A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore risky to send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfeeling and the cruelty of the impotent. Mark Rothko
About This Quote

A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore risky to send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfeeling and the cruelty of the impotent.

When a picture is not in good hands, its life is not long. If it is surrounded by people who are unkind or unsympathetic it will die quite quickly. A true artist must always protect his work from those that do not understand it.

He must guard his vision with care for only good people can truly see his genius. Picture can be defined as a record or illustration of something or someone.

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More Quotes By Mark Rothko
  1. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.

  2. I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.

  3. A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore risky to send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfeeling and...

  4. I would like to say to those who think of my pictures as serene, whether in friendship or mere observation, that I have imprisoned the most utter violence in every inch of their surface.

  5. If you are only moved by color relationships, you are missing the point. I am interested in expressing the big emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom.

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