Rothko, Mark

An entry in the register of births of Markus Rothkovich

Origins and childhood (1903 - 1912)

He was born the fourth child in a Jewish family, where they spoke both Yiddish and Russian . The head of the family, Yakov (Yankel-Bandet Ioselevich) Rotkovich (1859–1914 ^[6] ), worked as an apothecary assistant, first in Vilna , then in Dvinsk, where he opened a pharmacy, but despite a modest income, he paid much attention to the education of children. Mother, Anna (Haya) Murduhovna Rotkovich (nee Goldina; 1870 - 1948), was a housewife. Jacob Rotkovich had Marxist views and was irreligious ^[7] , and his older children received a secular education, but then he returned to orthodox Judaism and decided to give his younger son a religious education. At the age of 5 years, Marcus entered the cheder , where he studied the Pentateuch and the Hebrew language .

Emigration and study in the USA (1913 - 1923)

The head of the Rotkovic family, fearing that the children would be taken to serve in the royal army, decided to emigrate from the country in 1910. Following the example of numerous Jewish families fleeing pogroms in the United States, he chose the same country. Two brothers, Yakov Rotkovich, who had settled in Portland , Oregon, and started producing clothes, had already left for America. Marcus and his older sister Sonya (1890–1985) remained in Russia, while Yakov and two children, Moishe and Albert, emigrated.

On August 5, 1913, the ship “Tsar” left Libava and on August 17 arrived in New York . Among the passengers, on second-class tickets, was Marcus with his sister Sonia and her mother. At first they stopped for ten days with their relatives (Weinsteins) in New Haven, and later, by train, got to Portland ^[8] . Seven months later, Marcus's father died of colorectal cancer ^[6] . The family was left without a livelihood, and all the children had to start working. Sonya, who studied as a dentist in Russia, found a job as an accountant and a clerk, and Moisha and Albert helped the Weinstein family business until they learned English enough to pass a pharmacy exam. Marcus worked there as a courier and selling newspapers to employees at the warehouse.

In 1913, Marcus enrolled in a secondary school, and he was transferred from the third to the fifth grade. At 17, he graduated from with honors. He perfectly mastered English (the fourth language of Marcus) and became actively involved in the life of the local Jewish community, especially in political discussions. Portland was at that time one of the epicenters of revolutionary activity in the United States, and Mark attended meetings of the revolutionary Syndicalist trade union Industrial Workers of the World , which was particularly strong in the city. After the revolution of 1917 in Russia, he organized discussions about it and wanted to devote life to the labor movement, becoming trade union activist.

In September 1921, Marcus enrolled at Yale University - a tradition of the Weinstein family - where he studied for the first year thanks to the grant he received for an excellent certificate, and later, when the scholarship ended, he worked in the laundry room to pay for his studies. At one time, making great progress in mathematics, he seriously considered a career as an engineer. At the university, Marcus, along with his comrades Aaron Director and Simon Whitney, published a satirical magazine aimed at exposing the evils of the WASP ( White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ) university society, including elitism and racism .

In 1923, Marcus left the university, perhaps considering the lessons boring, but probably because of financial difficulties. He returned there only 46 years later, to receive an honorary degree of doctor.

Early Creativity

Without a definite idea of ​​what he wants to do, Marcus moved to New York and rented a room at number 19 on 102nd West Street. He plunged into the turbulent atmosphere of the artistic life of a big city. In the fall of 1923, Rothko, visiting a friend , saw artists painting a model. As Rothko himself later said, at that moment he was born as an artist. He began taking lessons from George Bridgeman in the League of Art Students in New York .

Some time later, he entered the New Design School in New York, where one of its teachers was one of the founders of " abstract surrealism " Arshil Gorky . Despite the fact that Rothko worked very little with artist Max Weber in courses at the League of Art Students of New York - from October to December 1925 and from March to May 1926 - he had a great influence on Rothko’s early works. Since then, he began to perceive art as an instrument of emotional and religious expression. Then the young artist was impressed by the surrealistic works of Paul Klee and the painting by Georges Rouault .

In 1928, Rothko, with a group of young artists, first exhibited his works in the Opportunity gallery. Dark expressive canvases - images of interiors and city sketches - were well received by critics and colleagues. Despite this modest success, Rothko still could not devote himself entirely to creativity - he needed to work.

In the late 1920s, Rothko worked a little while drawing maps for the biblical historical books of the writer Lewis Brown . He moved to house 231 on 25th East Street, and, in 1929, became a teacher of painting and sculpture (part-time) at the Central Academy of the Brooklyn Jewish Center. There he worked until 1952.

It was then that he met Adolf Gottlieb , who, along with other young artists (Barnett Newman, Joseph Solman, Louis Schanker, John Graham), was among the students of Milton Avery . Avery's style, his work with color and texture had a huge impact on Rothko: similar motifs and colors appeared in his works (see Bathing or Beach Scene 1933/34 ).

Young artists spent a lot of time with Avery, traveling, working together on paintings, discussing art. In 1932 , during a trip to Lake George, Rothko met Edith Sugar, a jewelry designer. Soon they got married.

In 1933, the first solo exhibition was held at the Portland Museum of Art, USA. There were presented drawings and watercolors, as well as the work of Rothko students from the Central Academy of New York. The artist's family was against his decision to devote himself to art. During the Great Depression, Rotkovichi lost much and Mark's family was surprised by his indifference and unwillingness to do more “promising” and “profitable” work to help his mother.

First solo exhibition in New York

At the first solo exhibition in New York, Rothko exhibited 15 canvases painted in oil - mostly portraits, as well as drawings and watercolors. At that exhibition, Rothko's mastery, which had outgrown Avery's influence, became apparent: Rothko's work with color fields impressed critics. At the end of 1935, Rothko teamed up with Ilya Bolotovsky , Ben-Zion, Adolf Gottlieb, Lou Harris, Ralph Rosenborg, Louis Shaker and Joseph Solman. They created the "Group of Ten" (" The Ten " - Whitney Ten Dissenters ), whose mission (according to the catalog of the exhibition of the gallery "Mercury" in 1937) was: "To protest against popular belief about the equality of American painting and literal painting . Back in 1950, they were considered radicals, and the conservative jury did not accept their paintings for an important contemporary art exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum. In response, they made a group photo of "Angry" - all with harsh faces, not a shadow of a smile. Especially angry is Mark Rothko. Rothko's style has already changed, he was approaching the famous works of the mature period, however, despite his interest in learning color, the artist concentrated on other formal and stylistic innovations, working on surreal images of mythological stories and symbols. Organic, semi-abstract forms, born of his fantasies and dreams, are called biomorphic. At this time, the authority of Rothko is growing, especially among the Union of Artists. Founded in 1937, this union, which also included Gottlieb and Solman, set himself the goal of creating a municipal art gallery, where one could organize independent group exhibitions. In 1936, a group of the Union of Artists arranged its exhibition in the Gallery Bonaparte, in France (Galerie Bonaparte).

In 1938, another exhibition was held at the Mercury Gallery. At that time, Rothko, like many artists of the time, began working in a state organization created to overcome the effects of the Depression, which attracted artists and architects to restore and renovate public buildings. At that time, many famous artists, including Avery, DeKuning, Pollock, Reinar, David Smith, Louise Nevelson, eight artists from the Group of Ten, and Rothko's teacher Arshil Gorky, worked in the state.

Own style

In 1936, Rothko began to write a book, which was never finished, about the similar principles of children's drawing and the works of contemporary artists. According to Rothko, “the fact that artistic work begins with a drawing is already an academic approach. We start with color, ”the artist wrote, comparing the influence of primitive cultures on modernists with the mimicry prerequisites of children's creativity. Rothko believed that the modernist, as a child and a man of primitive culture who influenced him, should, in an ideal and optimal work, express the inner sense of form without the intervention of the mind. This is a physical and emotional, non-intellectual experience. Rothko began to use color fields in his watercolors and urban landscapes, it was then that the subject and form in his works lose their meaning. Rothko consciously sought to imitate children's drawings.

In 1938, he applied for American citizenship and began working under the creative pseudonym Mark Rothko only in 1940, shortening Markus Rothkovich. By the early 1950s, he had even more simplified the structure of his paintings, creating a series of "multi-forms" - paintings consisting of several color planes. The artist himself formulated his task as “a simple expression of a complex thought”. The works that had already glorified him were rectangular canvases of large size with the color planes of the “color field” painting floating in space.

At the same time, he said: “You should not consider my paintings to be abstract. I have no intention of creating or emphasizing a formal correlation of color and place. I reject the natural image only in order to strengthen the expression of the theme contained in the title. ” But most of his abstract paintings had no name.

Critics consider Rothko's most significant work to be the cycle of 14 paintings for the chapel of the ecumenical church in Houston in Texas ^[9] .

Demise

In the spring of 1968, arterial aneurysm was discovered in Rothko. Ignoring the recommendations of the doctor, the artist continued to drink a lot, to smoke and refused to go on a diet, but he obeyed the advice not to take more large-scale paintings larger than a meter in height and began working in more compact formats. His marriage to Mell Beistl was at this time in a severe crisis, and the artist's problems with health only aggravated the situation. On the first day of 1969, they divorced, and Rothko moved to live in his studio.

On February 25, 1970, Oliver Steindecker, Rothko's assistant, found the artist lying unconscious on the floor of his own kitchen with open veins, in a pool of blood; the razor, which he cut himself, lay there too. At this point, Rothko was already dead. An autopsy revealed that before suicide, he took a huge dose of antidepressants.

Rothko was buried in East Marion Cemetery on Long Island . In 2006, the children of the artist, Kate Rothko-Pritzel and Christopher Rothko, petitioned for the reburial of his father’s remains at the cemetery in Kensico, next to their mother. In April 2008, Judge Arthur Pitts authorized the reburial.

• Yakov (Yankel-Bendet Ioselevich) Rotkovich (1859, Michalishki of the Vilna province - 03/27/1914 ^[6] , Portland ) - father, apothecary.
• Anna (Haya) Murdukhovna Rotkovich (born Goldina; 1870, St. Petersburg - 10/11/1948, Portland ) - mother, housewife.
  • Sonya Allen ( Eng. Sonia Allen ; 03/19/1890 - 5.3.1985) - sister
  • Moysha Roth (Rotkovich) ( English Moise Roth (Rothkowitz) ; 2.11.1890 - 1989) - brother
  • Albert Roth (Rotkovich) ( eng. Albert Roth (Rothkowitz) ; 12/19/1895 - 5.5.1977) - brother
• Edith Sugar ( born Edith Sachar ; 1912 - 1981) - first wife (1932 - 1943)
• Mary Ellis “Mall” Beistle ( born Mary Alice "Mell" Beistle ; 3.1.1922 - 08.26.1970) - second wife (1944 - 1969), book illustrator ^[10] .
  • Kate Rothko-Pritsel ( born Kate Rothko Prizel ; born 03/30/1950) - daughter
  • Christopher Rothko ( Eng. Christopher Rothko ; born. 08/31/1963) - son, clinical psychologist, writer

Mark Rothko is one of the most famous and influential American artists of the second half of the 20th century and a key figure in post-war abstract expressionism .

For a long time, Rothko is one of the most expensive artists. His painting “Orange, Red, Yellow” in 2012 became the most expensive piece of post-war art ever sold at auction (86.9 million dollars). ^[eleven]

• The monument dedicated to Mark Rothko is installed on the banks of the Daugava River in Daugavpils (2003, author Romuald Gibovsky).
• In 2013, the Art Center named after Mark Rothko was opened in Daugavpils .
• In December 2009, in London, the premiere of the play “Red” (“Red”) took place, the main character of which is Mark Rothko. The artist played a British actor Alfred Molina , his assistant Ken - Eddie Redmayn . The author of the play is American playwright and screenwriter John Logan (films “ Aviator ”, “ The Last Samurai ”, “ Sweeney Todd ”). In March 2010, the premiere of this performance was held at the New York theater “Golden Theater” ^[12] . The play and actor Eddie Redmaine won the Tony Award ( 2010 ).

Spoiling pictures of Rothko in 2012

On October 7, 2012, an unidentified man entered one of the halls of the London-based Tate Modern Museum of Modern Art and wrote in black ink in the corner of Rothko's painting “Black on brown” (Black on Maroon) “Vladimir Umanets '12, a potential piece of yellowism” (“Vladimir Umanets "12. Potential product of yellowness" ^[13] ). Later it turned out that Vladimir (Volodzimierz) Umanets is a Russian citizen temporarily living in Poland. ^[14] .

Exhibitions in Russia

• For the first time in Russia, the exhibition of Mark Rotko “Painting and Graphics (1903-1970). To the 100th anniversary of the birth ”(from the collection of the National Gallery, Washington) took place from December 16, 2003 to March 8, 2004 in the State Hermitage Museum .
• The exhibition “Mark Rothko: To an Unknown World” opened in April 2010 at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (Moscow). The exhibition covered the twenty years of Rothko creativity (1949-1969). The famous painting “No. 12” (1954) and sketches of monumental projects - frescoes for the Sigrem-building skyscraper , the chapel of the University of St. Thomas ( Houston , Texas ) and others, as well as one of the latest works of Rothko, in gray and black, were presented. dated 1969

• Writings on art. New Haven: Yale UP, 2006

• List of the most expensive paintings

• Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: a retrospective / Diane Waldman, ed. - New York: HN Abrams, 1978.
• Chave AC Mark Rothko, subjects in abstraction. - New Haven: Yale UP, 1989.
• Marc Glimcher, ed. - London: Barrie & Jenkins , 1992.
• Breslin JEB Mark Rothko: a biography. - Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
• Davis J. Mark Rothko: The Art of Transcendence. - Kidderminster: Crescent Moon, 1995.
• Golding J. Paths to the absolute: Mondrian, Malevich, Kandinsky, Pollock, Newman, Rothko, and Still. - Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000.
• Ottmann K. The essential Mark Rothko. - New York: Wonderland Press; Harry N. Abrams, 2003.
• Baal-Teshuva J. Mark Rothko. - M .: Art-Rodnik, 2006. - ISBN 5-9561-0192-X

• Documentary film Mark Rothko - the great artist of our time
• Works in the museums of the world