Mark Rothko

Born Marcus Rothkowitz in Russia on September 25, 1903, he emigrated with his family to the United States ten years later. He soon associated and studied with artists; he quickly realized that art, as an expression of the tragedy of the human condition, would have to find a new language. Gradually, Rothko experimented, used new languages, from which he later freed himself, until finally abandoning figurative elements, concentrating on pure pictorial elements, convinced that, by themselves, they would reveal a profound philosophical truth.
When he committed suicide, already ill, on February 25, 1970, Rothko was recognized in the US and Europe for his crucial role in the development of non-representational art. Committed to his unique artistic vision, Rothko celebrated the almost mythical power of art alongside creative imagination and never abandoned his belief in the capacity of abstract art to be enjoyed in purely emotional terms. What he conveys in words in this book is the thought that animates his painting. Painting that, as his son Christopher Rothko states in the introduction to... The reality of the artist"It always was, and would always continue to be, about ideas. Writing the book was just a different way of bringing them into the world."