To experience in person about 70 of these classic paintings – one of art history’s most iconic bodies of work – is overwhelming. A small battle scene occurs at some edges where the colours meet. Then, Rothko’s application became more aggressive.

When the artist first began searching for what would become his classic colour field paintings, between the late 1940s and early 1950s, his handling of paint was gentle, precise, seductive and searching – almost like he was trying to coax something out of the canvas. Arranged chronologically, the works increase in intensity as Rothko progressed through various stages of his practice. Co-organized by the foundation’s artistic director, Suzanne Pagé, and the artist’s son, Christopher Rothko, this Herculean adventure of an exhibition establishes the two as curators of epic mysteries. On my first viewing of this extensive Rothko survey at Fondation Louis Vuitton, I spent about three hours going from room to room and back again, looking at details up close and then stepping away, losing myself in his works. It’s like asking, ‘Where does the universe begin and end?’ When you say Mark Rothko’s name, it is as if you are speaking of something so big that language cannot contain it.

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