染雾短篇名人英文演讲稿 篇一：Never Give Up
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, I stand before you to share the story of a remarkable individual who has inspired millions around the world with his determination and perseverance. This person is none other than Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb.
Thomas Edison once said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." These words perfectly encapsulate his spirit and unwavering belief in himself. Edison faced numerous failures and setbacks in his quest to create a practical electric light bulb. Many people doubted his ability and ridiculed his efforts. However, he never let these obstacles deter him.
Edison's journey towards inventing the light bulb was filled with countless experiments and disappointments. But with each failure, he learned something new and made adjustments to his approach. His unwavering determination and refusal to give up eventually paid off when he successfully created a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.
Edison's story teaches us the importance of perseverance and resilience. It reminds us that failure is not the end, but rather a stepping stone towards success. Edison's success was not achieved overnight; it was the result of years of hard work, dedication, and an unwavering belief in himself.
In our own lives, we often face challenges and obstacles that make us want to give up. We may experience failures, rejections, or setbacks that make us question our abilities. However, it is during these moments that we need to channel our inner Edison and refuse to give up.
Thomas Edison's story is a powerful reminder that success is not reserved for the lucky or the talented, but for those who are willing to put in the effort and never give up. It is a reminder that failure is not a reflection of our abilities, but rather an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve.
So, let us all be inspired by the indomitable spirit of Thomas Edison. Let us embrace failure as a necessary part of the journey towards success. And most importantly, let us never give up on our dreams and aspirations.
Thank you.
短篇名人英文演讲稿 篇二：Embrace Diversity
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, I want to talk to you about the importance of embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. In a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected, it is crucial that we learn to appreciate and respect the diversity that exists among us.
Throughout history, great leaders and thinkers have emphasized the significance of diversity. Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization." These words hold true even today, as we navigate a globalized world that is becoming more diverse with each passing day.
Diversity enriches our lives in numerous ways. It exposes us to different perspectives, cultures, and ideas, broadening our horizons and expanding our understanding of the world. It challenges our preconceived notions and forces us to question our own biases and stereotypes. By embracing diversity, we foster an environment of inclusivity, tolerance, and respect.
Unfortunately, despite the progress we have made, discrimination and prejudice still persist in many corners of the world. People continue to be judged based on their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. This not only perpetuates inequality but also stifles innovation and progress.
It is up to each and every one of us to challenge these discriminatory attitudes and promote a culture of acceptance and understanding. We must recognize that our differences do not make us weaker but rather stronger. It is through diversity that we can learn from one another and collectively work towards a better future.
In a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected, diversity is not just a buzzword; it is a necessity. It is through embracing diversity that we can build bridges across cultures, foster mutual understanding, and promote peace. It is through diversity that we can tap into the full potential of humanity and create a world that is fair, just, and inclusive.
So, let us all commit to embracing diversity in our personal and professional lives. Let us challenge our own biases and prejudices and strive to create a world where everyone is valued and respected. Let us celebrate our differences and work together towards a brighter, more inclusive future.
Thank you.
短篇名人英文演讲稿 篇三
Dare to compete.
Dare to care.
Dare to dream.
Dare to love.
Practice the art of making possible.
And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going.
It is such an honor and pleasure for me to be back at Yale, especially on the occasion of the 300th anniversary.
I have had so many memories of my time here, and as Nick was speaking I thought about how I ended up at Yale Law School.
And it tells a little bit about how much progress we’ve made.
What I think most about when I think of Yale is not just the politically charged atmosphere and not even just the superb legal education that I received.
It was at Yale that I began work that has been at the core of what I have cared about ever since.
I began working with New Haven legal services representing children.
And I studied child development, abuse and neglect at the Yale New Haven Hospital and the Child Study Center.
I was lucky enough to receive a civil rights internship with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defense Fund, where I went to work after I graduated.
Those experiences fueled in me a passion to work for the benefit of children, particularly the most vulnerable.
Now, looking back, there is no way that I could have predicted what path my life would have taken.
I didn’t sit around the law school, saying, well, you know, I think I’ll graduate and then I’ll go to work at the Children’s Defense Fund, and then the impeachment inquiry, and Nixon retired or resigns, I’ll go to Arkansas.
I didn’t think like that.
I was taking each day at a time.
But, I’ve been very fortunate because I’ve always had an idea in my mind about what I thought was important and what gave my life meaning and purpose.
A set of values and beliefs that have helped me navigate the shoals, the sometimes very treacherous sea, to illuminate my own true desires, despite that others say about what l should care about and believe in.
A passion to succeed at what l thought was important and children have always provided that lone star, that guiding light.
Because l have that absolute conviction that every child, especially in this, the most blessed of nations that has ever existed on the face of earth, that every child deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential.
But you know that belief and conviction-it may make for a personal mission statement, but standing alone, not translated into action, it means very little to anyone else, particularly to those for whom you have those concerns.
When I was thinking about running for the United States Senate-which was such an enormous decision to make, one I never could have dreamed that I would have been making when I was here on campus-I visited a school in New York City and I met a young woman, who was a star athlete.
I was there because of Billy Jean King promoting an HBO special about women in sports called “Dare to compete.
” It was about Title IX and how we finally, thanks to government action, provided opportunities to girls and women in sports.
And although I played not very well at intramural sports, I have always been a strong supporter of women in sports.
And I was introduced by this young woman, and as I went to shake her hand she obviously had been reading the newspapers about people saying I should or shouldn’t run for the Senate.
And I was congratulating her on the speech she had just made and she held onto my hand and she said, “Dare to compete, Mrs.
Clinton.
Dare to compete.
I took that to heart because it is hard to compete sometimes, especially in public ways, when your failures are there for everyone to see and you don’t know what is going to happen from one day to the next.
And yet so much of life, whether we like to accept it or not, is competing with ourselves to be the best we can be, being involved in classes or professions or just life, where we know we are competing with others.
I took her advice and I did compete because I chose to do so.
And the biggest choices that you’ll face in your life will be yours alone to make.
I’m sure you’ll receive good advice.
You’re got a great education to go back and reflect about what is right for you, but you eventually will have to choose and I hope that you will dare to compete.
And by that I don’t mean the kind of cutthroat competition that is too often characterized by what is driving America today.
I mean the small voice inside you that says to you, you can do it, you can take this risk, you can take this next step.
And it doesn’t mean that once having made that choice you will always succeed.
In fact, you won’t.
There are setbacks and you will experience difficult disappointments.
You will be slowed down and sometimes the breath will just be knocked out of you.
But if you carry with you the values and beliefs that you can make a difference in your own life, first and foremost, and then in the lives of others.
You can get back up, you can keep going.
But it is also important, as I have found, not to take yourself too seriously, because after all, every one of us here today, none of us is deserving of full credit.
I think every day of the blessings my birth gave me without any doing of my own.
I chose neither my family nor my country, but they as much as anything I’ve ever done, determined my course.
You compare my or your circumstances with those of the majority of people who’ve ever lived or who are living right now, they too often are born knowing too well what their futures will be.
They lack the freedom to choose their life’s path.
They’re imprisoned by circumstances of poverty and ignorance, bigotry, disease, hunger, oppression and war.
So, dare to compete, yes, but maybe even more difficult, dare to care.
Dare to care about people who need our help to succeed and fulfill their own lives.
There are so many out there and sometimes all it takes is the simplest of gestures or helping hands and many of you understand that already.
I know that the numbers of graduates in the last 20 years have worked in community organizations, have tutored, have committed themselves to religious activities.
You have been there trying to serve because you have believed both that it was the right thing to do and because it gave something back to you.
You have dared to care.
Well, dare to care to fight for equal justice for all, for equal pay for women, against hate crimes and bigotry.
Dare to care about public schools without qualified teachers or adequate resources.
Dare to care about protecting our environment.
Dare to care about the 10 million children in our country who lack health insurance.
Dare to care about the one and a half million children who have a parent in jail.
The seven million people who suffer from HIV/AIDS.
And thank you for caring enough to demand that our nation do more to help those that are suffering throughout this world with HIV/AIDS, to prevent this pandemic from spreading even further.
And I’ll also add, dare enough to care about our political process.
You know, as I go and speak with students I’m impressed so much, not only in formal settings, on campuses, but with my daughter and her friends, about how much you care, about how willing you are to volunteer and serve.
You may have missed the last wave of the revolution, but you’ve understood that the munity revolution is there for you every single day.
And you’ve been willing to be part of remarking lives in our community.
And yet, there is a real resistance, a turning away from the political process.
I hope that some of you will be public servants and will even run for office yourself, not to win a position to make and impression on your friends at your 20th reunion, but because you understand how important it is for each of us as citizens to make a commitment to our democracy.
Your generation, the first one born after the social upheavals of the 60’s and 70’s, in the midst of the technological advances of the 80’s and 90’s, are inheriting an economy, a society and a government that has yet to understand fully, or even come to grips with, our rapidly changing world.
And so bring your values and experiences and insights into politics.
Dare to help make, not just a difference in politics, but create a different politics.
Some have called you the generation of choice.
You’ve been raised with multiple choice tests, multiple channels, multiple websites and multiple lifestyles.
You’ve grown up choosing among alternatives that were either not imagined, created or available to people in prior generations.
You’ve been invested with far more personal power to customize your life, to make more free choices about how to live than was ever thought possible.
And I think as I look at all the surveys and research that is done, your choices reflect not only freedom, but personal responsibility.
The social indicators, not the headlines, the social indicators tell a positive story: drug use and cheating and arrests being down, been pregnancy and suicides, drunk driving deaths being down.
Community service and religious involvement being up.
But if you look at the area of voting among 18 to 29 year olds, the numbers tell a far more troubling tale.
Many of you I know believe that service and community volunteerism is a better way of solving the issues facing our country than political engagement, because you believe-choose one of the following multiples or choose them all-government either can’t understand or won’t make the right choices because of political pressures, inefficiency, incompetence or big money influence.
Well, I admit there is enough truth in that critique to justify feeling disconnected and alienated.
But at bottom, that’s a personal cop-out and a national peril.
Political conditions maximize the conditions for inpidual opportunity and responsibility as well as community.
Americorps and the Peace Corps exist because of political decisions.
Our air, water, land and food will be clean and safe because of political choices.
Our ability to cure disease or log onto the Internet have been advanced because of politically determined investments.
Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo ended because of political leadership.
Your parents and grandparents traveled here by means of government built and subsidized transportation systems.
Many used GI Bills or government loans, as I did, to attend college.
Now, I could, as you might guess, go on and on, but the point is to remind us all that government is us and each generation has to stake its claim.
And, as stakeholders, you will have to decide whether or not to make the choice to participate.
It is hard and it is, bringing change in a democracy, particularly now.
There’s so much about our modern times that conspire to lower our sights, to weaken our vision-as inpiduals and communities and even nations.
It is not the vast conspiracy you may have heard about; rather it’s a silent conspiracy of cynicism and indifference and alienation that we see every day, in our popular culture and in our prodigious consumerism.
But as many have said before and as Vaclav Havel has said to memorably, “It cannot suffice just to invent new machines, new regulations and new institutions.
It is necessary to understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this Earth and of our deeds.
” And I think we are called on to reject, in this time of blessings that we enjoy, those who will tear us apart and tear us down and instead to liberate our God-given spirit, by being willing to dare to dream of a better world.
During my campaign, when times were tough and days were long I used to think about the example of Harriet Tubman, a heroic New Yorker, a 19th century Moses, who risked her life to bring hundreds of slaves to freedom.
She would say to those who she gathered up in the South where she kept going back year after year from the safety of Auburn, New York, that no matter what happens, they had to keep going.
If they heard shouts behind them, they had to keep going.
If they heard gunfire or dogs, they had to keep going to freedom.
Well, those aren’t the risks we face.
It is more the silence and apathy and indifference that dogs our heels.
Thirty-two years ago, I spoke at my own graduation from Wellesley, where I did call on my fellow classmates to reject the notion of limitations on our ability to effect change and instead to embrace the idea that the goal of education should be human liberation and the freedom to practice with all the skill of our being the art of making possible.
For after all, our fate is to be free.
To choose competition over apathy, caring over indifference, vision over myopia, and love over hate.
Just as this is a special time in your lives, it is for me as well because my daughter will be graduating in four weeks, graduating also from a wonderful place with a great education and beginning a new life.
And as I think about all the parents and grandparents who are out there, I have a sense of what their feeling.
Their hearts are leaping with joy, but it’s hard to keep tears in check because the presence of our children at a time and place such as this is really a fulfillment of our own American dreams.
Well, I applaud you and all of your love, commitment and hard work, just as I applaud your daughters and sons for theirs.
And I leave these graduates with the same message I hope to leave with my graduate.
Dare to compete.
Dare to care.
Dare to dream.
Dare to love.
Practice the art of making possible.
And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going.
Thank you and God bless you all.
名人英语演讲稿【2】
Harry S.
Truman: "The Truman Doctrine"
Mr.
President, Mr.
Speaker, Members of the Congress of the United States:
The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates my appearance before a joint session of the Congress.
The foreign policy and the national security of this country are involved.
One aspect of the present situation, which I present to you at this time for your consideration and decision, concerns Greece and Turkey.
The United States has received from the Greek Government an urgent appeal for financial and economic assistance.
Preliminary reports from the American Economic Mission now in Greece and reports from the American Ambassador in Greece corroborate the statement of the Greek Government that assistance is imperative if Greece is to survive as a free nation.
I do not believe that the American people and the Congress wish to turn a deaf ear to the appeal of the Greek Government.
Greece is not a rich country.
Lack of sufficient natural resources has always forced the Greek people to work hard to make both ends meet.
Since 1940, this industrious, peace loving country has suffered invasion, four years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife.
When forces of liberation entered Greece they found that the retreating Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities, communications, and merchant marine.
More than a thousand villages had been burned.
Eighty-five per cent of the children were tubercular.
Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared.
Inflation had wiped out practically all savings.
As a result of these tragic conditions, a militant minority, exploiting human want and misery, was able to create political chaos which, until now, has made economic recovery impossible.
Greece is today without funds to finance the importation of those goods which are essential to bare subsistence.
Under these circumstances, the people of Greececannot make progress in solving their problems of reconstruction.
Greece is in desperate need of financial and economic assistance to enable it to resume purchases of food, clothing, fuel, and seeds.
These are indispensable for the subsistence of its people and are obtainable only from abroad.
Greece must have help to import the goods necessary to restore internal order and security, so essential for economic and political recovery.
The Greek Government has also asked for the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists, and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration.
The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries.
A Commission appointed by the United Nations security Council is at present investigating disturbed conditions in northern Greece and alleged border violations along the frontiers between Greece on the one hand and Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia on the other.
Meanwhile, the Greek Government is unable to cope with the situation.
The Greek army is small and poorly equipped.
It needs supplies and equipment if it is to restore authority of the government throughout Greek territory.
Greece must have assistance if it is to become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy.
The United States must supply this assistance.
We have already extended to Greececertain types of relief and economic aid.
But these are inadequate.
There is no other country to which democratic Greece can turn.
No other nation is willing and able to provide the necessary support for a democratic Greek government.
The British Government, which has been helping Greece, can give no further financial or economic aid after March 31st.
Great Britain finds itself under the necessity of reducing or liquidating its commitments in several parts of the world, including Greece.
We have considered how the United Nations might assist in this crisis.
But the situation is an urgent one, requiring immediate action, and the United Nations and its related organizations are not in a position to extend help of the kind that is required.
It is important to note that the Greek Government has asked for our aid in utilizing effectively the financial and other assistance we may give to Greece, and in improving its public administration.
It is of the utmost importance that we supervise the use of any funds made available to Greece in such a manner that each dollar spent will count toward making Greece self-supporting, and will help to build an economy in which a healthy democracy can flourish.
No government is perfect.
One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.
The Government of Greece is not perfect.
Nevertheless it represents eighty-five per cent of the members of the Greek Parliament who were chosen in an election last year.
Foreign observers, including 692 Americans, considered this election to be a fair expression of the views of the Greek people.
The Greek Government has been operating in an atmosphere of chaos and extremism.
It has made mistakes.
The extension of aid by this country does not mean that the United States condones everything that the Greek Government has done or will do.
We have condemned in the past, and we condemn now, extremist measures of the right or the left.
We have in the past advised tolerance, and we advise tolerance now.
Greek's [sic] neighbor, Turkey, also deserves our attention.
The future of Turkey, as an independent and economically sound state, is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world than the future of Greece.
The circumstances in which Turkey finds itself today are considerably different from those of Greece.
Turkey has been spared the disasters that have beset Greece.
And during the war, the United States and Great Britain furnished Turkey with material aid.
Nevertheless, Turkey now needs our support.
Since the war, Turkey has sought financial assistance from Great Britain and the United States for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity.
That integrity is essential to the preservation of order in the Middle East.
The British government has informed us that, owing to its own difficulties, it can no longer extend financial or economic aid to Turkey.
As in the case of Greece, if Turkey is to have the assistance it needs, the United States must supply it.
We are the only country able to provide that help.
I am fully aware of the broad implications involved if the United States extends assistance to Greece and Turkey, and I shall discuss these implications with you at this time.
One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion.
This was a fundamental issue in the war with Germany and Japan.
Our victory was won over countries which sought to impose their will, and their way of life, upon other nations.
To ensure the peaceful development of nations, free from coercion, the United States has taken a leading part in establishing the United Nations.
The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.
We shall not realize our objectives, however, unless we are willing to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes.
This is no more than a frank recognition that totalitarian regimes imposed upon free peoples, by direct or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace, and hence the security of the United States.
The peoples of a number of countries of the world have recently had totalitarian regimes forced upon them against their will.
The Government of the United States has made frequent protests against coercion and intimidation in violation of the Yalta agreement in Poland, Rumania, and Bulgaria.
I must also state that in a number of other countries there have been similar developments.
At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life.
The choice is too often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of inpidual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority.
It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes.
The world is not static, and the status quo is not sacred.
But we cannot allow changes in the status quo in violation of the Charter of the United Nations by such methods as coercion, or by such subterfuges as political infiltration.
In helping free and independent nations to maintain their freedom, the United States will be giving effect to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
It is necessary only to glance at a map to realize that the survival and integrity of the Greek nation are of grave importance in a much wider situation.
If Greece should fall under the control of an armed minority, the effect upon its neighbor, Turkey, would be immediate and serious.
Confusion and disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East.
Moreover, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war.
It would be an unspeakable tragedy if these countries, which have struggled so long against overwhelming odds, should lose that victory for which they sacrificed so much.
Collapse of free institutions and loss of independence would be disastrous not only for them but for the world.
Discouragement and possibly failure would quickly be the lot of neighboring peoples striving to maintain their freedom and independence.
Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East.
We must take immediate and resolute action.
I therefore ask the Congress to provide authority for assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948.
In requesting these funds, I have taken into consideration the maximum amount of relief assistance which would be furnished to Greece out of the $350,000,000 which I recently requested that the Congress authorize for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated by the war.
In addition to funds, I ask the Congress to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey, at the request of those countries, to assist in the tasks of reconstruction, and for the purpose of supervising the use of such financial and material assistance as may be furnished.
I recommend that authority also be provided for the instruction and training of selected Greek and Turkish personnel.
Finally, I ask that the Congress provide authority which will permit the speediest and most effective use, in terms of needed commodities, supplies, and equipment, of such funds as may be authorized.
If further funds, or further authority, should be needed for purposes indicated in this message, I shall not hesitate to bring the situation before the Congress.
On this subject the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government must work together.
This is a serious course upon which we embark.
I would not recommend it except that the alternative is much more serious.
The United States contributed $341,000,000,000 toward winning World War II.
This is an investment in world freedom and world peace.
The assistance that I am recommending for Greece and Turkey amounts to little more than 1 tenth of 1 per cent of this investment.
It is only common sense that we should safeguard this investment and make sure that it was not in vain.
The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want.
They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife.
They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died.
We must keep that hope alive.
The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms.
If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world.
And we shall surely endanger the welfare of this nation.
Great responsibilities have been placed upon us by the swift movement of events.
I am confident that the Congress will face these responsibilities squarely.
与外国名人有关的英文演讲稿【3】
To be in the presence of a Rothko painting is to do far more than stand and admire a picture.
It is to have an experience.
The results of that experience depend upon the inpidual.
They range from the profound and moving perhaps even to the bemused.
Rothko's masterpieces are that.
Classified as, Abstract Expressionism, the paintings that he produced in the last twenty years of his life are some of the most remarkable and identifiable images of the twentieth century.
There is no ambiguity about Mark Rothko's genius, nor his intensity and his desire to create something intense and emotional.
He was, to the end of his life, uncompromising and brave in his belief and search for expression.
Mark Rothko's career as a painter spans five decades.
His life began in Russian Latvia and he came as an immigrant to America.
His heritage and life fuses European traditions and European and American modernism.
His work stands as some of the most powerful but uneasy pictures ever committed to canvas.
In the end illness, depression and eventually suicide brought his life to a close.
His work endures as a magnificent testament to a supreme artist who created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting.
Yet Rothko would have hoped it was more than that.
He might have hoped that those who came to see his work in the right setting might have an encounter akin to a religious experience.
There's no denying that his work is extraordinarily powerful.
It resonates with an energy, either uplifting or brooding.
It does not leave you alone.
In front of Rothko, you are forced to confront yourself.
You are drawn into an experience.
You feel dwarfed by the presence of something you cannot quite explain or comprehend.
Many people witnessing his work report feelings that are emotional and tearful.
No reproduction or photograph of his work can possibly do the original justice.
To feel the power of his work you have to be there in front of it.
What is certain is that Rothko was one of the pre-eminent artists of his generation.
His influences were many and his influence extends to composers and musicians as well as to painters.
There seems to be something about his best work that defies words.
Perhaps that is why titles and names for his work became redundant to him.
The artist himself chose to use numbers to identify works.
There were many attempts to commission Rothko to produce work to hang in public spaces.
There were not all successful.
Perhaps the most famous is the Rothko Chapel in Huston.
This experiment was years in the making and preparation.
The obsessive effort involved might even have contributed to Rothko's depression and his death.
Yet there is something about Rothko's work that begs to be hung in public spaces.
Rothko himself would not have wanted those spaces to be art museums.
There is something spiritual about the experience we have confronting his work.
Yet attempts to describe the work often fails.
Rothko himself found words inadequate preferring eventually to let the paintings exist in silence.
He tired of trying to explain what he saw as a fundamentally emotional and non-verbal experience.
Critics and the public alike disagree to this day, how far he succeeded in his quest to represent this.
Rothko was uncompromising.
Commissioned to provide work for a restaurant on Park Avenue, he produced forty paintings over three months.
He then decided to abandon the project, unhappy that his work should hang in a restaurant.
Much of that work now resides in museums in the US, London and Japan.
The work he produced was unique, powerful and inpidual.
A Rothko painting is an iconic image.
The canvasses he chose to work on were by most standards huge.
This is not art for the small room or the fainthearted.
A vast Rothko canvas might tyhttps://p.9136.com/1xprise of floating rectangles of colour.
They work with and against each other.
They range from light and energising yellows and reds towards much deeper and far more sombre hues.
Whatever their variation, they never cease to convey a deep feeling of sensuality.
If you close your eyes or turn your back on a Rothko, you can feel its presence hovering and burning behind you.
His work shimmers with power and intensity.
The paintings are hypnotic and powerful.
Perhaps the clues to such extraordinary work and output come partly from the characters Rothko grew up with and the circles he mixed in.
His family of Russian Jewish extraction found themselves outcasts in their own country.
Immigrating to the US, the Rothkowitz's arrived at Ellis Island in the winter of 1913.
By 1914, Marcus Rothkowitz's father was dead.
Yet Marcus, who would change his name to Mark before WWII, was a bright and eager student.
With four languages at his disposal and as many cultural influences, he graduated from High School at seventeen years of age.
He won a scholarship to Yale, although he dropped out citing the Yale community as too elitist and racist for his taste.
It was not until 1923 that he witnessed, by accident, his first art class and began his life as an artist.
The Rothko that would find fame and fortune after WWII was still a long way off.
Enrolled in the New School of Design, Rothkowitz's tutors included GORKY and MAX WEBER.
New York at the time was a hotbed atmosphere revelling in modernism.
The galleries showed modernist paintings and the museums were to prove an invaluable resource for a budding artist.
Rothko had his own showing in 1928 and a year later he was teaching classes in sculpture and painting.
Rothko was a great thinker and debater.
He wrote, although never completed a book, on his theories linking modernism with primitive and children's intuitive art.
His work developed and he began to incorporate classical myths and symbolism.
In common with many, Rothko read and was influenced by Freud, Jung, and the concept of the collective unconscious.
The rise of Nazism forced the immigration to the US of many celebrated and avant-garde artists, Miro, Dali, Ernst and Breton among them.
Symbolism and modern art had taken New York by storm.
As heady and exciting as all this was, Rothko was still searching for a fresher mode of expression.
He broke away from symbolism into what have been called, 'multi form' paintings.
In these, his use of bright abstract colour emerged.
They were unique, in that they seemed to possess a life and energy of their own.
Yet at the same time, they were blurred blocks of colour without recognisable form.
There were not landscapes as such, nor human figures, or symbols.
In this work and the extraordinary work that was to follow, it seemed as if Rothko had abandoned traditional artistic aims altogether.
His work seemed more to do with a spiritual quest than a representation or interpretation of an object.
As he developed his ideas through these forms and experience, it occurred to Rothko that even specific titles for his work were too restrictive.
As Rothko struggled with his vision and expression, his personal life suffered.
He fought depression, alcoholism and after a second marriage break up and then his mother's death, he retreated into seclusion.
The resulting work was to be extraordinary.
For seven years, he painted in oils on vast canvasses.
These have the effect of immersing the viewer, providing a feeling of intimacy and awe.
During the 1950's Rothko travelled widely still seeking out art and revelling in the Italian frescoes.
Conversely, as fame and fortune found him, so he began to doubt his work was being appreciated for the right reasons.
Former friends, perhaps jealous of his commercial success, accused him of betrayal and of selling out.
Buying a Rothko, it seemed, was a prudent and sound financial investment for an art collector.
Frustration trying to verbalise or explain his art caused him to further shy away from discussing his work.
That same work seemed to express real human emotions, from tragedy to ecstasy.
Critics see Rothko's move towards dark and brooding colours as symptomatic of his depression.
As his retrospective is held in the Museum of Modern Art, Pop Art is already the next 'big thing.
' Rothko is scathing in his opinion of those who have not paid their dues and calls the movement, the tragedy of art as a commodity.
Perhaps the commissioning of what became the Rothko chapel, was the fitting place for this genius' work to be experienced.
To Rothko's delight, it would be far from the hub of fashionable New York.
The distance meant that people who wanted the experience would have to be prepared to make the journey.
It would be a journey not unlike a religious pilgrimage.
The fourteen pieces of work that hang there took Rothko six years to produce.
They are, by all accounts, an awesome experience to view, and according to some the zenith of darkness and unpredictability.
Rothko never saw the culmination of his life's work completed.
His depression and suicide in 1970 ended a life that was intense and at times painful and traumatic.
The work he left behind is no less powerful.
They are, perhaps, some of the most resonant paintings ever committed to canvas by an artist.
