Mark Rothko was born on Sept. 25, 1903, in Gvinsk, Russia,
and immigrated to the United States in 1913, settling in Seattle.
He enrolled at Yale University in 1921 and at The Art Student's
League in New York in 1925. In 1936, Rothko joined the WPA (Works
Project Administration) easel painting division in New York where
he met Adolph Gottlieb, Milton Avery and William Baziotes. In
1948, with Robert Motherwell, Clifford Still and Barnett Newman,
Rothko formed 'The Subjects of Artists School,' a group that met
to discuss the content of abstract painting. By the late 1940's,
Rothko was considered a seminal figure in the Abstract ex-pressionist
movement. Rothko's images became abstract under the influence
of the European Surrealist's, and like the Surrealists, he was
interested in mythology and universal symbols. By the late 1940's,
Rothko had established his signature style of rectangular forms
defined by an irregular, undefined edge painted on a one-color
field. Celebrated for his use of color, Rothko developed a process
in which he used thinned oils applied in layers to attain the
effect of translucent and luminous watercolor. For extensive periods
throughout his career Rothko taught at colleges and universities.
Rothko's first solo exhibition in New York was held at the
Contemporary Arts Gallery in 1933. In 1935, he was a founding
member of the Ten, a group of artists sympathetic to abstraction
and ex-pressionism [more]. He executed easel paintings for the
WPA Federal Art Project from 1936 to 1937. By 1936, Rothko knew
Barnett Newman. In the early 1940s, he worked closely with Gottlieb,
developing a painting style with mythological content, simple
flat shapes, and imagery inspired by primitive art. By mid-decade,
his work incorporated Surrealist techniques and images. Peggy
Guggenheim gave Rothko a solo show at Art of This Century in
New York in 1945. In 1947 and 1949, Rothko taught at the California
School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, where Clyfford Still was
a fellow instructor. With William Baziotes, David Hare, and
Robert Motherwell, Rothko founded the short-lived Subjects of
the Artist school in New York in 1948. The late 1940s and early
1950s saw the emergence of Rothko's mature style, in which frontal,
luminous rectangles seem to hover on the canvas surface. In
1958, the artist began his first commission, monumental paintings
for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. The Museum of Modern
Art, New York, gave Rothko an important solo exhibition in 1961.
He completed murals for Harvard University in 1962 and in 1964
accepted a mural commission for an interdenominational chapel
in Houston. Rothko took his own life February 25, 1970, in his
New York studio. A year later, the Rothko Chapel in Houston
was dedicated.
Rothko's images became abstract under the influence of the
European Surrealist's, and like the Surrealists, he was interested
in mythology and universal symbols. By the late 1940's, Rothko
had established his signature style of rectangular forms defined
by an irregular, undefined edge painted on a one-color field.
Celebrated for his use of color, Rothko developed a process
in which he used thinned oils applied in layers to attain the
effect of translucent and luminous watercolor.
Rothko's paintings are viewed by many to be quasi-religious although
they have represent no object or symbol of faith. They are spiritual,
timeless and personal, transcendent and emotional.
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