Quote - > Quote - I think that the blue square is just not very interesting.

Wah! I've been trolled! My feelings are hurt! My inalienable right to unconditional praise for my artwork has been violated! I feel unclean! Somebody fetch a moderator before I run out of exclamation marks!!! :lol: Well, to be fair, I suppose it was a bit plagiaristic.

 

I was actually referring to the one on sale at Sotheby's. I will admit, however, that a fair amount of modern art doesn't come across very well in reproductions. When you are in the same room with a Malevich, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Miro, Calder, or Motherwell it usually comes of more interesting than when you see it in reproduction. Also, many of the very minimalist paintings are much more effective when seen in person due to the scale. I've seen similar Rothko's to the one recently sold at auction, and they are massive works, typically over six feet tall, almost sculptural in their presence.

And its not as if the artists made the big bucks on this stuff. (With the possible exceptions of people like Warhol and Dali who's public, and eccentric, personalities probably influenced the price.)  At the time of his death in 1970, the average price of a Rothko was $10,000.