Mark Rothko

Works in the TATE collection

Rothko’s first solo exhibition in New York was held at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in 1933. In 1935, he was a founding member of the Ten, a group of artists sympathetic to abstraction and Expressionism…

National gallery of art, Washington D.C.

Works in the MOMA collection

Rothko is in the firmament of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists and it is now half a century since his mature, "signature" style evolved and his works hold up well. There is no denying the loveliness of many of them, although loveliness is not necessarily what Rothko pined for. Indeed, Rothko was a very ambitious artist who wanted to transcend mere painting and achieve the magic of poetry and music and he considered himself neither a colorist nor an abstract painter, both of which he most certainly was…