What does colour mean to mark rothko?

Answer 1

When, around 1946, Rothko began developing his now very well known style, he also stopped making statements or giving interviews about his work almost altogether, so it's almost impossible to know what exactly color meant to Mark Rothko.

Of the very few statements made by Rothko regarding color this one is perhaps the most revealing of his attitude towards color and his paintings:

"I use colors that have already been experienced through the light of day and through the states of mind of the total man. In other words, my colors are not colors that are laboratory tools which are isolated from all accidentals or impurities so that they have a specified identity or purity."

In the book 'Color Codes', Charles A. Riley II summed up this statement by saying:

"There could be no better refutation of the Utopian view of color that this concise but profound explanation. By eschewing the "laboratory" mentality that ties colorism to purism, Rothko maintained the connection between his colors and a symbolic or emotional life beyond this picture."