MARK ROTHKO

Mark Rothko (1903–1970) was an American painter known for his abstract canvases featuring blocks of vibrant colors. His 1956 work, Orange and Yellow, is a typical example of Rothko’s method, in which he uses thin layers of oil paint to create luminosity. Mark Rothko said that for him, art was an anecdote of the spirit and the only means to materialize the purpose of its diverse speed and tranquility.

Born Marcus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz on September 25, 1903, into a Jewish family in Latvia, he was raised in an Orthodox Jewish environment, attending a Hebrew-speaking school. Due to increasing antisemitic sentiment, his father emigrated to Portland, USA, in 1910, and the entire family followed three years later. Rothko studied at Yale University on a scholarship for only one year before dropping out and moving to New York.

There, he began studying drawing from models at the Art Students League of New York and also took courses in anatomy and theatre studies. His teacher was the painter Max Weber, which is why Rothko’s paintings from that period have a realistic basis and expressive character.

During this period, Rothko created a series of figurative paintings and interiors. In the late 1940s, he transitioned to non-figurative abstraction, creating masses of pure colors instead of figures in space.

Rothko’s last major commission was the decoration of the ecumenical chapel in Houston. The painter also contributed to its architectural design. The project was commissioned by art dealers and collectors, John and Dominique de Menil. Rothko completed work on eighteen paintings in 1967, but he did not live to see the chapel open. In 1965, he signed a contract with the Tate Modern gallery, where some of the paintings for the Seagram building are displayed in a special room.

Mark Rothko was deeply depressed for most of his life, and on February 25, 1970, he committed suicide in New York at the age of 66.

Today, Rothko’s works are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.