Abstract works… Yes, but not only that. Mark Rothko defended himself, asserting that his painting was alive.

Demonstration here at the Vuitton Foundation, with this masterful exhibition, the largest in the world devoted to him. 115 masterpieces in absolutely monumental formats which are available endlessly on the 4 floors of the Parisian institution. Faced with this XXL palette, it's difficult not to feel absorbed by these diffuse, almost hypnotic colors, exerting this mysterious power of fascination on us. From a distance, perfectly balanced masses, with fuzzy geometry. Up close, a diffuse fog that absorbs us. Step back. The work is no longer what you saw at the beginning. Our gaze changes, deciphers, feels. Perhaps because Rothko was not always Rothko.

It was at the age of 46 that he tackled this abstract painting which would make him famous, after nearly 20 years of painting like a poet, sometimes figurative, sometimes surrealist. The quest for simplicity, the quest for the absolute. This is the journey we are going to experience here. In the immense rooms, the paintings orchestrate 360°, like modern water lilies, enveloping the visitor for a total sensory experience. To go even further, the foundation plunges these electrifying works into semi-darkness, thus awakening the vibrant color that pulses within the paintings. A visual spell, an enchantment of the senses, a moment of meditative contemplation, here the silent canvases are essential.

A doubt invades us, what if this colorful palette, these red tones, these oranges, these blues that the artist himself composed in the manner of the old masters, actually encapsulated all the violence in the world? A testament work which ends here magnificently with this disturbing face to face with the solitary silhouettes of Giacometti, around compositions initially commissioned for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, a project which will never have seen the light of day... before today today.

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