Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, the great American artist of Russian descent, is one of the chief exponents of Abstract Expressionism. His paintings, predominantly in a large format and featuring horizontal layers of pigment on a monochrome foundation, will forever be in our pictorial memory as the epitome of classical modernism. By means of Rothko's central work groups from all creative periods - among them the Rothko Room in the Phillips collection and the Harvard Murals of Harvard University - this book takes a look at the artist's continuous endeavour to attain "a consummated experience between picture and onlooker". Rothko's adamant insistence on controlling the presentation of his works set him apart from the art scene of his time as early as the beginning of the fifties. His large-format pictures were to be hung closely together in small rooms with soft lighting to provide an immediate experience - a concept which has been most famously and definitively realized in the Rothko Chapel in Houston. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-1026-8) The artist: Mark Rothko, born Markus Rothkowitz (Dwinsk 1903-1970 New York). In 1910, emigration to Oregon. From 1921-1923, studies at Yale University, New Haven, from 1924-1929 at the Art Students League in New York. In 1935, cofounder of the Expressionist artist group "The Ten". In 1949, founding member of the association "Subject of the Artist School". In 1970, Rothko puts an end to his life in New York.