Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Russia in 1903, leaving with his family to settle in Portland Oregon in 1913. He attended Yale University from 1921 to 1923 then moved to New York. By the early 40's Rothko was developing a painting style with mythological content, simple flat shapes and imagery inspired by primitive art. He then moved to incorporate Surrealist techniques and images. Peggy Guggenheim gave Rothko a solo show at Art of This Century in New York in 1945. His mature style then emerged in the late 1940's and early 1950's, in which frontal, luminous rectangles seem to hover on the canvas surface. The artist began receiving commissions in 1958 until his death in 1970.