Mark Rothko (IPA: ), Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903– February 25, 1970), was an American abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of color, which he produced from 1949 to 1970. Although Rothko did not personally subscribe to any one school, he is associated with the American abstract expressionism movement of modern art.
Originally emigrating to Portland, Oregon, from Dvinsk in the Russian Empire (now Latvia) with his family, Rothko later moved to New York City where his youthful period of artistic production dealt primarily with urban scenery. In response to World War II, Rothko's art entered a transitional phase during the 1940s, where he experimented with mythological themes and Surrealism to express tragedy. Toward the end of the decade, Rothko painted canvases with regions of pure color which he further abstracted into rectangular color forms, the idiom he would use for the rest of his life.
In his later career, Rothko executed several canvases for three different mural projects. The Seagram murals were to have decorated the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building, but Rothko eventually grew disgusted with the idea that his paintings would be decorative objects for wealthy diners and refunded the lucrative commission, donating the paintings to museums including the Tate Gallery. The Harvard Mural series was donated to a dining room in Harvard's Holyoke Center (now Smith Campus Center); their colors faded badly over time due to Rothko's use of the pigment lithol red together with regular sunlight exposure. The Harvard series has since been restored using a special lighting technique. Rothko contributed 14 canvases to a permanent installation at the Rothko Chapel, a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas.
Although Rothko lived modestly for much of his life, the resale value of his paintings grew tremendously in the decades following his suicide in 1970. His painting No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) sold in 2014 for $186 million.
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His work is currently being shown at multiple venues like Tate St. Ives. Numerous key galleries and museums such as. Mark Rothko's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from 7 USD to 86,882,500 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork.
What is the meaning behind Mark Rothko's paintings? ›
Mark Rothko sought to make paintings that would bring people to tears. “I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on,” he declared. “And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions….
What was Mark Rothko best known for? ›
He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of color, which he produced from 1949 to 1970. Although Rothko did not personally subscribe to any one school, he is associated with the American abstract expressionism movement of modern art.
What makes Rothko so special? ›
Alternately radiant and dark, Rothko's art is distinguished by a rare degree of sustained concentration on pure pictorial properties such as color, surface, proportion, and scale, accompanied by the conviction that those elements could disclose the presence of a high philosophical truth.
Who painted the fake Rothko? ›
All of the fakes sold at Knoedler were created in Queens by Pei-Shen Qian and then sold to the gallery by Glafira Rosales, a dealer from Long Island.
Did Rothko believe in God? ›
Rothko was raised in an atheist Jewish family and was heavily influenced by myth, mysticism, and Christian art. His work was often described by critics as spiritual or sublime and one of his last commissions was for an interfaith chapel.
What is the Rothko effect? ›
Rothko is best known for his large-scale paintings that fill the viewer's field of vision and stimulate the viewer's full attention. His luminously colored pictorial space is designed to produce what has been called “the Rothko effect.”3 Rothko's art elicits the fundamental emotions (first epigraph).
What kind of person was Mark Rothko? ›
Clearly, Rothko's personality was a complicated one; anxious, depressed, consumed with himself, filled with enormous self-doubt and a need for approval, Rothko was also an intensely private person.
Why did Rothko use red? ›
Devoid of a landscape or a human subject, the hazy blocks of vivid color possessed a life force of force of their own – and it was the color, not the form that conveyed this. Vivid shades of red and splashes of white fought for attention as Rothko sought to bring people to tears through his paintings.
Why did Mark Rothko paint orange and yellow? ›
This layered wash of color achieved the effect of luminescence. Additionally, Rothko wanted to express emotion through his palette, which he saw as a door into another reality. As he explained, “The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.”
He used synthetic substances such as oil-modified alkyd and acrylic resins alongside traditional materials, including egg, glue and dammar resin, which are fast-drying and allowed him to apply subsequent layers within hours.
What does Rothko fear? ›
From red, the dialogue moves to a consideration of what Rothko takes to be its opposite: “There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend . . . One day the black will swallow the red.” So Rothko reveals that he lives in continual fear of the irresistible power of death.
How to understand Mark Rothko paintings? ›
The paintings invite you on an unpredictable journey and into an unknown dimension. Rothko's art works pulsate because he used a special technique to create them. Brightly-defined boundaries between colours create depth and you inevitably plunge into it. Mark used blurred outlines and colours to awaken feelings in us.
Is Rothko a minimalist? ›
On the other hand, however, artists such as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Agnes Martin, and Ad Reinhardt developed a meditative, minimalist aesthetic. Their works also dealt with emotions and aspects of human consciousness, but in a reduced, less gestural way than those of the “action painters”.
How much did the orange red yellow Mark Rothko 1961 sell for? ›
A brilliant camaraderie of three colors, Orange, Red, Yellow - Rothko's timeless creation from 1961, shattered all records for post-war and contemporary art by fetching $87 million.
How much is No 10 by Rothko worth? ›
Sold for: $81.9 million
In May 2015, Rothko's No. 10 (1950) sold for $81.9 million during Christie's postwar and contemporary art evening sale in New York.
How much is the White Center Rothko painting worth? ›
The painting sold for 72.84 million (USD), then setting the record of the current most expensive post-war work of art sold at auction.
How much is no 6 violet green and red worth? ›
One of the most notable sales in the art world occurred in 2014 when Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased Rothko's renowned 1951 masterpiece, “No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red),” from Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier for a staggering $186 million.
