Rothko's Raspberry

Mark Rothko has been in the news twice this week. This tripe No 43 (Mauve), which had been expected to fetch up to £18.8m ($30m) at Christie's New York auction, got the raspberry and failed to sell. Surprise, surprise. Could it be that recession is at last bringing art buyers to their senses (CLICK)? Secondly, it turns out that in the late 1960s the Tate Gallery spurned Rothko's offer of a donation of 30 of his works, because it didn't have room for the permanent display he wanted (title link). At art-auction silly prices, that load of garbage is worth an estimated £630m ($1bn)! Ill health and doubts over his artistic legacy caused Rothko to commit suicide in 1970 at the age of 66. His doubts suggest that he had better artistic taste than do those Philistines who acclaim his insult to art.