Who is Mark Rothko?
"Marc Rothko is best known as one of the central figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement in American art in the 1950s and '60s."
1903-1970
Born in Dvinsk, Russia
One of the pioneers of Color Field Painting, Rothko’s abstract arrangements of shapes, ranging from the slightly surreal biomorphic ones in his early works to the dark squares and rectangles in later years, are intended to evoke the metaphysical through viewers’ communion with the canvas in a controlled setting. “I'm not an abstractionist,” he once said. “I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.”
"I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.” -Rothko
A prominent figure among the New York School painters, Mark Rothko moved through many artistic styles until reaching his signature 1950s motif of soft, rectangular forms floating on a stained field of color. Heavily influenced by mythology and philosophy, he was insistent that his art was filled with content, and brimming with ideas.
Mark Rothko's different color periods
"There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.” - Rothko