Paris' two modern art museums are showing important one-man exhibitions, juxtaposing silent abstract paintings by Mark Rothko and splashy pop-inspired figurative works by David Hockney, both major figures in contemporary art. The two exhibits showcase highly evolved individual styles that have remained such dominant influences in abstract and figurative painting that they have become cultural icons.

Mark Rothko was one of the great American abstract expressionist painters of the post-war period. The exhibit at the Musée d'Art Moderne features some 70 works from public and private collections in the United States and Europe. The exhibition covers a 35-year period and presents the works in a clearly defined chronological order.

For those uncomfortable with nonfigurative work, this exhibit could be a revelation. The show opens with Rothko's early realist works from the 1930s of urban landscapes of grimy streets and subway platforms. Unlike other social realist painters of his day, Rothko is not particularly interested in portraying the people in crowded subways, but rather the almost architectural aspects of the subway platforms themselves.

This is followed by a brief surrealist period in which the artist uses a multitude of forms to replace the human figure. In the artist's own words, his goal was always to "progress towards the light and to eliminate any obstacles that might arise between the painter and an idea; and between that idea and the public."

The exhibit highlights works created between 1950 and 1969, Rothko's classic period of large silent canvases which a unique contemplative quality sets apart from much of the work of his contemporaries from that period. His powerful made-in-New York monumental paintings are composed of expanses of color so large and luminous they have been known to induce a profound state of meditation. Although highly reductive and deceptively simple in content, a Rothko painting is like a perfectly tuned instrument.

Rothko's large-scale works are usually composed of two or three parallel rectangles, painted in close-valued colors. A rare quality of light appears to radiate from a mysterious source within the canvas center. This seemingly magical effect was achieved by the optical illusion of pure areas of color set side by side and Rothko's painterly handling of the canvas edges, which were brushed into the adjoining field. This slight nuance of color contrast seems to cause a slight visual vibration to occur around the edges, creating the eerie sense of a glowing light from within. He also devised a method of building up color with thin washes of paint soaked into the canvas like a stain.

During the early 1950s, the school of abstract expressionism split into two clearly defined groups with radically different approaches. One painting style was termed gestural abstraction or "action painting" by the art critic Harold Rosenberg to describe Jackson Pollock's loosely fluid, all-over drip paintings. The other style was called chromatic abstraction or the more poetic term "color field painting," that perfectly described more reductive works by artists like Barnett Newman or Mark Rothko, whose paintings focused the viewers' attention on the powerful impact of large fields of pure color.

After 1958, and a major commission for a series of monumental paintings for the Seagram building, Rothko's palette darkened and his works seemed increasingly charged with a dramatic intensity. The exhibition closes with a number of works from this last period painted just a few months before his suicide in 1970.

 Mark Rothko   will be on view through Apr 18, daily from 10am to 5:30pm, closed Mon & holidays, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 11, av du Président Wilson, 16e, Metro Alma-Marceau/Iéna, tel: 01.53.67.40.00, 45F/35F. *Be prepared to wait in line to enter the museum. No bags (even small handbags) or coats may be carried within the exhibition space.

David Hockney

English pop artist David Hockney is the star of three Paris-based exhibitions that examine diverse aspects of his bold and witty work. Although a child of London's swinging '60s, Hockney later crossed the Atlantic and discovered the seemingly endless highways and the immensity of California landscapes. During the late '60s he made a big splash in the art world by introducing his bright blue images of California swimming pools and scrawny palm trees to 20th century painting. Hockney has been known to comment that "It took only a 300th of a second to photograph the splash, and it took me 75 hours to paint it!"

The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou features three bodies of work that concern landscapes. As you enter the show, keep in mind the notion that Hockney can sometimes treat a living room like a landscape. And his famous swimming pools have become as vast and imposing as oceans. The show opens with a lively overview of works from the '60s and continues to his ongoing present-day project concerning series of paintings and photographic assemblage studies of great landscapes that offer panoramic vistas. And what greater challenge for Hockney than the Grand Canyon?!

Don't miss the short documentary film at the end of the exhibition that shows an engaging and enthusiastic Hockney explaining how he approaches perspectives in the midst of his Grand Canyon landscapes. His concluding remarks are simply, "I take enormous pleasure in working. That is what my paintings are about."

 David Hockney  will be on view through Apr 26, daily 10am to 10pm, closed Tue, Centre Georges Pompidou, Metro Rambuteau, tel: 01.44.78.46.25, 30F/20F.

 David Hockney's Photography Work   will be on view through Mar 14, Wed-Sun, 11am to 8pm, closed Mon, Tue & holidays. Maison Européenne de La Photographie, 5/7 rue de Fourcy, 4e, Metro St-Paul, tel: 01.44.78.75.00, 30F/15F.

 David  Hockney Dialogue avec Picasso  will be on view through May 3, daily from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closed Tue, Musée Picasso, 5, rue de Thorigny, 3e, Metro St-Paul, tel: 01.42.71.25.21, 38F/28F.