mark Rothko's use of color gradients
Gradient Art is a technique that uses colors from a gradient to create a work of art. An increase in the popularity of gradient art has occurred, which is when a gradual blending of one color into another occurs, creating different color transitions. Depending on the colors used, the resulting gradient art can evoke a wide range of emotions and feelings, transforming your surrounding spaces.
What is gradient art?
Gradient art is a type of art that uses a gradient of colors to create the illusion of depth and three-dimensional space. Colors are also used in other ways such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, etc. With this type of art, light can be thrown at an object from different angles, giving it a realistic look. The colors also change depending on how you view them, providing an artistic appeal and allowing for different interpretations by viewers.
Artists use different techniques to create these paintings, such as layering, blending, and applying gradients with different colors or textures. They can do this using various brushes, pencils, crayons, or even their fingers.
But what are gradients? And how do they differ in color?
Gradients are color transitions that gradually change from one color to another. Angles are typically created with a series of paints mixed to varying degrees. Color gradients are the most common type of gradient and can be used for backgrounds or borders, but they can also be used for other purposes such as creating an accent wall or adding depth to an image. A rainbow gradient is often used to create depth and dimension in images.
There are different types of gradients, including radial gradients, linear gradients, and diagonal gradients.
Mark Rothko and his own use of gradient art
Known for his large, encapsulating, colorful paintings, Mark Rothko was interested in evoking basic human emotions – anger, dismay, ecstasy – through painting. His work was expansive in the use of color, as well as the wide open spaces created, allowing the viewer to experience different sensations.
Rothko's gradients weren't precisely blended, instead they were constructed in a way that invited the viewer to question which color was placed on the canvas first. He first developed his compositional technique in 1947, described by noted art critic Clement Greenberg as "color field painting", a term that would perfectly describe Rothko's work.
Rothko's gradients are unlike any other because of the way the artist created his paintings. Rothko applied a large amount of black paint in irregular strokes across the canvas and then smeared around the edges, creating a scratchy effect. Rothko's unique gradients are found in small areas of the paintings, usually in the middle when tones transition from one to another.
His paintings were created to be experienced personally, where the atmosphere of the space translates the different emotions transmitted by the colors. One of Rothko's most famous series is Seagram's Murals, shown at the Tate Modern in London. The series is made up of seven dark and somber paintings, using a palette of blacks, reds and browns. Rothko's gave the paintings to the Tate Modern, the museum where the largest collection of works by JMW Turner is housed, and because of his own admiration for Turner, Rothko expected the series to be displayed in the gallery alongside Turner's works.
The shift in atmosphere from Rothko's dark gradients to Turner's perfectly blended gradient art skies is deeply moving. A dialogue between the two is instantly created as visitors walk from one gallery to the next.
From Rothko's colored rectangles to the gradient scanned art used in advertising, experimenting with color is fundamental to both the creation of artwork and the viewer experience.
How does each color make you feel?
Is it possible to describe such feelings?
Are they uncomfortable? Or are they soothing?
What kind of emotion does a specific color gradient evoke?
For more information about the Tate collection: https://www.tate.org.uk/