I've mentioned my summer course a couple of times (everyone remember that Russian avant-garde poet who sought to evade death by paying his rent well in advance? I've yet to hear a more practical recipe for eternal life). The topic was the grotesque, which frequently led to discussion of its opposite: the

sublime. Definitions vary but many feel, whatever state the sublime truly is, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) achieved it.

(Image: Rothko; Red, Orange, Tan and Purple, 1954.)