Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko

Author: Christopher Rothko

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2015-11-24

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 030021281X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mark Rothko (1903–1970), world-renowned icon of Abstract Expressionism, is rediscovered in this wholly original examination of his art and life written by his son. Synthesizing rigorous critique with personal anecdotes, Christopher, the younger of the artist’s two children, offers a unique perspective on this modern master. Christopher Rothko draws on an intimate knowledge of the artworks to present eighteen essays that look closely at the paintings and explore the ways in which they foster a profound connection between viewer and artist through form, color, and scale. The prominent commissions for the Rothko Chapel in Houston and the Seagram Building murals in New York receive extended treatment, as do many of the lesser-known and underappreciated aspects of Rothko’s oeuvre, including reassessments of his late dark canvases and his formidable body of works on paper. The author also discusses the artist’s writings of the 1930s and 1940s, the significance of music to the artist, and our enduring struggles with visual abstraction in the contemporary era. Finally, Christopher Rothko writes movingly about his role as the artist’s son, his commonalities with his father, and the terms of the relationship they forged during the writer’s childhood. Mark Rothko: From the Inside Out is a thoughtful reexamination of the legendary artist, serving as a passionate introduction for readers new to his work and offering a fresh perspective to those who know it well.

Mark Rothko: Art from the Inside
Mark Rothko: Art from the Inside

Author: Susan Grange

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2025-08-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1839649771

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Snappy, incisive introduction to the life and later works of one of the world's most popular artists. Mark Rothko's awe-inspiring yet deceptively simple, iconic colour field paintings belie the mythical and emotional complexity behind them. Rothko put his heart and soul into creating works that were to act upon the viewer in an almost physical way, progressing from figurative and symbolist works to eventually using shimmering and enveloping colour to elevate you to a higher spiritual awareness. The straightforward and fascinating text in this book takes you through the development of Rothko's art as you discover the themes, thinking and methodology behind the oeuvre, from Greek tragedy and Nietzsche to music and colour, enabling you to go forth and experience his pieces to the level of intensity intended.

The Artist's Reality
The Artist's Reality

Author: Mark Rothko

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2023-07-11

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0300272510

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mark Rothko’s classic book on artistic practice, ideals, and philosophy, now with an expanded introduction and an afterword by Makoto Fujimura Stored in a New York City warehouse for many years after the artist’s death, this extraordinary manuscript by Mark Rothko (1903–1970) was published to great acclaim in 2004. Probably written in 1940 or 1941, it contains Rothko’s ideas on the modern art world, art history, myth, beauty, the challenges of being an artist in society, the true nature of “American art,” and much more. In his introduction, illustrated with examples of Rothko’s work and pages from the manuscript, the artist’s son, Christopher Rothko, describes the discovery of the manuscript and the fascinating process of its initial publication. This edition includes discussion of Rothko’s “Scribble Book” (1932), his notes on teaching art to children, which has received renewed scholarly attention in recent years and provides clues to the genesis of Rothko’s thinking on pedagogy. In an afterword written for this edition, artist and author Makoto Fujimura reflects on how Rothko’s writings offer a “lifeboat” for “art world refugees” and a model for upholding artistic ideals. He considers the transcendent capacity of Rothko’s paintings to express pure ideas and the significance of the decade-long gap between The Artist’s Reality and Rothko’s mature paintings, during which the horrors of the Holocaust and the atomic bomb were unleashed upon the world.

Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko

Author: James E. B. Breslin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 774

ISBN-13: 9780226074061

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A book of heroic dimensions, this is the first full-length biography of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century—a man as fascinating, difficult, and compelling as the paintings he produced. Drawing on exclusive access to Mark Rothko's personal papers and over one hundred interviews with artists, patrons, and dealers, James Breslin tells the story of a life in art—the personal costs and professional triumphs, the convergence of genius and ego, the clash of culture and commerce. Breslin offers us not only an enticing look at Rothko as a person, but delivers a lush, in-depth portrait of the New York art scene of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s—the world of Abstract Expressionism, of Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, and Klein, which would influence artists for generations to come. "In Breslin, Rothko has the ideal biographer—thorough but never tedious, a good storyteller with an ear for the spoken word, fond but not fawning, and possessed of a most rare ability to comment on non-representational art without sounding preposterous."—Robert Kiely, Boston Book Review "Breslin impressively recreates Mark Rothko's troubled nature, his tormented life, and his disturbing canvases. . . . The artist's paintings become almost tangible within Breslin's pages, and Rothko himself emerges as an alarming physical force."—Robert Warde, Hungry Mind Review "This remains beyond question the finest biography so far devoted to an artist of the New York School."-Arthur C. Danto, Boston Sunday Globe "Clearly written, full of intelligent insights, and thorough."—Hayden Herrera, Art in America "Breslin spent seven years working on this book, and he has definitely done his homework."-Nancy M. Barnes, Boston Phoenix "He's made the tragedy of his subject's life the more poignant."—Eric Gibson, The New Criterion "Mr. Breslin's book is, in my opinion, the best life of an American painter that has yet been written . . . a biographical classic. It is painstakingly researched, fluently written and unfailingly intelligent in tracing the tragic course of its subject's tormented character."—Hilton Kramer, New York Times Book Review, front page review James E. B. Breslin (1936-1996) was professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of From Modern to Contemporary: American Poetry, 1945-1965 and William Carlos Williams: An American Artist.

Writings on Art
Writings on Art

Author: Mark Rothko

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780300114409

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first collection of Mark Rothko's writings, which range the entire span of his career While the collected writings of many major 20th-century artists, including Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt, have been published, Mark Rothko's writings have only recently come to light, beginning with the critically acclaimed The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art. Rothko's other written works have yet to be brought together into a major publication. Writings on Art fills this significant void; it includes some 90 documents--including short essays, letters, statements, and lectures--written by Rothko over the course of his career. The texts are fully annotated, and a chronology of the artist's life and work is also included. This provocative compilation of both published and unpublished writings from 1934--69 reveals a number of things about Rothko: the importance of writing for an artist who many believed had renounced the written word; the meaning of transmission and transition that he experienced as an art teacher at the Brooklyn Jewish Center Academy; his deep concern for meditation and spirituality; and his private relationships with contemporary artists (including Newman, Motherwell, and Clyfford Still) as well as journalists and curators. As was revealed in Rothko's The Artist's Reality, what emerges from this collection is a more detailed picture of a sophisticated, deeply knowledgeable, and philosophical artist who was also a passionate and articulate writer.

Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko

Author: Bradford R. Collins

Publisher: Rizzoli Publications

Published: 2012-09-11

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 0847839001

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first publication dedicated exclusively to Mark Rothko’s art during the critical formative period of the 1940s. Examining the development and artistic exploration of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, this unprecedented volume presents the works of American artist Mark Rothko from the 1940s, a time when his most essential development as a painter occurred, dramatically and in a very compact space of time. During this period, Rothko moved from expressive figurative and surrealist canvases to more abstract multiform subjects and finally to his signature abstractions—luminous rectangles of color suspended in space. Richly illustrated with works by Rothko and his contemporaries, introduction by Todd Herman and essays by prominent Rothko scholars, this important new book deepens our understanding of Rothko’s art during this vital period, and that of the mature works that emerged from it.

Pictures and Tears
Pictures and Tears

Author: James Elkins

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-08-02

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 113595013X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This deeply personal account of emotion and vulnerability draws upon anecdotes related to individual works of art to present a chronicle of how people have shown emotion before works of art in the past.

Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko

Author: Annie Cohen-Solal

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2015-03-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0300185537

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mark Rothko, one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, was born in the Jewish Pale of Settlement in 1903. He immigrated to the United States at age ten, taking with him his Talmudic education and his memories of pogroms and persecutions in Russia. His integration into American society began with a series of painful experiences, especially as a student at Yale, where he felt marginalized for his origins and ultimately left the school. The decision to become an artist led him to a new phase in his life. Early in his career, Annie Cohen-Solal writes, “he became a major player in the social struggle of American artists, and his own metamorphosis benefited from the unique transformation of the U.S. art world during this time.” Within a few decades, he had forged his definitive artistic signature, and most critics hailed him as a pioneer. The numerous museum shows that followed in major U.S. and European institutions ensured his celebrity. But this was not enough for Rothko, who continued to innovate. Ever faithful to his habit of confronting the establishment, he devoted the last decade of his life to cultivating his new conception of art as an experience, thanks to the commission of a radical project, the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. Cohen-Solal’s fascinating biography, based on considerable archival research, tells the unlikely story of how a young immigrant from Dvinsk became a crucial transforming agent of the art world—one whose legacy prevails to this day.

Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko

Author: Francesco Matteuzzi

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2021-11-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 379138791X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This unique portrait of Mark Rothko captures his astonishing use of color as it illustrates the story of his life, career, struggles, and philosophy. Mark Rothko's work is among the most recognizable in modern art history. His huge color-field works enjoy enormous popularity for their luminosity, moodiness, and immersive qualities. But he didn't always paint in bold, simple swaths of color. This graphic biography traces Rothko's entire life, from his boyhood emigration from Russia to America, to his suicide in 1970. It touches on his schooling and early work for the WPA in the 1930s; the evolution of his art from representational to purely abstract; and the dawning of his artistic philosophy, which took him farther and farther away from the material world and toward a universally emotional and expressionist modality. The book's finely detailed drawings are Rothko's signature colors and draw readers into his fascinating creative journey. While Rothko the artist was largely misunderstood during his lifetime, this unique graphic biography offers a way of making sense of his life and of decoding the visual language he invented.