1. Mark Rothko

2. Background Marcus Rothkowitz 1903 Born in Russia
Moved to Portland, Oregon as child
Went to Yale for a couple of years and studied various topics(history, elementary mathematics, psychology, etc)
Dropped out and moved to NY to work as an artist
Studied at the Student Art League
Taught children art at the Center Academy of the Brooklyn Jewish Center
Suffered with bouts of melancholy/depression
Committed suicide at age of 67

3. Characteristics of Style
Vertical stacking of rectangular shapes in a color field
Thin layers of paint, creating luminous color
Inherent qualities of painting: color, surface, proportion, scale
Linked the expressive properties of the elements with the emotional themes of tragedy and ecstasy

4. Philosophy of Painting
Since my pictures are large, colorful, and unframed, and since museum walls are usually immense and formidable, there is the danger that the pictures relate themselves as decorative areas to the walls. This would be a distortion of their meaning, since the pictures are intimate and intense, and are the opposite of what is decorative; and have been painted in a scale of normal living rather than an institutional scale. I have on occasion successfully dealt with this problem by tending to crowd the show rather than making it spare. By saturating the room with the feeling of the work, the walls are defeated and the poignancy of each single work...become[s] more visible. I also hang the largest pictures so that they must be first encountered at close quarters, so that the first experience is to be within the picture. This may well give the key to the observer of the ideal relationship between himself and the rest of the pictures. I also hang the pictures low rather than high, and particularly in the case of the largest ones, often as close to the floor as is feasible, for that is the way they are painted. And last, it may be worthwhile trying to hang something beyond the partial wall because some of the pictures do very well in a confined space.

5. Click on each link and watch videos. Take notes on important info!
AB EX at NGA
Rothko’s four Season’s commission

6. Resources