Mark Rothko

b. 1903 and died 1970

Mark Rothko was born September 25, 1903 in Latvia, a country ruled by the Czarist Russian Empire. Although there were no anti-Semitic pogroms within his town, Rothko’s parents decided to emigrate to United States, following the plight of many Jews wishing to evade what seemed to be inevitable violence wrought by revolutionary uprisings. The Rothko’s settled in Portland, Oregon and in 1921 won a scholarship to Yale based on academic merit. Rothko found his fellow students to be stuffy, with a bourgeois attitude. The elitist community caused Rothko to drop out, move to New York, and find employment in the garment district. According to Rothko, the beginning of his artistic career began when he witnessed his friend sketching from a model at the Art Students League. He later enrolled in the New School of Design. With Ashrile Gorky as a professor, Rothko first encountered the avante- garde. It was under the instruction of Max Weber, however, at the Art Students Leaugue that Rothko learned to use art as a vehicle of expression for his personal experiences, religious beliefs, and emotions. Further influenced by the German Expressionists, the surrealist work of Paul Klee, and the paintings of George Rouault, Rothko began to develop the elements that characterized his style; rigorous attention to formal elements such as color, balance, depth, composition, and scale.

During the Great Depression Rothko had his first solo and took part in a group exhibition whose objective was "to protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and literal painting.."1 By WWII Rothko’s style had matured. Along with other artists he formed the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors; and institution dedicated to keeping art free of political propaganda. The world crisis of war lent a search for immediacy within his art. Able to transcend the current political confines found within symbolism and values of social constructs. In 1949 Rothko was exhibiting at the Betty Parsons Gallery. He had developed a compositional format that he would continue to use throughout the rest of his career. Perhaps what Rothko is most celebrated for, he painted several vertically aligned rectangular forms set within a colored field. Thin layers of color give the impression of a shallow pictorial space and an unprecedented luminosity. His classic paintings of the 1950s are defined by a simplified use of form, vibrant hues, exploring the expressive potential of color, nuance, and modulation. The contrasting colors found within these pieces have lead to varying interpretations; including such profound themes as tragedy, sublimity, as well as the darkness and light that is humanity. In 1970 Mark Rothko committed suicide. At the time of his death he was widely recognized for his preeminent role in the development of nonrepresentational art.

1 National Gallery of Art, Washington. http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/