Mark Rothko

I watched what I assume was an Open University programme on the artist Mark Rothko this morning. He is the producer of the giant purple paintings which were designed for the Seagram restaurant in New York but which eventually ended up in Tate Modern. Now whatever you may say about these paintings I have always quite liked them since they were at Tate Liverpool but my point is not regarding the artiness really. I was watching the programme on the Digital box that at certain times shows a measure of the compression that is used to transmit images. It may due to atmospherics or the fact that our aerial is not wonderful. The compression works by only retransmitting the bits of subsequent images that are different from previous ones. All this is usually transparent. However today as the camera panned around the room where the Rothko canvasses were hung there was a very marked graininess to the picture. This struck me as odd because the walls of the gallery were flat white and the pictures themselves are flat expanses of purple on purple (maroon or whatever). In contrast, the self-portrait by Rembrandt that consisted of very detailed brush strokes showed no grain. Maybe it was covered up by the detail. Maybe the grain in the pictures of the Rothko paintings is an artefact of the compression/decompression. It will be interesting to see the result when we get out aerial sorted out properly. The presence of the graininess actually complemented some of the things the commentator was saying. Of course a lot of what he said was pretentious rubbish but that is normal for art critics.

Did you notice that the final stanza of yesterday's poem only had nine lines instead of the ten in all the others? Well I just miscounted but the word completeness is in the last line so I am taking that as a bit of serendipity. Do you remember a programme called Serendipity? It was a studio bound arty/crafty type show (though not like William Morris) with Katy Manning presenting it (Jo Grant from Doctor Who around the time of the Demons and who once posed nude with a Dalek I think though I have no proof and no inclination to look for any as I am on the Office PC). I don't really remember much about Serendipity apart from the fact that it involved a lot of stone polishing but it was one of the shows I would never miss like Doctor Who and unfortunately The Pink Panther Show. My father now has a Stone Polishing machine which he uses to create tasteful stone displays round the house. That sounds so critical but I like stones as much as he does and my daughter has a huge collection of them that she has treasured far more than any bought item. (We are thinking of having the pebbles in the back garden replaced with turf, so she may get upset). See TV Cream for an interesting snippet regarding the programme.

Soundtrack - Among My Swan - Mazzy Star

This album is like poetry. Not the words - just the whole feel of the songs - the gentleness of the Hope Sandoval's voice against the distorted guitars. All means nothing and that is fine - the best poetry never does, just like the best art. Everything else just fades away - nothing means anything anymore and even in the depths of the saddest of the songs and they all sound sad, you leave with your heart lifted and the day looking brighter. Beautiful and nothing else.