Writer, poet, critic, and intellectual Selden Rodman engaged in a series of conversations with some of the era’s greatest artists. Among them was the influential painter Mark Rothko This quote came out of their exchanges:
“I’m not interested in relationships of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on — and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!” –painter, Mark Rothko
I have had this experience, on more than one occasion myself. I can remember it vividly. I look at a lot of art but not much has moved me to tears, like Rothko. When I make my pilgrimage to my hometown of Houston, I always visit the Menil Collection, which has some incredible Rothko's as well as the sublime Rothko Chapel. If you get the chance, go. After reading this quote, it may seem like a cliché but then have your own experience of them.