Biography
The family of Mark Rothko, whose real name was Rothkowitz, emigrated to New York in 1912/1913. In 1913 they moved to Portland (Oregon). He attended Yale University in New Haven from 1921 to 1923. He then took acting lessons from 1924 to 1927 and was a student of the expressionist Max Weber. In 1929 he began teaching at the Brooklyn Jewish Center. In 1932 he married Edith Sarah and two years later he became a co-founder of the artist group "Artists Union" in New York. Just one year later, the independent association of artists "The Ten" was founded. Marcus Rothkowitz began to change his name to Mark Rothko in 1940, which he kept. Around this time he became acquainted with Expressionism. He initiated a change from his previous surrealistic painting style in order to find his own painting language through the expressive style. It was expressed in the blurry rectangles of color.
After his divorce, he married Mell Beistle in 1945. This union resulted in two children, Kate (born 1950) and Christopher (born 1963). With his major work, which began in 1949, Mark Rothko became one of the most important representatives of abstract expressionism and color field painting. In 1950, Mark Rothko embarked on a five-month European tour through France, Italy and England. After his return he taught at Brooklyn College from 1951. Three years later the collaboration with the Sidney Janis Gallery began. In 1958, Rothko received an artistic commission for the "Four Seasans" restaurant in the Seagram Building, but he turned it down. The following year a second trip to Europe took place. A permanent Rothko Room with his paintings was set up in Washington's Philipps Collection in 1960. In 1969 he received another artistic commission for murals at the famous Harvard University in Cambridge near Boston.
In 1963, the Marlborough Fine Arts Gallery took up the painter's artistic interests. The following year, the construction of the Rothko Chapel in Houston was commissioned. Rothko became seriously ill in 1968. A year later, in 1969, the Mark Rothko Foundation was founded. The Tate Gallery was gifted nine Seagram Murals in 1969. During this time he separated from his wife Mell Beistle. Rothko became known for his abstract large-format paintings with their colored rectangular surfaces, which create the illusion of movement for the viewer through their blurred outlines. Beyond his actual painting, the artist always tried to create a close connection between the viewer and his works of art. It was always his intention to densely drape small rooms with his large-format works and to expose them to only subdued light.
The simple arrangement of its non-representational rectangular surfaces, the light and the space create something sublime that the viewer can also grasp. The apparent movement of the flat image objects creates tension in the viewer, who is absorbed by it and thus also by the image - in accordance with the artist's intentions. Rothko's abstraction is symbolic in nature. He was inspired by themes from the Old and New Testaments, myths and archaisms. He combines an eternal validity with his style, which he presents and makes tangible in the pictorial translation. As a representative of color field painting, he gave significant impetus to abstract expressionism.
In 1970, the Rothko Rooms opened at the Tate Gallery, and a year later, in 1971, the Rothko Chapel in Houston was posthumously completed.
Mark Rothko committed suicide in New York. He died on February 25, 1970.
