MARK ROTHKO

A RETROSPECTIVE
MARK ROTHKO,1903-1970
A Retrospective
wl
 DIANE WALDMAN

MARK ROTHKO, 1903-1970

A Retrospective

This project is supported by grants from

Atlantic Richfield Foundation and the National Endowment
for the Arts in Washington, D.C. , a Federal Agency

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

in association with

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 1

frontispiece

Mark Rothko on his birthday' in

1960, 222 Bowery, New York.

Photo by Regma Bogat

The American Sublime

Copyright 1936 by Wallace Stevens and renewed
1964 by Holly Stevens. Reprinted from The Collected

Poems of Wallace Stevens, by permission of Alfred A.

Knopf, Inc.

Published by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. , New York,

in collaboration with The Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation, New York, 1978

Book design: Nai Y. Chang

Editor: Carol Fuerstein

ISBN 0-89207-014-5

Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number 78-584 1

All Rights Reserved. No part of the contents

of this book may be reproduced without the written
permission of the publisher

Printed and bound in Japan

 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
PRESIDENT Peter O. Lawson-Johnston

TRUSTEES The Right Honorable Earl Castle Stewart, Joseph W. Donner, John
Hilson, Eugene W. Leake, Frank R. Milliken, A. Chauncey Newlin,
Mrs. Henry Obre, Albert E. Thiele, Michael F. Wettach
HONORARY TRUSTEES
IN PERPETUITY Solomon R. Guggenheim, Justin K. Thannhauser, Peggy Guggenheim

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

DIRECTOR Thomas M. Messer

STAFF Henry Berg, Deputy Director

Susan Halper, Executive Assistant; Vanessa Jalet, Secretary to the

Director

Louise Averill Svendsen, Senior Curator; Diane Waldman, Curator of

Exhibitions; Margit Rowell, Curator; Angelica Zander Rudenstine,
Research Curator; Linda Konheim, Curatorial Administrator (on leave);
Linda Shearer, Assistant Curator; Carol Fuerstein, Editor; Vivian
Endicott Barnett, Curatorial Associate; Mary Joan Hall, Librarian; Ward
Jackson, Archivist; Susan Ferleger, Philip Verre, Clair Zamoiski,
Curatorial Coordinators; Susan Hirschfeld, Curatorial Assistant

Mimi Poser, Public Affairs Officer; Miriam Emden, Membership

Department Head

Jane E. Heffner, Development Officer; Carolyn Porcelli, Development

Associate

Agnes R. Connolly, Auditor; Duncan Ralph, Administrative Assistant;

Philip Almeida, Restaurant Manager; Charles Hovland, Sales Supervisor;
Darrie Hammer, Katherine W. Briggs, Information

David Roger Anthony, Technical Officer; Orrin H. Riley, Conservator;

Dana L. Cranmer, Conservation Assistant; Elizabeth M. Funghini,
Cherie A. Summers, Associate Registrars; Jack Coyle, Registrars'
Assistant; Saul Fuerstein, Preparator; Scott A. Wixon, Operations
Coordinator; David Mortensen, Carpenter; Robert E. Mates,
Photographer; Mary Donlon, Associate Photographer

David A. Sutter, Building Superintendent; Guy Fletcher, Jr., Assistant

Building Superintendent; Charles F. Banach, Head Guard

ADVISORY BOARD Aye Simon

LIFE MEMBERS Mr. and Mrs. William C. Edwards, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Andrew P. Fuller,
Mrs. Bernard F. Gimbel, Mr. and Mrs. Peter O. Lawson-Johnston,
Mrs. Samuel I. Rosenman, Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Scheuer

CORPORATE PATRONS Alcoa Foundation, Atlantic Richfield Foundation, Exxon Corporation,

Mobil Corporation

GOVERNMENT PATRONS National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts
 ,

Lenders to the exhibition

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Blinken Albright-rCndx Art Gallery, Buffalo,

Leonard and Ruth Bocour New York
Honorable and Mrs. Irwin D. Davidson Art Gallery of Ontario
Gerald S. Elliott, Chicago The Brooklyn Museum
Arnold and Milly Glimcher, New York Dartmouth College Museum and
Galleries, Hanover, New Hampshire
Graham Gund
Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller, New York The Fort Worth Art Museum
MH Holdings Inc. ( courtesy Mr.& Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen,
Diisseldorf
Mrs. Donald B. Marron)
Milwaukee Art Center
Barbara and Donald Jonas
Munson- Williams-Proctor Institute,
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kardon
Utica, New York
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Klebanoff,
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute,
New York
Pittsburgh
Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Kolin
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of
Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Lang, Design, Providence
Medina, Washington
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Steingrim Laursen, Copenhagen
The Museum of Modern Art,
Dr. Paul Todd Makler New York
McCrory Corporation, New York The Phillips Collection, Washington, D. C.
Mrs. Barnett Newman The St. Louis Art Museum
Betty Parsons, New York
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Mr. and Mrs. Gifford Phillips,
The Toledo Museum of Art
New York
University Art Museum, University of
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. California, Berkeley
Tiziana de R. , Geneva Vassar College Art Gallery,
Estate of Mark Rothko Poughkeepsie, New York
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko Whitney Museum of American Art,
Mrs. Hannelore Schulhof New York
Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc.
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
New York
Gimpel & Hanover Galerie, Zurich
Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine,
Meriden, Connecticut
The Pace Gallery
Frederick Weisman Family Collection
Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright
Table of Contents

Lenders to the Exhibition p. 6

Acknowledgements Thomas M. Messer, p. 9

Preface Thomas M. Messer, p. 12

The Aquamarine Sunrise: A Memory of Roth ko Bernard Malamud, p. 13

Mark Rothko: The Farther Shore of Art Diane Waldman, p. 16

Plates p. 73

Chronology Clair Zamoiski, p. 265

Exhibitions and Selected Reviews p. 280

Bibliography p. 292

Photographic Credits p. 296

Acknowledgements

A retrospective of
cance in any circumstances.
Mark Rothko's painting would be an event of signifi-
The current presentation, however, is unique in
two respects: first, it is the most comprehensive survey of Rothko's work ever
held and, second, the artist's tragic death in 1970 bestows upon it a finality
which obviously would not obtain in an exhibition mounted during his
lifetime. Furthermore, this is the first show of Rothko's painting after an
almost decade-long hiatus caused by extensive litigation court proceed-
ings that made it impossible until now to realize an exhibition or even to gain
access to a representative sampling of the artist's lifework from which a
selection could be made.
Foremost among those who have extended their confidence to the
Guggenheim Museum are the artist's daughter, Kate, and her husband, Ilya

Prizel. Together with Edward J. Ross, of Breed, Abbott & Morgan, legal
representative for the Estate of Mark Rothko, and Sally and William Scharf,
the Prizels continued to extend their help and support in every aspect of the
project. In addition, Herbert Ferber, Executor, Estate of Mary Alice Rothko,
and Stanley Geller, of Butler, Jablow and Geller, attorney for the Estate of

Mary Alice Rothko, have helped us with the extensive work relating to the
estate of the artist's wife. We also wish to acknowledge favorable action
recommended by the newly-appointed Board of the Mark Rothko Foundation
comprised of Donald Blinken, Chairman, Dorothy C. Miller, Gifford Phil-
lips, David Prager, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, William Scharf and Jack Tworkov.
Financing subsequently assumed great importance because of the exhi-
bition's comprehensive scale and the high values of the works involved. The
enormous shown by leading American museums from coast to coast
interest
resulted in a welcome pattern of collaboration. The Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, William C. Agee, Director; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,
Martin Friedman, Director; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
Kenneth Donahue, Director, agreed to cosponsor the presentation with the
Guggenheim, thereby assuming for all participants a double advantage:
broadened national impact for the show and increased financial resources, as
each of the four museums assumed basic costs during the retrospective's
year-long circulation. But even with this collaboration, expenses would have
outrun available finances had the enterprise not benefited from corporate as

well as governmental support the two principal sources of funding that

have become increasingly important for cultural institutions in recent years.
We therefore underline the appreciation of all the participating museums for
 the equivalent sponsorship of the exhibition by the Atlantic Richfield
Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Both may take credit
for helping to launch this significant event.
The selection, organization and staging of the exhibition, as well as the

authorship of the catalogue which accompanies it were the responsibility of

Diane Waldman, the Guggenheim's Curator of Exhibitions. Mrs. Waldman
approached her task with exemplary thoroughness, seeking out primary
sources of information and thus adding substantially to the existing fund of
knowledge about the artist, his life and his work. In the process of her
researches, she obtained much new and valuable information, often in the
form of previously unpublished documentary material, from the following
friends and colleagues of Mark Rothko: Mrs. Milton Avery, Jimmy Ernst,
Mrs. Adolph Gottlieb, H. R. Hays, Buffie Johnson, Katharine Kuh,
Mildred and Joseph Liss, Dorothy C. Miller, Dr. Max Naimark, Mrs.
BarnettNewman; Wallace Putnam, Jon Schueler; Lee Sievan, Joseph Sol-
man, Oliver Steindecker, Pat Ttivigno, Jack Tworkov and Edward Wein-
stein. The following have helped us obtain photographs and gather informa-
tion about Rothko's work: Ronnie Baer, The Museum of Modern Art, New
York; Sidney Janis Gallery; Mayor Gallery; David McKee Gallery; Pace
Gallery; Betty Parsons Gallery. The catalogue obviously has been greatly
enriched by Mrs. Waldman's extensive essay and by the personal recollec-
tions of Bernard Malamud which shed new light upon the subject of this

study.
An undertaking as far-reaching as the current exhibition and catalogue
involves all levels of the Museum's organization. Therefore, the
Guggenheim's staff as a whole should be thanked for their diligence and
devotion. The following staff members were most directly concerned with
the preparation of the exhibition and the catalogue: Clair Zamoiski, Cura-
torial Coordinator, who contributed to all aspects of the exhibition and
publication; Carol Fuerstein, Editor, who edited the catalogue and saw it

through the presses; Susan Hirschfeld, Curatorial Assistant, who helped with
the publication's preparation and production; Maud Lavin, Curatorial In-
tern, who did research; Linda Shearer, Assistant Curator, who aided in the
exhibition's preliminary stages.
Our last some ways most important acknowledgement is ad-
and in

dressed to the lenders who, in a most tangible sense, have made this

retrospective possible. Unless they wished to remain anonymous, their

names are cited elsewhere in this catalogue, but our indebtedness to them
and our gratitude for the confidence that their loans imply go far beyond such
a perfunctory gesture.
Mark Rothko, 19031970: A Retrospective represents a mighty commit-

ment by the participating museums one that was realized only with the
fullest aid and support of every kind. In Diane Waldman's name and on
behalf of my colleagues, I therefore extend to all those who have helped so
generously, our deeply felt gratitude.

Thomas M. Messer, Director

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
 11

Ca. 1925
 Preface

12 J_VXark Rothko shares with composers of music an absence of explicit

imagery and a correspondingly developed capacity to evoke content by
association; an ability to engage the responding organ (in his case, the eye) in
a process that is akin to listening because it involves attention to consecutive
passages; an interest in rhythmic structures (in his case, spatially articu-
lated); and the use of color to achieve modulations that can be subtly
chromatic or dramatically contrasted. Beyond this, Rothko's sensibility
would seem to evoke the era of German Romanricism arid with it the great
names from Schubert through Brahms. Like them, Rothko is a creator of

melodic surfaces rendered vital and sonorous by means of formal structures

which are, for rhe most part, hidden. Also, like many of them, Rothko often
creates for himself restricted formats which he then explores in a seemingly
endless succession of rich variants. Finally, Rothko's orchestral propensities
are, like those of the great Romantics, simultaneously ponderous and heroic,
often lyrical in mood but never sentimental.
But music comes to mind here not only because Rothko uses devices
analogous to those of the composers nor because he shares with them a
broadly romantic sensibility. We think of music because Rothko's painting,
so firmly structured, so rhythmically articulated and so subtly colored, has
achieved a directness and force of expression rightly attributed to the tonal
language more than to any other.
This comprehensive retrospective of Mark Rothko's lifework at the
Guggenheim Museum and three American sister institutions should, there-

fore, envelop the visitor in an experience simultaneously intellectual and

sensuous an experience which reaches through eyes, deepened in rheir
capacity, to the mind, the heart and the total being.

T. M. M.
The Aquamarine Sunrise: a memory of Roth ko

M. -ark had been to John Kennedy's inaugural blast in 1961 and here he
13

was, four years later, at Lyndon Johnson's, where my wife Ann and I met him

and Mell. That night we were riding with two busloads of artists and
performers from one pleasant entertainment to another. The company was
exciting, the mood hilarious Happy New Year still going on. Either on our
bus, or at one party or another, I remember seeing or talking with people like
Samuel Barber, Jasper Johns, Richard Wilbur, Anna Moffo, William Goyen
and Edward Steichen. The buses were marked "Cultural Leaders" and led by
sirening police cars at a fast clip through the streets of Washington. Mell
Rothko, twenty years younger than her husband, was chatting from the seat
behind us with Ann. Then Mark leaned forward and introduced himself. For
amoment because of my associations with the Northwest I thought he had
Mark Tobey but he set me straight. We enjoyed being cultural leaders.
said
Mark was beamish. Mell, in a happy mood, told my wife she had got him to
propose by sitting in his lap and asking him to.

At dinner in the New State Department building, Mark and Mell, Ann
and I, and, I think, Bill and Doris Goyen, sat together at a table with Henry
Cabot Lodge, who was then Ambassador to South Vietnam, and his wife

Emily. The Ambassador piled his plate and ate away: he said he hadn't eaten
lunch. Mark, after cocktails, was high. He turned to Lodge and owlishly
asked, "And what do you do?" Lodge told him. Mark, taking another look at

him, got up on his feet and apologized. Lodge nodded courteously. They
shook hands. Mark later told Ann the incident had embarrassed him.
After that we occasionally met Mark in New York City, usually at the
home of Use and Karl Schrag, the painter and printmaker. They were
neighbors who lived diagonally across the way from the Rothkos on East
95th. One day I was in town and coming to dinner at the Schrags. Use had
gone across the street and lent Mark one of my books. He said he didn't read
much but would have a go at it. She invited him to join us at dinner. He told
her he liked being invited out at short notice, but he didn't think his wife
would want to come. When he came over he told me he was familiar with the
kind of people I'd written about inmy book. He spoke of his Jewish
immigrant family in Portland, Oregon, when he was a boy. I was very much
interested in the Oregon connection because I had lived for a dozen years in
Corvallis, a town south of Portland. Mark liked to reminisce: One night he
told us how he had left his first wife. He had gone off for an army physical
during World War II and they had turned him down. When he arrived home
 At the "Icehouse,'' Yorktown
Heights, New York, ca. 1949

14

c
o
U

o
-C
a.

Ca. 1964-66

and told his wife he was 4-F he didn't like the look that flitted across het face.

The next day he went to see his lawyet about a divorce.

Once, early in the winter of 1969, when we were subletting an apart-
ment on Gramercy Park South, I stopped by to see Mark in his studio on East
69th Street. He wasn't working and seemed glad I had come. We spent most
of the afternoon in the huge studio listening to Mozart and talking casually.
On the coffee table was an open book on Shakespeare. He told me he had left

Mell and talked about his depression. Mark recited his various troubles yet
seemed content with himself. He had had a good summer, not at the
beginning but good after a while. He had beaten out a severe depression and
after a difficult time was able to work well in Provincetown. At first he'd
been given an antidepressant that tasted "brassy" and hadn't entirely relieved
him so he went to another doctor, who had added or subtracted a pill, and
thereafter he felt relief and could work. He'd had a prolific several months
painting a flood of acrylics on paper. He said they had come to hundreds of
paintings that summer and afterwards. He was in a period of wonderful
productivity. It was a fine afternoon.
When I asked if I could see some of the summer's work he said he had
already sold the best paintings. He dropped about ten or a dozen on the floor
and said I could select from all but one, if I wanted. That was a black
rectangle, about two feet by three, the black broken by a three or four inch
jagged section in bright aquamarine. The aquamarine looked like light
breaking through night. It was an uneven form, perhaps zigzag, unlike
anything I'd seen in his work. I wondered if he was unwilling to part with it

because it was a unique form for him; and I felt the picture held some special
significance, which I interpreted to be symbolic of the dissolution of his
black mood. I asked about that painting but he said he wouldn't part with it. 15

I wasn't much taken by the one-tone flat maroons and almost solid

blacks on the floor but offered to show two of them to my wife. Mark said I
could have the two for six-thousand dollars. He rolled the paintings into a
cardboard cylinder which I brought home to Bennington. Ann and I

examined them and decided they didn't represent Rothko to us. She returned
them in the cylinder, insured, as Mark had requested, for twelve thousand
dollars apiece. I sent a note saying that when he did some more acrylics on
paper we hoped he would let us see them. There was no reply.
When we talked on the phone in December, when I was again spending
the winter at Gramercy Park, I invited him to a party at our apartment and he
said he would come and could he bring a friend. The night of the party he
called to say he couldn't make it and would like to have a rain check. I said
that for me where there was rain there were rain checks.
Shortly before he died in February, 1970, the Schrags saw Mark from
their window, across the street. His long hair was lank. He looked haggard,
pale, joyless.
That cold winter's night, one day after Mark Rothko had committed
suicide, there was a small talky subdued crowd at the funeral home on

Madison Avenue. Mark lay in his coffin with a pair of horn-rimmed glasses
on his nose. He had been shaved and barbered and dressed in a dark suit.
Standing there, I made my peace with him.
Karl Schrag thought he would not have taken his life if he hadn't been
seriously ill.

Stanley Kunitz said that his death meant the end of an era in painting.
Mell, as I left, was glad I could come.
I said I didn't think I would be going to the funeral tomorrow.
She asked remembered the night
if I in the bus when we were cultural
leaders and everything was fine.
Bernard Malamud
1
The American Sublime

How does one stand

To behold the sublime,
To confront the mockers,
The mickey mockers
And plated pairs?
When General Jackson
Posed for his statue

He knew how one feels.

man go barefoot
Shall a
Blinking and blank?

But how does one feel?

One grows used to the weather,

The landscape and that;

And the sublime comes down

To the spirit itself,
The spirit and space,
The empty spirit
In vacant space.
What wine does one drink?
What bread does one eat?

Wallace Stevens, 1935

MARK ROTHKO 17

The Farther Shore of Art

At the "Icehouse,'' Yorktown Heights, New York, ca. 1949

The death of Mark Rothko on February 25, 1970, at the age of 67, brought
to a close an era in which the myth of the artist as hero seemed as important as
the period's now legendary paintings. Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock,
David Smith, Franz Kline and others of the New York School had also met
untimely ends, but it is Rothko's suicide that is the most disturbing,
symbolically, of all these deaths. For it came in an age that values neither the

hero nor the antihero and it demonstrated clearly, not a disbelief in art, but
in the central role of the self in painting a concept vital to Rothko and his

contemporaries but antithetical to the ideas of a subsequent generation

which views detachment on the part of the artist as essential.

Rothko's ambition was to rank with the greatest figures of Western

art. This painter of genius wanted to achieve the grandeur of tradition and
at the same time to rebel against tradition. The struggle to attain this
paradoxical goal ultimately destroyed his confidence. The tragedy of Roth-
ko's death, then, lies not only in its termination of a brilliant career, but in
that it marked the end of an attitude towards the role of the artist and art

itself.
 -

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o, 'nAugust 5, 1913, the ten year old Marcus Rothkowitz sailed to

19

America aboard the S.S. Czar from the Russian port of Libau with his
mother, Anna, and his older sister, Sonia. His father, Jacob, a fairly
well-to-do pharmacist in Russia, had emigrated to the United States in
1910. He traveled to Portland, Oregon, where his brother, Samuel Wein-
stein, had established himself some years earlier and founded a flourishing
men's clothing business, the New York Outfitting Company. 1 Shortly after
the senior Rothkowitz found employment as a pharmacist, he sent for his two
eldest sons, Moise and Albert, and two years later for his wife, daughter and
Marcus, the youngest child.
The latter three, listed in the Manifest of Alien Passengers (fig. 1) as

"Markus," "Scheine" and "Chaje Rotkowicz," arrived in New York on

August 17 . As second-cabin passengers they did not have to enter the United
States through Ellis Island. Instead, they disembarked in New York and
then proceeded to New Haven, where they stayed with Weinstein cousins for

ten days. Then they traveled by train to Portland, wearing badges indicating
they did not speak English. In Portland, they settled in the Jewish section of
the southwest part of town. Seven months after they arrived, Jacob died.
Life in Czarist Russia was very difficult for most Jews. Subject to
extreme repression, they were unable to move about freely and were re-

stricted to living in certain quarters. Advanced education was a privilege

denied to all but a tiny minority. There was a quota system, with few Jews
allowed into high school and even fewer into college. Nonetheless, Jacob
Rothkowitz was able to provide a comfortable existence for his family and
schooling for his children. Born on September 25, 1903, in Dvinsk, Marcus
was considerably younger than his sister, who was fourteen at the time of his
birth, and his brothers Moise and Albert, who were eleven and eight
respectively. Like many Jewish boys in Eastern Europe in this era, Marcus
was sent to Hebrew school and studied the scriptures and the Talmud.
Despite these educational advantages, the family faced an uncertain future in
Russia, and Jacob decided that they would fare better in America.
When Jacob died, the children were forced to go to work. Sonia, who had
been trained as a dentist in Russia, became a bookkeeper and clerk at the New
York Outfitting Company, while Moise and Albert also worked for the
Weinstein family until they learned English well enough to pass the qualifying

exams required to become pharmacists. Marcus worked as a delivery boy and

took on a newspaper route.
 fig. 2

Shattuck School, Portland, Oregon

20

fig 3

Old Lincoln High School , Portland, Oregon

iLINCOLN HIGH GRADUATES LEAVE PORTLAND TO ENTER YALE.

ass

fig. 4
Newspaper clipping showing Naimark,
Director and Rothkowitz, September 18,
1921. Courtesy Dr Max Naimark

/&jrjfa//77&s~sir.
,

vsvtsfJ&S/f&hvjfjr.
Bos*- S L jMM>vn^
Three graduates of the Lincoln high school In the June '21 class left
Portland last week to enter Yale. They are Marcus Rothkowitz, Max
.Valmark and Harry Director, three Russian boys, none of whom has been In
,thls country longer than seven years.
All three made brilliant records In scholarship during the time they were
In Lincoln high and passed their college entrance examinations soon after
graduation. They will stay at Yale four years. They Intend to become
professional men, but have not yet decided upon their life work.
1 Max Naimark has been In the United States only four years. He spent
Ine year In the elementary schools and three years In high school. All threoj
nk pip college preparatory course In high school.
 Marcus attended Shattuck Grade School and Lincoln High School,
completing high school with an extraordinary record in only three years (figs.

2,3)- While attending Lincoln, he worked in the shipping department of the

family store. At this time, Marcus took drawing and painting classes at a
local art school with two of his cousins and often sketched on the store

wrapping paper. 2 His feeling for music emerged now, encouraged by his
uncle, Samuel Weinstein, whose two daughters studied at Juilliard. Al-
though Marcus had no formal music training, he taught himself to play the
mandolin and later the piano. In high school, he was especially interested in

social studies and literature and, despite his recent emigration, was fluent
enough in English to be a proficient debater. Concerned with the labor
movement and radical causes, he hoped to be a labor organizer, an ambition
consistent with the liberal politics of many Russian Jews, born of the harsh
realities of their situation. Many years later, the artist related:

While 1 was still in grade school . . . I listened to Emma Goldman and to j \

the IWW orators who were plentiful on the West Coast in those days. I was
enchanted by their naive and child-like vision. Later, sometime in the

Twenties I guess 1 lost all faith in the idea ofprogress and reform So did all .

my friends. Perhaps we were disillusioned because everything seemed so

frozen and helpless during the Coolidge and Hoover era. But I am still an
2
anarchist. What else?

In September 192 1, Rothkowitz left Portland for New Haven to attend

Yale University a Weinstein family tradition with two former high
school classmates and fellow Russian emigrants, Aaron Harry Director and
Max Naimark(fig. 4). The dean of Yale, sent to Portland to recruit students,
and Lincoln High School's chemistry teacher, a Yale graduate, had encour-
aged them to apply to the University. The three traveled across country by
train. Marcus and Max shared a Pullman berth.
Naimark recounts their stay at the University as follows:

During our freshman year at Yale, Marcus and I roomed together in a

thirdfloor room . . . at 840 Howard Avenue NewHaven. , . . . Marc and I
didn't see much of each other except late in the evenings when we returned to
our room. . . .Marcus didn't seem to need much studying and spent a
considerable amount of time with his relatives in New Haven . . . the

Weinsteins . . .who also lived on Howard Avenue . . . . The Weinsteins had

two sons, architects, graduates of Yale and living in Neiv Haven at the

time. As far as I was concerned. Marc was brilliant. He did not have to

study much, didn't pay much attention to some of the subjects or the

professors he didn't particularly like.

For the second year at Yale . . . Marc moved to the Yale dorms and roomed
with Harry Director and another student.

At no time have I seen Marc paint. He did much informal drawing and
4
sketching which to me looked quite good but that's about all.

Although Marcus and his two friends had received full scholarships to the
University, these were cancelled after one year. Nevertheless, all three stayed
on. Marcus remained until 1923, studying English, French, history,
mathematics, physics, biology, economics and philosophy. During his sec-
ond year he took all his meals with the Weinsteins to save money and worked


at odd jobs in the Yale student Iaundty and at two different cleanets neat the

campus. He excelled in math and setiously consideted becoming an en-

gineer. In his sophomote yeat, Rothkowitz, Ditectot and Simon Whitney,
another student, published a short-lived weekly, the progressive The Yale
Saturday Evening Pest. More a pamphlet than a newspaper, it contained
articles, comments, editotials and criticism on subjects of interest to Yale

students. The sheet's decidedly liberal point of view as well as its propagan-
dist nature were quite unusual for Yale in the twenties.

Marcus left Yale probably because he became bored with his studies,

possibly also due 1923, without

to financial difficulties in receiving his
degree, to "wander around, bum about, starve a bit." 5 Without any cleat
idea of what he wanted to do, he moved to New York and rented a room at 19

West 102nd Street. He seems to have become an artist by chance. "I

happened to wander into an art class, to meet a friend who was taking the
course," he explained. "All the students were sketching the nude model
22 and right away I decided that was the life fot me." 6 He began taking anatomy
courses at the Art Students League with George Bndgman. At this time, he
suppotted himself by taking odd jobs, including work in the garment
district. Rothkowitz worked for a while as a bookkeeper for a Weinstein
relative, Samuel Nichtberger, a CPA and tax attorney with offices on
Broadway. Naimark tells us:

Not too long after he left Yale I saw him in the Bronx [sic] where he lived
in a one room apartment and I got the impression that he was earning a few
dollars drawing patterns for some materials. I lost track of him after that,

though I did hear that he hitchhiked to the West Coast once or twice but
didn't know anything definite for some years. Then I began to hear and
read about his accomplishments as a painter and artist. 7

He returned for a short period in 1924 to Portland and joined an acting

company run by Clark Gable's first wife, Josephine Dillon. Gable was also in
the company then and it is likely that they became acquainted befote Gable
left for Hollywood with Miss Dillon. In fact, the artist was to claim that

Gable had been his understudy. Despite the brief duration of this experience,
his fascination for theater continued. To some extent it influenced his choice
of dramatic themes in his painting of the early 1940's. And as late as 1947-48
he said:

/ think of my pictures as dramas; the shapes in the pictures are the

performers. They have been created from the need for a group of actors who
are able to move dramatically without embarrassment and execute gestures
9
without shame.

Although Rothkowitz continued make frequent visits to Portland

to

during the 1920's, he returned to New York for good in 1925. He had reached
a decision about his future dictated not by his love of math, music, literature,
philosophy, engineering, radical causes or the theater, but by a compelling
interest in art. Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Nietzsche and
Kierkegaard continued to sustain and nutture him throughout his life. He was
fascinated by literature and had apparently once considered becoming a
professional writer. But his commitment to painting prevailed, and from now
on he devoted himself to it. Years afterward, he was to remark: "I became a
painter because I wanted to raise painting to the level of poignancy of music
9
and poetry."
 At the beginning of his career, known as Marcus
he was still

Rothkowitz. In 1940, however, he began to use the name Mark Rothko, first
sporadically and with minor variations, such as Marcus Rothko, then consis-
tently and without modifications. Although he became a United States
citizen in 1938, he did not legally change his name until 1959- Exactly why
he chose to shorten his name is unknown. Friends have variously explained
that he was asked to change his name by a dealer, that it signalled a dramatic
change in his style, or that the artist himself decided it was too cumbersome,
too foreign and that a simpler one would be better for his career, citing the
painter Arshile Gorky as a precedent.

His works of the late twenties, conventional but sensitive urban scenes,
spontaneous landscapes and studies of nudes (cat. nos. 2, 6), are the products
of a young and talented student. They reflect a realist trend dominant in
American art in the 1920's that had little to do with the ongoing revolution
in painting and sculpture taking place in Europe. Cubism, Futurism,
Suprematism, Constructivism, Dadaism and Surrealism were alien to the 23
experience of most artists in the United States at this time. As Rothko later
said of realism, "that was what we inherited." 10
Artists like Thomas Hart Benton set the standard for American paint-
ing during the 1920's and 1930's. Benton, like many others who had
embraced avant-garde art, turned violently against abstraction after World
War I. His reaction was symptomatic of the country's political, social and
aesthetic conservatism, its isolationism and chauvinism, its mood of pro-
found despair, born of the war and deepened by the Depression. Provin-
cialism in the form of the Regionalism favored by Benton, Grant Wood and
John Steuart Curry and the American Scene Painting of Reginald Marsh,
Isabel Bishop, the Soyer brothers, the Social Realism of Ben Shahn and
Philip Evergood and others, prevailed in the American artistic climate until
World War II. Even artists like Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley and
Stanton MacDonald- Wright, who had been in the crowded vanguard of
experimental abstraction, returned at least for a time to representation.
Although number of Americans, Arthur Dove, Morgan Russell and
a small

Stuart Davis among them, and Europeans, like Josef Albers and Hans Hof-
mann, who came to the United States in the early 1930's, continued to work
in advanced styles, the majority of painters concerned themselves with
depicting the poverty and disillusionment of the downtrodden urban masses or
celebrated rural life. Everyday reality was the subject of artistic comment, as

painting often became topical, journalistic, illustrational.

The Regionalism or "realism" that Rothko and his generation inherited

was to a certain extent offset by the teaching of Max Weber, in whose class

Rothko worked when he re-enrolled in the Art Students League

his upon
permanent return to New York. Although Rothko studied with Weber for
only a short time, from October through December of 1925 and again from
March through May of 1926, his influence on the young painter was
considerable. It is obvious that Weber's sophisticated knowledge of paint-
ing, his ardent admiration for Cezanne and his introduction of the more
modern painters made a strong impression on his students. At an early stage
of his career, Weber had rapidly absorbed the lessons of both Fauvism and
Cubism. He had produced several superb Cubist paintings, foremost among
them Chinese Restaurant of 1915 (fig. 5). Like the Cubists, Weber employed
trompe l'oeil as an integral part of his work. The Cubists used these elements
as decorative, additive accents, incorporating fragments of real or simulated
24

materials into their collages in order to question the nature of illusion and
reality. Weber, however, insisted upon painting literal facsimile versions of
fig. 5
textures and patterns with an attention to detail that often took precedence
Max Weber, Chinese Restaurant 1915.
over formal order. This characteristic directly relates Weber to such
,

Collection Whitney Museum ot American Art,

nineteenth-century American masters of trompe l'oeil as William M. Har-
New York
nett and John F. Peto. Later he adopted a form of Expressionism, derived
from Soutine and Chagall, that he conveyed with enthusiasm to his students. fig. 6
Rothko's indebtedness to Weber's late style is readily apparent in both the Marsden Hartley, Portrait of a German Officer,

choice of subjects and mood of his paintings of the 1920's. Less obvious but
1914. The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
The Alfred Stieglitz Collection. 1949
more meaningful is the imprint Weber's Cubist work was to leave on his later

painting. Gethsemane and Primeval Landscape, both 1945 (cat. nos. 65, 66), fig. 7
for example, contain emblematic forms juxtaposed upon a flat backdrop in a Pablo Picasso, Two Nudes, late 1906.

manner that recalls Weber's combination of trompe l'oeil technique and Collection The Museum of Modern Art,

collage-like images. Weber's spatial illusionism and play is, however, di- New York. Gift of G. David Thompson in

Honor of Alfred H Barr, Jr.

minished in Rothko's canvases. Rothko's paintings are more frontal and
two-dimensional, perhaps because they are in part inspired by Hartley's very
fig. 8
flat, heraldic paintings of military symbols of 19 14 (fig. 6). But the play has Henri Matisse, The Blue Nude (Souvenir of

not altogether disappeared: remnants of the curiously shifting planes of Biskra). 1907 The Baltimore Museum of Art:

Chinese Restaurant find their way into Rothko's spatially ambiguous works of Cone Collection

the mid-1940's onward.

fig 9
During the late 1920's, Rothko supported himself by drawing maps for a
1908
Henri Matisse, Bathers with a Turtle.
book on popularized biblical history written by Lewis Browne, a retired rabbi Collection The St Louis Art Museum, Gift of

from Portland who was a relative of Rothko's schoolmate, Harry Director. He Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr
moved to 231 East 25th Street and took a job in 1929 teaching children
part-time at the Center Academy, Brooklyn Jewish Center, a position he
retained until 1952. Teaching, in fact, was to be his primary means of
supporting himself until he became financially successful as an artist.

At the age of twenty-five, in 1928, Rothko was included in his first

group exhibition at the Opportunity Galleries in New York. Bernard Karfiol

chose several of his paintings for the show, together with works by Milton
Avery, Louis Harris and others. His first one-man show in New York did not
take place until 1933 at the Contemporary Arts Gallery. The review of the
exhibition reads as follows:
 Our Odyssey ends with the Contemporary Art Gallery. Always engaged in
fresh and unusual projects . such as the "Painting of the Month" club

which is achieving great success this gallery's repeated presentations of new

,

artists are very exhilarating. The newcomer is Maurice Rothkowitz. No

aid from the catalog is necessary to inform us of his art education. The
ponderous structure of the "Nude" harks back to the "Eight Figures" of
Max Weber. In other works, here is the full-fledged influence of Cezanne.

Pigment modeling apparent in "Man Smoking" is not confined to oil. since

"Portland" in watercolor shows the same tendencies. Of the black and

'
white, "Riverside Drive" appears to be the most outstanding sketch}

In all is the bulky nude of 1930 (cat. no.

probability, the canvas referred to
10). While some evidence of Weber's influence on Rothko in the
there is

scumbled, heavily ladened brushwork of this painting, the apparent sources

for the figure of the nude are Picasso's Two Nudes, late 1906, and Matisses

such as The Blue Nude (Souvenir of Biskra), 1907, and Bathers with a Turtle, 25
1908 (figs. 7-9).

Many of Rothko's watercolors of the period refer specifically to Marin

 and through him to Cezanne. The triangular organization of a number of
Rothko's paintings of this time recalls not only Cezanne but the art of the
Renaissance, which the young artist very much admired. To be sure, the
rational, harmonious order imposed by the classical device of the triangle is

entirely at odds with Rothko's turbulent technique and expressionist color.

Stylistic consistency was something he had yet to achieve.
As Rothko's experience broadened, he seized upon subjects other than
the typical classroom still lifes, landscapes and nudes. He began to depict
street and waterfront views, bathers, horses, portraits, the theater, religious
themes and domestic subjects such as music lessons and women sewing (cat.

nos. 9,11, 12), in what seems to have been an attempt to make a diary of the

world about him. He variously tried his hand at oils, watercolors and pen and
ink or pencil drawings. His drawings and watercolors are extremely assured
if not highly original. The oils are the most promising albeit least resolved
work of these years. They are somber, ruggedly expressionist, heavily
26 painted works in which figures with twisted heads alternate with contorted
nudes and dark landscapes. Their brooding introspection and romantic
feeling already reflect the sensibility that was to inform his dark paintings of
the late 1950's and 1960's.
It is difficult to trace the evolution of Rothko's style and themes with
exactitude because, for many reasons, the dating of the period of the twenties
through the mid-forties is problematic. For one, Rothko rarely dated his
paintings at this time only many years later, when he made an inventory of
his work, did he do so, without records and relying entirely upon his
memory. Thus, his Avery-like figures on a beach, which are presently dated
about 1925-27, could conceivably have been painted after 1928, the year
Rothko and Avery first exhibited together. And the subway paintings, some
of which are currently assigned to 1930, might more sensibly, on the basis of
stylistic evidence, be reattributed to the mid or late 1930's. The work cannot

precisely be dated on the basis of its appearance in particular exhibitions, as

Rothko seems to have included paintings executed over a number of years in

each show, well into the 1940's. (The idea of conceiving paintings especially
for an exhibition or of showing only recent work did not gain currency until
much later.) Moreover, many canvases have more than one title, more than one
date and were oriented in more than one direction. Further confusion in dating
arises because Rothko's thinking was often in advance of his painting. As early
as 1936, for example, while working on the subway paintings, he began to
write in his notebooks on the meaning of myth: he did not, however, start to
paint mythic subjects until 1938, when he started Antigone (cat. no. 23), nor
did he publish his fully articulated position on such themes until 1943. In the
same year Rothko painted Antigone, he continued to work in a realist vein and
produced the definitive subway canvas, Subway Scene (cat. no. 22). In fact, he
often continued to work in one style while experimenting with another, more
advanced formulation. The way Rothko's work was characterized by critics

also contributes to misconceptions about his style: during the 1930s, for

example, he was known as an Expressionist, when his subway paintings,

expressive as they are, have little in them that is Expressionist.
Despite the strong effect Weber had on his work, Rothko was to
maintain that he was largely self-taught and had "... learned painting from
12
his contemporaries in their studios." There was some truth in this asser-
tion, for in the late 1920's, as a young artist just beginning to come into his
own, he discovered that there were numerous alternatives to Weber's style.
The single most viable alternative was presented by Avery. In all probability,
Avery and Rothko met in 1928, when both showed at the Opportunity
Galleries. Later, it seems that the violinist Louis Kaufman, who, like
Rothko, came from Portland, brought the young artist to Avery's home.
Their friendship was immediate.
Rothko and a number of his colleagues looked to Avery for inspiration,
even though he was only about ten years older than they. (Paradoxically,
Avery did not arrive at his most successful statements until after Rothko
developed his own mature style. Indeed, Rothko was an influence upon Avery
by the early 1950's.) Avery's studio was open to many younger artists. His
accessibility, his gentle manner, his willingness to engage in dialogue, were a
refreshing change from the student-teacher relationships that artists of Roth-
ko's generation had previously experienced. As Avery's wife, Sally, has re-

marked:

[Rotbko] dropped in almost every day to see what Milton was painting. 27

We spent summers together on Cape Ann where everyday we met at the beach
for swimming and every evening we looked over the day's work. Adolph
Gottlieb was there too and Barnett Newman joined us. Milton did a
number of water colors using these friends as models.

Among the portraits Avery painted of his young friends is a 1933 oil of
Rothko (fig. 10). Rothko indicated Avery's importance in the moving
eulogy he delivered upon his death in 1965:

This conviction of greatness, the feeling that one was in the presence of great
events, was immediate on encountering his work. It was true for many of us
who were younger, questioning and looking for an anchor . . . .

I cannot tell you what it meant for us during those early years to be made
welcome in those memorable studios on Broadway, 12nd Street, and
Columbus Avenue. We were, there, both the subjects of his paintings and
his idolatrous audience. The walls were always covered with an endless

and changing array of poetry and light.

There have been several others in our generation who have celebrated the
world around them, but none with that inevitability where the poetry

penetrated every pore of the canvas to the very last touch of the brush. For

Avery was a great poet-inventor who had invented sonorities never seen nor
heard before. From these we have learned much and will learn more for a
long time to come.

But from these there have been fashioned great canvases, that far from the
casual and transitory implications of the subjects, have always a gripping
14
lyricism, and often achieve the permanence and'monumentally of Egypt.

Avery's pastoral subject matter was, to be sure, alien to Rothko's urban

sensibility. Rothko did, however, paint some figures in interiors, domestic

and seaside scenes in a manner reminiscent of Avery (cat. nos. 4, 7). It

was not Avery's themes which were typical thirties genre subjects but
his refreshing style that opened doors for Rothko. His precisely delineated,
Matisse-derived flattened form and soft, lyrical color became integral parts of
 Rothko's work and acted as antidotes to Weber's heavily painted, greyed
hues and expressionistic manner. Avery's ability to minimize the numbers of
shapes and colors he used and maximize their importance was of significance
to younger artists like Rothko, as was the simplicity and directness of his
figures. Avery was, in effect, the bridge between Matisse and Rothko.
Rothko's Subway Scene, 1938 (cat. no. 22), reveals a number of parallels with
Avery's work. Its scrubbed surface may be compared to Avery's painterly
technique, and its figures are clearly derived from Avery's own forms. While
there is an affinity between the stratified composition of Subway Scene and a
canvas such as Avery's Coney Island, 1936 (fig. 1 1), Rothko's structure is

much more overtly architectonic and geometric. Only rarely and in paintings

closely modeled upon the older artist's did Rothko employ the diagonal
compositions Avery favored as a means of reconciling the illusion of depth
with the two-dimensional picture plane (fig. 12). It is notable that Rothko's
mature preference for an inherently flat, frontal structure is already strik-
28 ingly apparent in this painting.
Equally noteworthy here is Rothko's use for the first time of a single
specific theme in a group of works, for Subway Scene is one of a number of
subway canvases (cat. nos. 16, 18, 20) he executed in the 1930's. While
these subway paintings are perhaps not sufficiently unified to constitute a
true series, they do attest to an effort on Rothko's part to clarify his ideas in a
fig. 10 number of related works and thus prefigure his mature series, the Seagram,
Milton Avery, Portrait of Mark Rolbko, 1933.
Harvard and Houston chapel murals.
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of
Rothko was attracted to the subject of the subway during the period of
Design, Providence, The Albert Pilavin
Collection; 20th Century American Art
the WPA: its distinctly urban flavor and the opportunity it afforded to depict
the dispirited masses dear to the artists of the Depression had obvious
appeal at the time. It was a common enough theme during the thirties. A
number of artists, Marsh, Bishop, Joseph Solman, Francis Criss among
them, painted subway scenes in this era. Rothko, however, was the only one
to endow the image with dignity, remoteness and a sense of dream-like
suspension of motion, qualities more appropriate, perhaps, to the timeless
formal order of Renaissance paintings than the contemporary, timely charac-
ter of the subject.

The subway paintings are chalky, executed in ". . . wan, whitened color
like frescoes from Herculaneum. . .
," 15 Human form is attenuated until it

almost ceases to exist; the bulky figures of the 1920's are pared down, as
density is replaced by transparency. Formerly monolithic presences become
shadowy, apparitional. Ghostly and unreal, these personages appear and
disappear among the subway pillars. Even where several people are grouped
together, there is a sense of silence, of distance and lack of communication
that is extremely disorientating and recalls Edward Hopper or Giorgio de
Chirico (figs. Other paintings of the period are similarly
13,14).
disquieting a in a room with neither
nude seems hermetically sealed
windows nor doors, an otherwise ordinary couple imbued with an impene-
trable air of mystery or isolation confronts the viewer, a young boy is lost in
contemplation (cat. nos. 13, 15, 21). In all instances, there is evidence of
Rothko's need to compress space, if not flatten it. Whether or not Rothko's
subways have symbolic meaning is open to conjecture, but certainly these
paintings suggest a strange, nether region that re-emerges in his Surrealist-
inspired subterranean fantasies of the mid-1940's. Although these far from
fully resolved paintings are the efforts of a young artist struggling for clarity
and identity, the otherworldly mood that infuses them is predictive of
 29

fig 11
Milton Avery, Cone) Island. 1936. Private Collection

fig. 12
Milton Avery, Baby Avery, 1932. Collection Mrs. Milton
Avery

fig. 13

Edward Hopper, Early Sunday Morning, 1930. Collection

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

fig. 14
Giorgio de Chirico, The Nostalgia oj the Infinite. 191314
Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York
 .

Rothko's mature expression. This mood is the emanation of a fragile,

precarious and sensitive state of mind that is perfectly evoked by Andre
Breton's words: "This summer the roses are blue; the wood is made of glass.
The earth wrapped in its foliage makes as little effect on me as a ghost. Living
and ceasing to live are imaginary solutions Existence is elsewhere." 16
There is in these works an element of calm and a quality of palpable light.
Later, of course, Rothko was to elevate these characteristics into transcen-
dent spirituality.
The 1930's was a period of denial and stagnation rather than affirmative
personal expression or social progressivism. The government sought to sup-

port art and artists during the Depression, but succeeded primarily in fostering
provincial and conservative styles. There were two federal art programs ad-
ministered by the Treasury Department in the early 1930's the Public
Works Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture. Both organiza-
tions favored the representational styles generally associated with American
30 Scene painting or Regionalism. Painters could have fulfilled a vital and
forward-looking social role, but neither they nor the federal government
understood this at the time. The forces of bureaucracy and individualism in art

were in conflict. Like all minor artists, the painters encouraged by the
government did not reach out towards the new but were satisfied to concern
themselves with what was already known. Their attitude and the government's
policy did not, however, satisfy the expectations of a young, politically active,
primarily immigrant group of artists, Rothko among them, as is evident from
the political and artistic events that took place during the decade of the
thirties. The more progressive and militant artists formed a number of
organizations which agitated for the creation of art projects for the unemployed
and protested the conservative bias of the government's existing programs.
In 1934, one such group, the Artists' Union, was organized in New
York, with local chapters elsewhere, to demand the establishment of new
programs. Rothko was one of approximately two-hundred who participated
in the inauguration of the Union. The Artists' Union did not confine itself to
the problems of artists but was involved in different areas of labor as well;
there was solidarity among the artists and other groups. As Solman has
pointed out:

At this time the Artists' Union and the National Maritime Union
(NMU) were two of the most active participants in aiding striking picket
lines anywhere in New York City. If the salesgirls went out on strike at
May's department store in Brooklyn a grouping from the above-mentioned
unions was bound to swell the picket line. I recall some of our own
demonstrations to get artists back on the job after a number of pink
dismissal slips had been given out. At such times everyone was in jeopardy
Suddenly from nowhere a truckload of NMU workers would appear and
jump out onto the sidewalk to join our procession. Cheers welled up from all
' 7
sides. Those were spirited times indeed.

August 1935, the Works Progress Administration, Federal Art

In
Project (WPA/FAP) was formed with Holger Cahill as its director. It was the
most extensive and most effective of all the New Deal art relief programs and
engaged artists without bias in regard to style. Rothko, together with
Harris, Solman, Jack Tworkov, Ad Reinhardt, William Baziotes and many
others, was employed in the WPA's easel project. He was with the project
from 1936 to 1937, earning $95.44 per month. Small as this stipend was, it

was the chief support for many of the artists of Rothko's generation.
Just as Rothko's rebellious nature had earlier drawn him to radical
politics and an interest in trade unions, so now it him to join the militant
led
Artists' Union and, along with his fellow members, protest the economic
and social conditions of the Depression, as well as the established order in

both politics and art. However, it should be noted that, as the writer H. R.
Hays, who was the artist's friend from 1935, has said, Rothko "had no
objection to picketing for the immediate preservation of jobs but he strenu-
ously opposed the injection of politics into art which he felt simply resulted
in bad art." 18 The revolutionary attitudes that gave rise to these organiza-
tions continued to exist even into the fifties, when Rothko, Gottlieb,
Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Newman, Clyfford Still and others
Museum's prejudice against advanced art.
protested the Metropolitan
In 1934, Rothko joined the newly established Gallery Secession in New
York, but, in 1935, he and several other artists left it to form a group called 31
The Ten. This circle rarely consisted of more than nine painters and was
commonly referred to as "The Ten Who are Nine." It counted among its

original members, besides Rothko, Gottlieb, Solman, Harris, Ben-Zion, Ilya

Bolotowsky, Yankel Kufeld, Louis Schanker and Nahum Tschacbasov. Later
additions were Lee Gatch, John Gtaham, Karl Knaths, Ralph Rosenborg and
David Burliuk. They exhibited for five years, primarily at galleries in New
York. Though The Ten was a group of independents with no declared program,
the majority of its members painted representationally in a loose flat manner
but were sympathetic to abstract art. Solman relates that at this time Rothko
and Gottlieb "were both in the spontaneous expressionist or fauve tradi-
19
tions." The Ten were much opposed to the conservative styles then dominant
and interested in such Europeans as Picasso, Matisse and Soutine as well as the
Americans Avery and Albert Pinkham Ryder. In Solman's words:

The modern concept of flat space, as in early Matisse, the 1922-26

still-life period of Picasso and the German Briicke group was also a clear

force in the work of most of The Ten. We all admired Picasso, Matisse,

Rouault, Klee and the German expressionists , many of whose works we

first became acquainted with at J . B. Neumann's New Art Circle and
20
later at Paul Rosenberg's and of course at The Museum of Modern Art.

The Ten were rebellious and progressive and in November 1938 they
held an exhibition called Whitney Dissenters at the Mercury Galleries to
protest the policies of theWhitney Museum of American Art. As Bernard
Braddon of Mercury and Rothko wrote in the catalogue of the exhibition,
"The title of this exhibition is designed to call attention to a significant
section of art being produced in America. Its implications are intended to go
beyond one museum and beyond one particular group of dissenters. It is a

protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and liberal

painting. ..." They repudiated both buckeye American painting and obsolete
European traditions, expressing their intention to "see objects and events as

though for the first time, free from the accretions of habit and divorced from
21
the conventions of a thousand years of painting."
The Ten met monthly at each other's studios. Solman says that Rothko
was an extremely articulate participant in their discussions. "In argument he
 was brighter than a lawyer and could almost wind out dialogues like a
22 had
Talmudist." The group broke up in 1940, primarily because it

outlived its usefulness, as most of the members were becoming more estab-
lished and were now joining galleries on their own. The Ten parted company
on friendly terms.

fig. 15 fig. 16
Mark Rothko, Crucifixion, before 1936. Mark Rothko, Woman Sewing, before 1936.

Whereabouts unknown Estate of Mark Rothko

32

fig- 17
Mark Rothko, Street Scene, before 193<:

Estate of Mark Rothko

 :

II

33
In 1940, Rothko and Solman were given an unparalleled opporruniry to
participate in a three-man exhibition with Marcel Gromaire at the
Neumann-Willard Gallery in New York. Both Rothko and Solman were
delighted with the offer to exhibit on equal terms with a noted French
painter. Although Rothko's work did not receive much critical attention

prior to his one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century in

New York in 1945, a discerning review of the Neumann-Willard exhibition
appeared

Beside his depth of color, the light and singing hues of Mark Rothko's
palette seem like a soprano part Entrance to Subway with
. , its introduc-

tion of a green railing lightens a scene usually seen in its gloomy aspects,

and the peace and quiet of Contemplation is arrived at because of the

artist's translation ofa mood to canvas. This artist has taught children for

many years, and one feels that they in turn have helped to make him see and
feel with their own simplicity and instinct for truth. The Party condenses

the gaiety and high spirits of a children's celebration into a design of real
23
structural beauty.

It is striking that the writer has noted the importance of both structural form
and mood, the appearance of lyrical color and the coexistence of feelings of
gaiety and contemplation, and thus has perceived salient features of Rothko's
mature style in these paintings of the late thirties.
This three-man exhibition notwithstanding, Mark Rothko was virtu-
ally unknown as a painter at the outbreak of World War He had sold
II.
24
". . .very few paintings, mostly to friends and other artists." He and his
first wife, Edith, whom he had married in 1932, lived on meager earnings
from her jewelry designs and his teaching. Their apartment at 313 East 6th
Street was both his studio and her shop. Despite Rothko's straitened cir-
cumstances, the late thirties and early forties were years of tremendous
significance for his career, an era in which his thinking and his style
underwent a dramatic evolution.
In Rothko's works of the thirties such as Crucifixion, Woman Sewing,
Street Scene (figs. 15-17) and the subway paintings there is tension, doubt and
striving, a confrontation between the subjects and the demands of the
architectonic structuring of the compositions. This conflict is most fully
resolved in the Subway Scene of 1938, but here, as in the earlier canvases,
 Rothko still clings to figuration, unwilling as yet to express the theoretical
positions he had already begun to crystallize in his notes. The intellectual
struggle in which he was now engaged was ultimately to take him from these
relatively conventional paintings to his infinitely more sophisticated style of

the mid and late forties. As his former wife notes:

His work changed dramatically in the early 40's. He and a group of

painters were much concerned about subject matter and these people met at
our homes. . . . These meetings involved philosophical discussion . . . there

were about four or five artists Gottlieb, Newman, Bolotowsky and

25
Tschacbasov.

A spirit of camaraderie developed among painters during this period,

WPA. The easel and
fostered to a large extent by their participation in the
mural painting projects brought together people of very different
34 backgrounds and temperaments who might otherwise never have become
friends. Most of the artists whom Rothko knew around this time Gottlieb,
de Kooning, Pollock, Gorky, Newman, David Smith were, like him, at
unresolved stages in their development. Their limited resources, their need for
community, their desire for change, led to friendship. They exhibited to-

gether, went to shows together, drank together, shared studios, fought with
each other, picketed, protested and struggled for greatness. They admired the
work of Miro and Klee well before these artists were accepted in Paris, went to
see early Kandinsky at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting and were

especially impressed with the Picassos reproduced in Cahiers d'Art. And they
became intensely aware of the Surrealist movement, which was gaining
increasing exposure in the United States in the thirties.
As early as 1931, the first important exhibition of Surrealism in the
United States, Newer Super-Realism, had been staged by Arthur Everett
Austin Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. This show traveled to the
at the

Julien Levy Gallery inNew York the following year. Levy proselytized for
the movement, showing Surrealist painters throughout the thirties and
publishing an important anthology, Surrealism, in 1936. This same year,
Alfred Barr presented the crucial Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at The
Museum of Modern Art.
None of their past experience, none of the one-man or group exhibi-
tions they saw had prepared them for the revolution in aesthetics to which
they now found themselves exposed. These young painters, who formed the
core of the New York School and were later to be identified as Abstract
Expressionists, now became conscious that American painting of the 1930s,
whether the routine academicism of the regional scene painters or the Neo-
Plasticist dogma of the American Abstract Artists, a group of adherents of
geometric abstraction which had been established in New York in 1936, was
extremely limited. Most of this pioneer generation of Abstract Expressionists
had painted representationally during the Depression years, often under the
auspices of the WPA. It was thus in a spirit of rebellion, against their own early
efforts as well as the prevailing American art, that they began the search for a
new means of expression. The arrival in New York of many major contempor-
ary European painters at the time of World War II was the catalyst for their
revolt. The Surrealists Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Matta, Andre Masson and
the poet laureate of the movement, Andre Breton came en masse. Marcel
Duchamp, of course, was already active here; Piet Mondrian, too, lived and
 "

worked in New York during the War, as did Fernand Leger, who had already
spent time in America. These expatriates brought with them an enormous
vitality, a wealth of new ideas and a sense of the entire history of European
painting.
A new awareness of European innovation on the part of Americans is

indicated in the press release that accompanied the Third Annual Exhibition of
the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors of June 1943, a show in which
Rothko participated. The release reads in part:

At our inception three years ago we stated, "We condemn artistic

nationalism which negates the world tradition of art at the base of modern
,

art movements.

Today America is faced with the responsibility either to salvage and

develop, or to frustrate Western creative capacity. This responsibility may
be largely ours for a good part of the century to come. This country has been
35
greatly enriched, both by the recent influx of many great European artists,

some of whom we are proud to have as members of the Federation , and by the
growing vitality of our native talent.

In years to come the world will ask how this nation met its opportunity.

Did it nourish or starve this concentration of talent?

Since no one can remain untouched by the impact of the present world
upheaval, it is inevitable that values in every field of human endeavor will

be affected. As a nation we are being forced to outgrow our narrow political

isolationism. Now that America is recognized as the center where art and
artists of all the world meet, it is time for us to accept cultural values on a
truly global plane.

Of all the artists in exile in New York, the Surrealists were the most
influential. Personal contact with the Surrealists, although limited, pro-
vided the Americans direct access to their work and assured the fledgling
painters that the legendary Europeans were, after human. For all of all,

them, it was an exhilarating time, a moment

gave them thein history that

freedom and challenge they needed to cut the cord that tied them to a
provincial American art. From this alliance with European art and thought
they created, in a monumental effort, a brilliant new American art.
Surrealism had been born in Paris in 1924, out of the ashes of Dada.
According to the Surrealists, the function of the poet or artist was to select

appropriate symbols, which corresponded in their power and magic to the

myths, parables and metaphors of the past. These symbols stimulated or
irritated the senses to arouse multiple associations and emotions, differing
according to the sensibility of each viewer. Surrealism, like its parent, Dada,
was antirational in character. The Surrealists developed an art in which the
formal and rational order of Cubism was replaced by the fantastic, the
accidental, the illogical. The unconscious was proclaimed as the essential

source of art; the inner universe of the imagination, rather than the external
world, became the wellspring of all inspiration. However, the Surrealists
were not opposed to the reality of the external world as such, but only to
reason and logic. In fact, they proposed that elements from the external
world be retained in their work but that they be unified with the dream to
form one reality, "surreality."

In the researches of Freud and his exploration of the subconscious, the

36

f'g. 18
Andre Masson, Battle of Fishes, 1926.
Collection The Museum of Modern Art,
New York

fig- 19
Max Ernst, Blue and Pink Dotes, 1926.
Collection Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf

fig. 20
Max Ernst, The Horde, 1927. Collection
Stedeli|k Museum, Amsterdam
fig. 21 Surrealists found some ideal tools for their own experiments. The Surrealists
Max Ernst, The Bewildered Planet, 1942.
differed with Freud in their acceptance of dream images as significant
Collection The Tel Aviv Museum, Gift
realities in themselves, rather than as mere symbols of conscious life. His
of the artist
observations on the role of language in dream and dream interpretation were
fig. 22 applied to their own They found Freud's explorations of the mind and
ends.
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm, 1950. The the investigations of dream imagery inspiration for their own experiments,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and out of his theories they developed the technique of automatism, which
George A. Hearn Fund, 1957
they applied to both poetry and painting. In 1924, Breton first described
Surrealism as "Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express,
verbally, in writing or by other means, the real process of thought.
Thought's dictation, in the absence of all control exercised by reason and
26
outside all esthetic and moral preoccupations." The purpose of au-
tomatism was to free art of conscious control, and to liberate the imagina-
tion. Although much of Surrealism's imagery found its way into American
painting in the 1940's, it was the technique of automatism that was of most
crucial importance to the development of a revolutionary art in New York.
Ernst was an enigmatic and elusive figure who stayed in New York only
briefly. But his charismatic personality, his reputation as a founder of both
Dada and Surrealism, his marriage to Peggy Guggenheim and his link to her

gallery, Art of This Century, attracted the attention of the impressionable

Americans. He and Masson were among the most influential of the Surrealist

emigres. Both practiced a form of automatism characterized by all-over

meandering lines and experimented with a number of unusual materials
which in themselves suggested images. In Masson's Battle of Fishes, 1926
(fig. 18), and Ernst's Blue and Pink Doves, 1926, or The Horde, 1927 (figs. 19,

20), for example, images arise from the chance procedures employed. In
1942, when he was already in the United States, Ernst began two paintings
in which he employed a drip technique, Young Man Intrigued by the Flight of a
Non-Euclidean Fly and The Bewildered Planet (fig. 21). A comparison among
 these Surrealist works and later paintings by Abstract Expressionists, such as
Pollock's Autumn Rhythm, 1950 (fig. .22), reveals clear similarities. Ernst, of
course, did not invent the drip technique, and Pollock's work was not
necessarily based directly upon his example, but more probably upon the
graceful arabesques of Masson's imagery. In any case, the inspirational force of
the Surrealists upon the emergent New York School at this time is undeniable.
Ernst was important to artists like Pollock and Rothko, not only for his
revolutionary procedures, but for his totemic figuration and relentless de-
velopment of a series of related images. His example of stylistic consistency
was extremely significant for the embryonic Abstract Expressionists. And
Ernst had another, equally vital message for Rothko and his contemporaries:
he reinforced the young painters' belief in the power of myth and the art of the
primitive. Rothko's profound interest in archaic cultures, in the art of the
Aegean and ancient Near East, had originated in the thirties. He was con-
vinced that myth could be a source and inspiration, not for a literary style of
38 painting as might be expected, but for abstraction. And, although Rothko was
in no sense a literary painter, poetry and philosophy were among the funda-
mental sources of his thinking. Books such as Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy both
stimulated and reinforced his interest in myth while he was still painting
figurative and socially-conscious canvases.
The form and mythic content of archaic art appeared in Rothko's work
as early as 1938, when, as we have seen, he started Antigone. By 194 1 he and
Gottlieb were working closely together to develop and define an art based
upon myth. Rothko's close friendship with Gottlieb had begun in the late

1920's. The two held a number of interests and attitudes in common. Both
loved primitive art Gottlieb collected, but Rothko did not, probably
because he preferred not to acquire objects. Gottlieb, like Rothko, was active
as an organizer of or participant in radical artists' groups. And each was
intensely concerned with myth. For over a decade, from the mid-thirties to
fig. 24
the mid-forties, they shared many aesthetic goals; the painting of each artist
Adolph Gottlieb, Eyes of Oedipus, 1941.
changed from a form of relatively realistic representation common to the
Collection Mrs. Adolph Gottlieb, New Yoi

*; I

W
I
fig. 23
Adolph Gottlieb, Sundeck, 1936. Collection
University of Maryland Art Gallery, College
Park
 ..

thirties to a fully'developed new language of archetypes. This often laborious

evolution is reflected in the transition from paintings such as Rothko's
Subway Scene of 1938 and Gottlieb's Sundeck of 1936 (fig. 23) to Rothko's
Antigone and The Omen of the Eagle , 1942 (cat. no. 26), and Gottlieb's Eyes
of Oedipus, 1941, or Pictograph, 1942 (figs. 24, 25).
Gottlieb's wife, Esther, has commented that both Rothko and her
husband were extremely programmatic about their artistic direction and
deliberately chose to concern themselves with myth so that they could break
with what they considered stagnant in European tradition and with the
provincial American past. Their ideas were reinforced by other artists like

Gorky, Newman, Pollock and Still, who were also experimenting with myth
at around this time. John Graham, whose System and Dialectics of Art was
published in 1937, stated:

The purpose of art in particular is to re-establish a lost contact with the

unconscious . . . with the primordial racial past and to keep and develop 39
this contact in order to bring to the conscious mind the throbbing events of
27
the unconscious mind.

Rothko and Gottlieb articulated their positions on art and myth in a

now- famous letter of June 7, 1943, written, with the then unacknowledged
assistance of Barnett Newman, to The New York Times critic Edward Alden
Jewell. It was written in response to Jewell's largely negative review of the

third annual Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors exhibition, re-

ferred to above. Published in the Times of June 13, it reads in part:

1 To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be

explored only by those willing to take the risks.

. 25
lolph Gottlieb, Pictograph, 1942. Collection 2. This world of the imagination is fancy-free and violently opposed to
lolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Inc.
common sense.

3 . It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our
way not his way.

4. We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the
large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal We wish to
.

reassert the picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy
illusion and reveal truth.

5 It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter

what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of

academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.

We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is

valid which is tragic and timeless. That is why we profess spiritual

kinship with primitive and archaic art.

Rothko and Gottlieb specifically referred to two of their paintings that had
been included in the Federation annual, explaining Gottlieb's Rape of Perse-
phone, 1943 (fig- 26), was "a poetic expression of the essence of the myth,"
and Rothko's The Syrian Bull, 1943 (cat. no. 28), was "a new interpretation
of an archaic image. . .
." and that "significant rendition of a symbol, no
matter how archaic, has as full validity today as the archaic symbol had
 .

28
then."
From 1941 until 1943, Rothko's paintings are stratified in composi-
tion, sometimes divided into sharply differentiated registers. Images are
disposed in an orderly, geometric manner and at times are segregated into
zones. Bird and animal forms, zigzags, disembodied facial features, anatom-
ical parts, imagery drawn from archaic sculpture and from architectural
motifs appear. Paintings such as The Omen of the Eagle, 1942 point directly to ,

the art of Nineveh and Mesopotamia. Rothko fills his zones or registers with
the part-men, part-beasts, part-gods of ancient legend. The ghostly figures
of the subway paintings have taken on the relief-like qualities of Near Eastern
friezes. The architectonic structure of these canvases derives from his own
work of the thirties, but here it is clarified, compartmentalized and under-
scored by the registers, reinforced by the fragmented forms that fill each
zone. Rothko wrote of The Omen of the Eagle as follows:

40 The theme here is derived from the Agamemnon Trilogy of Aeschylus. The

picture deals not with the particular anecdote, but rather with the Spirit of

Myth, which is generic to all myths at all times. It involves a pantheism in

which man, bird, beast and tree the known as well as the knowable
29
merge into a single tragic idea.

Although Rothko's symbol-laden imagery of the early 1940's was often

ponderous, it is sometimes lightened by an element of surprise that derives
from Surrealist automatism and exploration of chance. In addition, the
seemingly random composition of paintings such as Untitled, 1939-40 (cat.

no. 24), in which disparate kinds of images are incorporated in each register,
may have been inspired by the Surrealists' Cadavres Exquises (exquisite
corpses). These Cadavres Exquises were collaborative drawings, usually pro-
duced by three or four artists, each contributing a different kind of image to
his separate zone of paper. The heavy symbolism and sculptural forms of the
canvases of the period are mitigated also by Rothko's predominantly pastel
palette and flat application of color, which continue to reflect Avery's
sun-drenched hues.
Rothko's use of the eagle in his paintings of the period, such as The Omen
of the Eagle, was probably inspired by Ernst's in part humorous and ironic
identification of himself with the bird, Loplop. The specific symbolism of
Ernst's birds as representations of power (the eagle is the national emblem of
both Germany and the United States), of the intellect and freedom of the
mind may also have influenced Rothko's choice of imagery. Jung, whom
Rothko was very much interested in, points out that the totem of the bird is
much used by artists to symbolize transcendence, release, liberation. But the
painting derives from other sources as well, including motifs from his own
earlier interiors. Solman mentions, in addition, that Rothko incorporated

elements from the cornices of buildings and windows in his work at

30
this time. Indeed, there seem to be many echoes of thirties ornamentation in
these paintings. It may also be that the structure of New York buildings rein-
forced Rothko's decision to divide many of his compositions into registers.
Furthermore, the zones as well as the eyes, beaks, claws and wings clearly
refer to Northwest Coast Indian art

Although there is a close kinship among concepts and paintings of

Rothko and Gottlieb, there are profound differences which are clear even in
their relatively unresolved work of the 1930's. Despite important shared
goals, sensibility Rothko and Gottlieb. Painting
and intent separate
presented a philosophical dilemma Rothko,
as he came increasingly to
to

question its terms and meaning. Gottlieb remained more concerned with the
hedonistic qualities of his painting and decoration of surface than with
problems of underlying significance.
The questioning and conflict that characterize Rothko's work of the late
thirties are absent from Gottlieb's oeuvre , except in rare paintings such as
Still Life Dry Cactus, ca.. 1938 (fig. 27), painted while he was living in the
desert near Tucson. This canvas is atypical in that it is infused with a mood of
enigma and foreboding arising from the attenuated shadows which seem to
entrap theplant forms, and a sense of disorientation resulting from the presen-
tation of a landscape as a still life and the endowing of plant forms with
qualities of animal life. The Tanguy- or Dali-like forms that snake across the
picture are flattened and quite abstract; they are, nevertheless, based on
observed natural phenomena as well as on Surrealist prototypes.
Significantly, Gottlieb has chosen a title that might describe a 41
naturalistic desert scene for his Surreal configurations. An artist like Dali

would have given his painting a name that enhanced the mystery of its

images, a title such as Enigma of a Day, for example. Gottlieb's choice of a

descriptive title underscores his interest in both the natural and super-
natural. This dichotomy is even more apparent in his later painting, The Sea
Chest, 1942 (fig. 28). Despite the seemingly straightforward and more
naturalistic presentation of specimens of marine life there is a pervasive,
sinister, threatening spirit. However, the Gloucester, Massachusetts, coast
inspired this canvas, just as the arid desert landscape had been the source of
Still LifeDry Cactus. Gottlieb was at this time, and remained, a naturalistic
painter: his late, abstract burst canvases retain the sense of physical forces and
phenomena. Gottlieb's basically Impressionist temperament did not allow
him to pursue his experiments with myth as relentlessly as Rothko did into
the forties. He continued to be interested in the external world; Rothko by
the forties was already primarily concerned with inner states of existence.
Whereas Rothko sometimes segregated his images of this period into

registers or zones, Gottlieb much more systematically compartmentalized

his paintings, which he called pictographs, by drawing rather free-form
grids across his surfaces. In each section of this grid he placed, seemingly at
random, an image isolated to enhance its emotive powers, adding shape after

shape until he was satisfied his painting had achieved its final form. Some of
his images eyes, faces, teeth, genitalia or other parts of the human
anatomy are the residual data of his earlier interest in the human figure.
They are part of a repertory of image-symbols others include snakes, birds,
masks, eggs that he discovered in past art forms which appeared to him to

have a universal significance or, in Jungian terms, to form part of a "collec-

tive unconscious." Gottlieb continued to produce pictographs, however, as

abstract forms devoid of mythic content, into the mid-1950's.

But myths as interpreted by Rothko, Gottlieb and other Americans in
the forties did not convey universal meaning; the Americans failed to express
through myth the truths of the collective unconscious or the brutalities of their
own time. The master Picasso, alone among twentieth-century artists, was able
to make mythology profoundly relevant in his monumental Guernica, 1937
(fig. 29). Here he draws upon both Surrealist and mythological prototypes,
but endows them with genuinely modern form and content. Guernica is at
once shocking in its contemporaneity and timeless in its references to the past
 and thus stands not only for the Spanish Civil War but for all war. Past and
present have been dramatically synthesized on a level of epic grandeur.
Picasso's achievement was unparalleled, however, and artists like
Rothko and Gottlieb were unable to endow their paintings with the rele-

vance they insisted was inherent in myth. Removed from their original
culture, the symbols lose their context, the connective tissue which is crucial
to their meaning and use; they become abstract signs without significant
mythic content. Their entirely intellectual and programmatic approach was

42

fig. 26
Adolph Gottlieb, Rape of Persephone, 1943.
Collection Mrs. Barnett Newman

fig. 27
Adolph Gottlieb, Still Lije Dry Cactus.
ca 1938. Collection Adolph and Esther
Gottlieb Foundation, Inc.

fig 28
Adolph Gottlieb, The Sea Chest, 1942.
The Solomon R
Collection Guggenheim
Museum, New York
 fundamentally different from Picasso's deeply felt synthesis of emotion and
intellect. Nevettheless, Rothko and Gottlieb sought to make myth the
centtal focus of a new aft fotm in theit attempt to assett theit linkage with
European tradition as well as the coming of age and, finally, the ptimacy of
American art. Their search for the "timeless" in art was in part a search for a
new vocabulary. This new vocabulary was rooted in, but ultimately inde-
pendent of, Surrealism, from which it drew its main inspiration. That the

archaism of the art of the ancient Near East had little direct bearing on the
search for the new did not seem to disturb Rothko at this time. Avant-garde
painters working in New York in the forties were presented with an enorm-
ous range of possibilities and, in keeping with the catholic attitudes of
twentieth-century artists, were able to use the primitive to break with the
past. There was, however, a very real contradiction between what these
artists saw as a "spiritual kinship" with primitive and archaic art and the
new, as well as a conflict with what they achieved in their mature painting.
The Surrealists had combined ancient myth and Freudian symbolism, 43
thus justifying their imagery in literary and scientific tetms. For Rothko and
his colleagues such subject matter was ultimately inhibiting. They drew
upon it in an interim period, creating paintings that were poetic in their
metaphors and transitional in form, as they progressed towards a new art.

The Surrealists sought archetypal images to represent the highly charged

world of their subconscious minds. But the future Abstract Expressionists
developed a vocabulary of signs, not to symbolize the super-reality of the real

world merged with dreams and the unconscious but to express the teality of

a revolutionary abstract art. They released themselves from the past when they
abandoned their commitment to the primitive and the literary and consecrated
themselves to the realm of pure painting.

fig. 29
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937. On extended
loan to The Museum of Modern Art,
New York, from the artist's estate

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 Ill

44 J. he last years of World War II were a time of great activity for Rothko and
his colleagues. In 1944, Gottlieb was elected head of the Federation of
Modern Painters and Sculptors, a position he retained until 1945. In
December df 1944, the 67 Gallery, which Howard Putzel had opened in
New York that fall, mounted an exhibition of Forty American Moderns, in
which Rothko participated, showing an untitled Surrealist drawing. Putzel,
Peggy Guggenheim's assistant from 1942-44, had advised her to represent
Rothko, and in January of 1945 she gave him a one-man show at her gallery.
Art of This Century. The catalogue preface reads:

Rothko 's painting is not easily classified. It occupies a middle ground

between abstraction and surrealism. In these paintings the abstract idea is

incarnated in the image. Rothko 's style has a latent archaic quality which
the pale and uninsistent colours enforce. This particular archaization. the
reverse of the primitive, suggests the long savouring of human and tradi-

tional experience as incorporated in the myth. Rothko 's symbols, fragments

of myth, are held together by a free, almost automatic calligraphy that

gives a peculiar unity to his paintings a unity in which the individual
symbol acquires its meaning, not in isolation, but rather in its melodic
adjustment to the other elements in the picture. It is this feeling of internal
fusion, of the historical conscious and subconscious capable of expanding

far beyond the limits of the picture space that gives Rothko s work its force
and essential character. But this is not to say that the images created by

Rothko are the thin evocations of the speculative intellect; they are rather
the concrete, the tactual expression of the intuitions of an artist to whom the
31
subconscious represents not the farther, but the nearer shore of art.

Among the fifteen paintings in this exhibition were Sacrifice of Iphigenia.

1942 The Syrian Bull, 1943 Birth of Cephalopods Slow Swirl at the Edge of the
, , ,

Sea and Poised Elements, all of 1944 (cat. nos. 29,28, 37,63, 3 1). The titles of
these works clearly indicate that Rothko's concern with myth and ritual,

prehistoric forces, biological life in general, marine organisms in particular,

was still very strong at this time.
There is, however, no consistent relationship between Rothko's titles

and his imagery. Thus, the forms in paintings as variously named as Slow
Swirl at the Edge of the Sea, Birth of Cephalopods and Tiresias are extremely
similar to one another. Poised Elements, on the other hand, is much more


structured; its geometrically disposed forms seem to be derived from late

Kandinsky and have little to do with the liquid grace and curvilinear shapes
of the three other canvases, in which natural phenomena, mythic content,
Surrealist automatic technique and subconscious imagery are successfully
synthesized. The Ernst-like Hierarchical Birds (fig. 30) represents yet another
direction Rothko was now exploring. In fact, he was still absorbing a
multitude of influences he himself said that Dali, de Chirico, Miro and
Ernst attracted him at this time. Thus, Entombment I, 1946 (cat. no. 42),

recalls Picasso's studies for Crucifixion, 1927 (for example, fig. 31), many
gouaches resemble Ernst's Shell Flowers, 1929 (fig- 32), and others bring to
mind the work of his contemporaries, such as Motherwell's Indians, 1944
(fig. 33). Therefore, it is incorrect to classify, as many critics have done, this
phase of his oeuvre as biomorphic although his best work of the period may
be so categorized.
Just as the Subway Scene of 1938 represents the climax of Rothko's first

mature work of the thirties, so Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea, Birth of 45
Cephalopods and Rites of Lilith, 1945 (cat. no. 39), are the culmination of
Rothko's search for the "middle ground between surrealism and abstrac-
tion." In these and related paintings of the mid-forties, Rothko creates a
series of ritualistic or totemic images which vaguely suggest human figures,
birds, animals, aquatic life. The animation of twirling or revolving forms,
sensitivity to nuance of color, shape and detail and careful balance of large
and small areas in these lyrical works are unexcelled. Rothko now achieves a
synthesis of form, line and color which rivals that of the best Surrealist
painting of the period.
Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea was painted during the artist's courtship
of his second wife, Mary Alice Beistle (Mell), and thus had special meaning
for him it may, in fact, be a symbolic portrait of the couple. (Although it

at one time belonged to the San Francisco Museum of Art it was traded back
to Rothko in 1961 and remained in his home until his wife's death in 1970.)
The paintings of 1944-45 reveal that by now Rothko had begun to
make important advances in a new direction. He starts now to enlarge his
paintings Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea is 75 by SAV2 inches and Rites of

Lilith, 84 by 108 inches. A comparison between SlowSwirl and the earlier The
Omen of the Eagle (cat. no. 26) is illuminating and shows the extent to which
Rothko's style had by now evolved. The forms of The Omen of the Eagle are
divided into four clearly defined registers; the later work, however, contains
semitransparent images that appear to float and merge with the soft, translu-

cent ground like aquatic organisms in a liquid medium. Rothko has

banished the bulging, bulky figures of The Omen of the Eagle, throwbacks to
his expressionist work of the twenties and thirties, and employed instead
weightless forms and a soft, light palette reminiscent of the subway paint-
ings of the thirties.
Rothko's interest in myth lessened as the abstract possibilities inherent
in Surrealism increasingly intrigued him. The Miro- and Masson-influenced
Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea and Rites of Lilith are gracefully calligraphic,
more markedly linear than the paintings that preceded them. Like Gorky,
who was working in a similar direction at this time, as revealed in his The
Liver is the Cock's Comb, \9AA Rothko cultivated anthropomorphic
(fig. 34),

forms within a generally diffused field. But Rothko, unlike Gorky, or for
that matter, most of the Surrealists, uses little sexual imagery. The two
painters undoubtedly were drawing upon common sources, but did not
 fig. 30
Mark Rothko, Hierarchical Birds, before 1945.
Estate of Mark Rothko

fig- 31
Pablo Picasso, Study for Crucifixion, 1927.
Whereabouts unknown

fig. 32
Max Ernst, Shell Flowers. 1929. Collection
46
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

fig. 33
Robert Motherwell, Indians. 1944.
Whereabouts unknown

fig- 34
Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock's Comb,
1944. Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery,
MS Buffalo, New York, Gift of Seymour H. Knox
47
 markedly influence one another. In most of his canvases of 1944 to 1946
Rothko uses an all-over ground, usually of a pale creamy color with a few
bright accents. His images are generally flat and without real physical
presence. Only rarely, as in the very Gorky-like Aquatic Drama, 1946 (cat.
no. 59), do these shapes become overtly organic or three-dimensional. Nor is
there any concession to the deep illusionistic space of Matta and Tanguy.
Rothko wished to establish light as an integral part of his painting. His
use of oils, however, tended to dim the luminosity he sought, even in the
otherwise masterful Slow Swirl. So disposed was he to effects of luminosity
that he began to prefer watercolor and gouache to oil paints. And, in works of
1945 to 1947, such as Entombment I and Entombment II, both 1946 (cat. nos.

42, 43), Rothko returned to the smaller scale of his paintings prior to the
1940's and restricted his color range to the greys and earth colors typical of
his canvases of the early forties. No doubt he found it easier to concentrate on
developing effects of luminosity and loosening his imagery when working
48 with this restricted scale and palette. The luminosity, flatness, frontality and
close-value colors ascribed to the period of Rothko's great breakthrough in
1949-50 are already characteristic of these watercolors and pastels of the
mid-1940's. Many of them areamong his most beautiful works. Contrary to
the opinion of some critics, who maintain that Rothko could not draw, and
even of the artist himself, the calligraphy of this period is brilliant. Now,
perhaps for the first time, he allows a Miroesque element of play, if not
humor, to enter his heretofore solemn, even stern paintings. There is about
them a decided air of confidence, accomplishment and quiet pleasure. Their
forms, almost liberated from myth and referential imagery, border as never

before on the totally abstract and are brought into perfect harmony with the
formal requirements of the picture plane. Although Rothko's imagery of this
period has often been characterized as aquatic, it is too ambiguous and
complicated to be so defined. His forms are far less explicit than those of
Baziotes, who, also influenced by Miro, truly did invent a vocabulary of
aquatic, biomorphic imagery (fig. 35). Rothko's foreground and background
are in a state of flux; nevertheless, the picture plane remains stable and
constant. Rothko asserted this stability as well as the flatness of the picture
plane by working with strictly horizontal-vertical axes, crossing his vertical
canvases with horizontal bands upon which he placed vertically oriented
shapes.
In these watercolors, Rothko no longer allows concern with symbolic
meaning to stand in the way of abstract considerations, but he does not
entirely renounce his fealty to myth or representational imagery. Rothko had

now only to eliminate the last barrier, the vestiges of figuration that
remained in his work, to create a revolutionary new art form. He was,
however, not yet prepared to take this final step. As he said in 1945:

/ adhere to the material reality of the world and the substance of things. I

merely enlarge the extent of this reality, extending to it coequal attributes

with experiences in our more familiar environment . I insist upon the equal
existence of the world engendered in the mind and the world engendered by
God outside of it. If I have faltered in the use of familiar objects, it is

because I refuse to mutilate their appearance for the sake of an action which

they are too old to serve; or for which, perhaps, they had never been

intended.

I quarrel with surrealist and abstract art only as one quarrels with his
 .

father and mother; recognizing the inevitability and function of my roots,

but insistent upon my dissension: I, being both they, and an integral

completely independent of them.

The surrealist has uncovered the glossary of the myth and has established a

congruity between the phantasmagoria of the unconscious and the objects of

everyday life. This congruity constitutes the exhilarated tragic experience
which for me is the only source book for art. But I love both the object and
the dream far too much to have them effervesced into the insubstantiality of
memory and hallucination. The abstract artist has given material exis-
tence to many unseen worlds and tempi. But I repudiate his denial of the

anecdote just as I repudiate the denial of the material existence of the whole

of reality. For art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of
making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness

Rather be prodigal than niggardly I would sooner confer anthropomorphic

attributes upon a stone, than dehumanize the slightest possibility of 49

32
consciousness

By 1947, however, Rothko had begun to formulate his mature style.

He broke with Surrealism and purged the remnants of this style from his
work. Many of his colleagues did the same, and by 1950 most of the leading
members of the New York School had forged their own highly individualis-
tic art forms. Nevertheless, Rothko continued to experiment with a variety

of possibilities and still exhibited, even in 1948, earlier works characterized

by biomorphic imagery. Thus Archaic Fantasy and Rites of Lilith, both of
1945 were seen in his
, one-man show at Betty Parsons in 1947 and Poised
first

Elements, 1944, Phalanx of the Mind, 1945, Dream Imagery, Beginnings, Com-

panionship and Solitude were included in his 1948 show at this same gallery.
However, as critics of the 1948 presentation noted, Rothko's newer works
indicated a striking departure into pure abstraction. The writer in Art News

fig. 35 tyji,.* '}*-:$

William Baziotes, Aquatic, 1961. Collection

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York
 fig. 36
Mark Rothko, Number 24. 1948. Collectioi
The Museum of Modern Arr, New York.
Gifc of the artist

50

says, "Loose clouds of color appear to float on the surface; a palette opposing
one intense hue with pastel modulations creates a spacious effect. Vaguely
evoking the colot patterns of Bonnard, Rothko achieves lovely textures and
moods." 33 The New York Times reviewer notes that the paintings are mural-
size, divested of content and identified with numbers rather than associative
titles. He remarks that one is Redon-like in its color harmonies and that
Rothko is attempting "to avoid arresting the raw life in the pigment or the
flow of its movement by any kind of definition. . .
," 34 Both critics consi-

dered the paintings unresolved, and the Times writer said Rothko had
reached an "impasse of empty formlessness, an art solely of transitions

without beginning, middle or end." 35

Rothko experimented during 1947 with horizontal supports instead of
using the near-square or pronouncedly vertical formats with which he had
formerly seemed most at ease. Once again, oil replaces watercolor. Large
color forms of diffuse but generally rectangular shape supplant the overtly
biomorphic imagery of the ptevious years, as the artist attempts to purify his
work of all associative elements. The Surrealist morphology of the 1944-46
paintings, which had displaced the mythic imagery of the preceding period,
is now itself eliminated. In its stead is color, color as abstract shape, color in

large and small units juxtaposed with one anothet Despite Rothko's deliber-
.

ate movement towards total abstraction, these are still clearly transitional

works. In several canvases, the horizontal compositional orientation as well

as the configurations of the color-shapes themselves are still referential and
convey the distinct impression of landscape.
This is especially apparent in Number 24. 1948 (fig. 36), where the top
edge of the middle block of color suggests a horizon line, and the gentle
curves or sloping contours of the beach or countryside are alluded to, but not
specifically depicted. While they may not be particularly successful or
resolved, paintings of this kind reveal the confluence of a number of ideas and
forces and thus offer a most interesting insight into Rothko's development.
In Number 24 the residue of the past remains
, in echoes of Marin and, through
him, Cezanne the encircling border-within-the-frame, the use of oil in the
manner of watercolor and the general, if ambiguous, reference to landscape.
 There are reminders of Avery, too, in the pastoral ambience and flattening of
form. Yet another, more contemporary artist has left his imprint on Rothko's
work of this time: Number 24 and other paintings of the period clearly call to
mind Clyfford Still.
Rothko had expressed his admiration for Still in an introduction he
wrote for the catalogue of this painter's one-man exhibition at Peggy
Guggenheim's Art of This Century in 1946. Rothko's text reads in part:

// is significant that Still, working out West and alone, has arrived at
pictorial conclusions so allied to those of the small band of Myth Makers
who have emerged here during the war. The fact that his is a completely

new facet of this idea, using unprecedented forms and completely personal

methods, attests further to the vitality of this movement. Bypassing the

current preoccupation with genre and the nuances offormal arrangements,

Still expresses the tragic-religious drama which is generic to all Myths at
all times, no matter where they occur. He is creating new counterparts to 51
replace the old mythological hybrids who have lost their pertinence in the
intervening centuries.

For me, Still's pictorial dramas are an extension of the Greek Persephone
Myth. As he himself has expressed it, his paintings are "of the Earth, the
37 36
Damned and of the Recreated.
fford Still, Jamais, 1944.
;gy Guggenheim Collection
Still, like Rothko, was interested in ritualistic subject matter and
archaic forms as early as 1938, as evidenced, for example, by his Totemic
Fantasy of that year. And, although Rothko included him in the band of
"Myth Makers" with which he himself was aligned, Still wished to remain
independent of any group or movement and later repudiated this statement.
'

In fact, Still was to maintain that the paintings in the show, which had titles
like Nemesis of Esther HI Buried Sun
, and Theopathic Entities had been named by
,

someone other than himself. Still was an isolated figure, very much in the
i

manner of Gauguin; the example he provided of an individual working alone,

competing on the fringe of a peer group, without direct peer pressure, was as

important to Rothko as the inspiration of his form, color and concept of

painting. Certain of Still's works of the early 1940's, such as Jamais, 1944 (fig.

37), reflect Surrealist influence, particularly that of Miro. Later in the forties
he rejected European influence, a renunciation that was extremely significant
to Rothko. As Still said, "I have not 'worked over' the imagery or gimmicks of
the past, whether Realist, Surrealist, Expressionist, Bauhaus, Impressionist,
or what you choose. I went back to my own idioms, envisioned, created and
thought through. And the insight gained and the momentum established
altered the character of the whole concept of the practice of painting." 37 Still,

whose individualistic temperament was ill-suited to the New York art world,
returned after a brief stay during 1945-46 in this city to his teaching job at the
California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. However, in the short time he
was in New York, he was undeniably an important catalyst and played a
significant role in Rothko's liberation from Surrealism.
It was to Still that Rothko looked in 1946. The imprint of Still's style is

apparent in the horizontal disposition of shapes with hooked and jagged

contours in a number of Rothkos of 1946 and shortly thereafter, including the
aforementioned Number 24 and Untitled, 1946 (cat. no. 72). These elements
may be traced to paintings such as Still's 1945-H (fig. 38), which he showed to

Rothko, Peggy Guggenheim and others in the fall of 1945 in New York in his
 38
Perry Street studio. In addition, Still's skillful manipulation of color, shape

and texture and his ability to create flickers of light by placing small areas of
color at the edges of his canvas and scattered throughout the field must have
impressed Rothko and certainly influenced his work of 1946-47. Still's later

equation of color as space, as well as his commitment to stylistic consistency

reinforced Rothko's own inclinations. And Rothko and Still shared a basically
romantic attitude towards nature and painting itself both spoke about their
feelings of awe before the grandeur of nature and of their kinship with such
artists as Turner and Matisse. There were facets of Still's style, however, that
were inherently alien to Rothko's sensibility Still's quite consistent use of
large areas of black (a color Rothko generally avoided until the late 1960's) and
the cavernous depths or void that it implied, his sharp and dramatic contrasts
of positive and negative shapes and light and dark areas, the thick skin of his
heavily encrusted paint surface. There is, in addition, a rawness and brutality
in Still's work that aligns him with the gestural branch of Abstract Expres-
sionism. These characteristics are very much at odds with Rothko's serene and
orderly expression.
Rothko was undoubtedly a conduit of ideas from New York to Still. It is

conceivable, therefore, that he may have acted, at least in part, as a catalyst in

Still's stylistic quantum leap between 1945 and 1948. Still was a source of
continuing inspiration for Rothko, and the two artists were in frequent
contact. Rothko went to San Francisco to teach at the California School of
Fine Arts during the summer of 1947 Still made a brief visit to New York in
.

the spring of 1947 and again in the summer of 1948 to discuss the formation
of The Subjects of the Artist School with Rothko, Baziotes, David Hare and
Motherwell. Upon Still's recommendation, Rothko was invited to teach in

San Francisco for a second time, during the summer of 1949- Still lent
Rothko summer, and it was there that he saw Still's fully
his studio that

1947-8-W No. 2 (fig. 39). When Rothko returned to New

resolved painting
York, he borrowed the painting and hung it in his New York apartment for
six years. Although it has been stated that "Rothko developed his final style
after seeing Still's large black 1947-8-W," 39 Rothko had, in fact, already

formulated his mature style by that time.

Still crystallized his characteristic imagery some time before Rothko did.
He did not, however, achieve the heroic proportions of his fully realized style
until 1949, when Rothko was already on the verge of his own breakthrough.
Still and Rothko remained close for many years, and, as we have seen, Still's
painting clearly helped to liberate Rothko. However, Rothko's contemplative
fig. 38 mature formulation derives not from the basically expressionist work of Still
Clyfford Still, 1945-H. 1945. Collection San
but from his own unique sensibility.
Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of
the artist
By 1947, Rothko begins to introduce larger color shapes (cat. no. 73).
The size of the canvas itself generally remains modest, however, in this
fig- 39 period of emerging abstraction. Rothko also starts to break away from the
Clyfford 1947-8-W No.
Still, 2, 1947. practice of confining images to zones. To release his patches of color and
Albnght-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
allow them to float, he sometimes renounces the vertical-horizontal grid
New York, Gift of the artist
structure and the division of the background planes into horizontal bands
which had dominated work from the time of the subway paintings. This
his

abandonment of the balanced rectilinear structure to which he was so

obviously drawn is a rather unexpected departure. However, even the quite
freely disposed compositions of the period convey the sense of order and
harmony we have come to expect of Rothko's expression.
Freed from Surrealist imagery, Rothko is now able to experiment with
numerous formal alternatives: he compresses a multitude of shapes and colors
in the middle of large fields, reduces his compositions to relatively few blocks
of color, allows his forms to merge with the grounds upon which they are
placed and begins for the first time to achieve a wholistic image. The general
atmosphere of freedom and the belief in limitless possibilities which pre-
vailed in the New York art world in the 1940's must have encouraged
Rothko to attempt such varied and sometimes uncharacteristic solutions.
Rothko's insistence in many of his paintings upon a horizontal-vertical
structure was very much in keeping with the practices of a number of his New
York School colleagues. As Meyer Schapiro has pointed out, ". . .Surrealist
painting was infected with literature, and it was only in a milieu of artists
who also admired the Cubists and Mondrian that abstraction could take over
some of the functions that Surrealism assigned to imagery." 40 The preference
for the grid that the Cubists and Mondrian espoused was not a restraining but
a liberating influence in the development of Rothko and his contemporaries,
in that it helped offset this "infection of literature." Mondrian's geometric 53
abstraction affected figures as diverse as de Kooning and Rothko, Newman
and Reinhardt. These younger artists were attracted to both the formal and
metaphysical aspects of Mondrian's pure abstraction. Like the Surrealists,
Mondrian sought a visual system to express inner states and transcendent
meaning. Indeed, Mondrian once said to Max Ernst, "It is not you but I who
41
am the Surrealist." But unlike the Surrealists, Mondrian created his
super-reality within the strictures of pure geometry.
Rothko's sensibility is in many respects close to Mondrian's. His
attraction to order, stability, rectilinear structure and balanced asymmetry,
his developing sense of the need to express a Platonic ideal, a higher spiritual
or metaphysical truth through abstract form, are all clearly related to
Mondrian's own goals. Despite Mondrian's personal asceticism and aesthetic
purity, he expresses in his painting a rich, if highly controlled vein of emotion.
Rothko recognized this and spoke of the "sensuousness of Mondrian," respond-
ing to the complex and often contradictory nature of his art.

Mondrian's grid divides the space of his surface plane into multiple
units. His primary colors anchor the grid within the field but also, in

interacting with the black lines that surround them, create spatial am-
biguity. Thus, color and line perform dual roles and enhance rather than
reduce the complexity of the image. Rothko, on the other hand, even in his
paintings of 1947-48, diminishes the complicating effect of color relation-
ships by eliminating black and white and either subduing the value contrasts
among his colors or sensitively balancing his contrasting hues so that they all

appear to hover on the same plane. Thus, unlike Mondrian's shapes, which
seem to advance and retreat in space, Rothko's color forms achieve a uniform-
ity of spatial play as they hold a single plane in a manner entirely consistent
with his emphasis on the two-dimensional picture surface. Mondrian relied
upon the black and white grid to contain his compositions and color, which
he restricted to the primaries. Rothko, however, abandons all but the most
minimal references to a rectilinear scaffolding and allows his widely varied
and subtle color to act almost independently and at its maximum level of

luminosity. Rothko's color is the substance of his art. Yet it is dematerialized

and in this respect, too, most unlike Mondrian's dense color.
In addition, Mondrian establishes a frame his grid within a frame
the small rectangle of the canvas. His compositions are compartment-
alized and consist of small discrete units. The viewer is forced to stand back
 and examine the whole painting in order to understand how the forms and
colors interact with one another. Rothko, on the other hand, enlarges and
isolates small surface incidents, for example, patches of color. These enlarged
details and, in the later work, the heroic proportions of the canvases engulf
the viewer, immersing him in the totality of the overall image.
Newman, who became close friends with Rothko in the 1930's, had,

like Rothko, been an ardent advocate of Surrealism in the mid-1940's. He

produced a number of Surrealist drawings and watercolors, executing his
automatic, frottage-like drawings first in black and white and, then, in

1944, adding color with grease and oil crayons as in The Blessing (fig. 40).
Calligraphic, heavily textured and improvisational oils followed, featuring
circular (female) forms and vertical (male) elements. Works such as Pagan
Void, 1946, and Genetic Moment 1947 , (fig. 4 1), suggest creation and genesis.
Mondrian's influence on Newman was perhaps even more pronounced
than on Rothko. In his writings, Newman developed a personal and highly
54 intellectual concept of painting. This formulation of his ideology enabled
him to achieve his characteristic mature style as early as 1948: solid color

fields interrupted by vertical stripes or "zips" of another color or tone. By

1949, he had enlarged his canvases to heroic scale and he ultimately carried
the idea of the expansive color field further than either Rothko or Still. Both
Rothko and Newman focused upon a small section of the grid, enlarged it

and utilized it to structure color and space. But, in contradistinction to

Rothko's usual practice of working with horizontal bands of color within a

vertical or near-square field, Newman chose, by about 1950, to orient his
paintings horizontally and subdivide them vertically with one or more
"zips." And in his mature painting, for example, Vir Heroicus Sublimis,
1950-5 1 (fig. 42), Newman eliminates much of the texture that had marked
the grounds of his earlier canvases to produce neutral, wall-like fields most
unlike Still's heavy impasto and Rothko's atmospheric surfaces.
Mondrian's effect on Newman is seen in his use of red and blue, with
which he made some of his most majestic statements. To be sure, Newman
experimented with many colors other than the primaries, and his colors are
true only in late works such as Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, IIV,
fig. 40
1966-70. Newman may tint his colors so that they lose their precision, but
Barnett Newman, The Blessing, 1944.
he makes a statement about a field of a single, specific color. Rothko, on the
Collection Mrs. Barnett Newman
other hand, is concerned with relationships among varied and modulated
colors. Despite Newman's rejection of pronounced texture, his field is not fig. 41
entirely flat and unmodulated. He activates his surface with his brushstrokes Barnett Newman, Genetic Moment, 1947.

and which he creates by masking off Collection Mrs. Barnett Newman

his "zips," a section of the canvas,
painting over the tape and allowing the pigment to bleed or seep underneath.
fig. 42
The pronounced frontality and verticality of the "zip" in contrast to the Barnett Newman. Vtr Heroicus Sublimis,
lateral expanse of the field creates a sensation of deep space and the void 195051. Collection The Museum of
which brings him closer to Still than it does to Rothko, who chooses to keep Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs.

his shallow color-space in flux. Ben Heller

Rothko, Newman and Still purify their art by rejecting the decorative
qualities of paint, by ridding their canvases of complex relationships of color,

form and structure. They reduce color to its essence and make it become
volume, form, space and light. Having emptied their paintings of the
superfluous, they are able to express both the material reality of abstract
painting and the incorporeal reality of the sublime. Art for all of them
becomes an act of revelation, of exaltation, an embodiment of universal
truth.
 .

As Rothko increasingly simplified his painting, he freed himself from

dependence upon the examples of other artists and approached the domain
of his own hegemony, his unique, mature expression. Elements of this

resolved style appear in the paintings of 1948-49 which Rothko designated

as multiforms, but not until the winter of 1949-50 does he achieve a fully
unified, consistent vision. Numerous works of 1949 (see cat. nos. 89, 92)
reveal an artist liberated in terms of color. Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on
White and Red, of 1949 (cat. no. 90), for example, reflects Rothko function-
ing at the highest level of intuition and is predictive of his unsurpassed
mature color statements
In these multiforms, Rothko is inexorably moving beyond mythic
subject matter and Surrealist forms to replace imagery with color. This is not
to say that certain aspects of the painting of the preceding period are not
carried over into the new work, for, in fact, traces of such elements, primarily
in the form of a residual calligraphy, do appear in canvases such as Multiform,
1948, and Number 22, 1949 (cat. nos. 70, 91). These linear elements, which 55

Rothko renounces entirely in his work of the 1950's, however, no longer

carry the weight of representational or symbolic allusions but are largely
formal in intent. In this transitional stage, Rothko cannot yet allow his color
and shape to stand alone. He still feels impelled to define the picture plane
and emphasize the importance of his surface with these markings. Thus, he
places a series of short parallel strokes adjacent to a patch of color or he scores
the paint surface with lines or outlines a block of pigment. Sometimes he
draws with a thin line of color just inside the canvas edge to call attention to the
picture plane and produce an effect of a strip of light this border of light he
was later able to create, without recourse to line, by juxtaposing areas of pure
color. Dots, dashes, dragged lines, indeterminate contours, all are used to
activate the surfaces of the multiforms, as Rothko more and more severely
restricts their compositions and reduces the shapes in them to a few simple
slabs of color.
The process of clarification has already started in Multiform, 1948 (cat.
no. 70): here both horizontal and vertical, large and small shapes are disposed


seemingly at random within the field. A number of colots act at once as

discrete entities and merge together, unified, as they are reduced to a single

intensity. Dashes and drips are the only reminders of Rothko's former
fascination with Surrealist automatism. More advanced is the luminous
Number 19, 1949 (cat. no. 88), where the internal configurations are en-
larged and simplified and the structural role of color increases in importance,
as linear surface incident is diminished. Despite the general pattern of
development that may be discerned in these paintings, Rothko's evolution is

not absolutely consistent, his direction not entirely certain, as Number 18,
1948-49 (cat. no. 77), indicates. In this canvas, he once again resorts to a
multiplicity of lines, shapes and colors. And in another work of 1948 (cat.

no. 84), he chooses a fairly simple format and uses relatively few colors and
shapes, but he reveals that he is still unable to attain a complete formal
resolution. Because this canvas is exaggeratedly narrow, the areas of color
seem too large to be comfortably contained within it. The painting should be
56 executed on a much larger scale, a scale Rothko was to successfully employ
barely one year later.
The characteristics of Rothko's mature style emerge with increasing
force in paintings of 1949 like Untitled, Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White

and Red and Number 22 (cat. nos. 89-91). The two latter works form an
interesting comparison. Number 22 is unusually large (it measures 9 feet 9'/2

inches by 8 feet 10% inches) for this date. It is quite unwieldy, as Rothko fig. 43
seems to have found it difficult to take command of the painting's space: the Joan Miro, The Hunter (Catalan Landscape),
1923-24. Collection The Museum of Modern
proportions of the internal rectangles are rather awkwardly adjusted to the
Art, New York
dimensions of the canvas; the somewhat clumsy relationship of the internal
shapes to one another is uncharacteristically out of balance and inharmoni- fig. 44
ous. The painting is a field of abrasive yellow with a narrow stripe of a Marcel Duchamp, Network of Stoppages, Paris,

related, harsh hue inserted near its top; close to the center is a broader and 1914. Collection The Museum of Modern Art,

wider band of deep red, which almost touches either side of the canvas. New York. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund and
gift of Mrs. William Sisler
Within the red area, three white lines thread their way, lines which perhaps
recall Miro, for example, his The Hunter (Catalan Landscape), 1923-24 (fig.
fig. 45
43), and are among the last vestiges of Surrealist automatic calligraphy in Marcel Duchamp, The Bride Stripped Bare
Rothko's work. Curiously, these skeins probably also refer to that wizard of by Her Bachelors, Even (the Large Glass)

Dada, Duchamp, for in their disposition within the composition they recall 1915-23. Collection Philadelphia Museum
of Art: Bequest of Katherine S. Dreier
the linear elements in works such as Network of Stoppages , Paris, 1914 (fig.

44). Although Rothko never acknowledged a debt to Duchamp, the Dada

master may have influenced some of his early Surrealist-inspired works
Rothko's Untitled, 1945 (cat. no. 62), for example, has the quality of a
mirror image and resembles Duchamp's the Large Glass, 1915-23 (fig- 45),

in its general organization. And Duchamp capitalized upon chance in his art

and was, in this, a precursor of Surrealist automatism. The existence of a link

between Duchamp and Rothko remains an intriguing if hitherto unexplored
possibility. Number 22, then, reflects the past and also, in its extreme
reduction and large scale, points to the future.
The awkwardness and harshness of this transitional work are in direct
contrast to the much more fully resolved Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on
White and Red. In this painting, the significant elements of Rothko's mature
style are not only clearly in evidence but are unified: he employs a series of
horizontals within a vertical format and harmony is achieved by means of
precise adjustment of a drastically reduced number of shapes and colors. This
order is in no sense mechanical or based upon predetermined calculation; it is
exquisitely sensitive and intuitive.
 In Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red, Rothko reveals one of
the supreme features of his genius his ability to hold on a single plane
colors that advance and retreat. He achieves this through relatively simple
means. The large violet shape in the uppermost portion of the canvas is far

heavier than the smaller bands of orange and yellow below it. Rothko
prevents this rectangle from toppling because of its weight by anchoring it

with the thin band of black directly below it and with two vertical red bars

which, despite their narrowness, effectively counter the strength of the violet
mass. Furthermore, the soft yellow and white ground lends added density to
the lower half of the painting and reinforces an otherwise recessive area.
Rothko by now had enlarged and neutralized his forms, allowing color

to breathe. Color does not allude to landscape, as it had only a few years
before, nor is it any longer a secondary element which supports shape. Color
has come to stand for form. Absolutely crucial to his color expression is

Rothko's paint handling, which evolved from his Surrealist watercolors. It is

basically a watercolor technique translated into oil. Paint is soaked into the 57
very fiber of the canvas, so that color seems dematerialized, a characteristic
effect of Rothko's most successful late work. The intensity and warmth of
hues (he often favors yellow, orange, violet, red) and an extreme sensuousness
of pigment would seem to be at odds with this quality of dematerialization.
But Rothko's color is full of contradictions. He frequently remarked he did
 "

not wish color to be accepted at face value, asserting that datk paintings
could be mote cheerful than light ones, bright color more serious than deep
hues. Rothko's goal was to make color both area and volume, emotion and
mood, at once palpable and disembodied, sensuous yet spiritual. Fot colot
represents something larger than its own sheet physical presence. Rothko has
come to think of color as the doorway to another reality.
Rothko himself said that he was not interested in color for its own sake.

Nor did he want to be labeled and limited as an abstract painter. "I'm
not interested in relations of color or form. . . . I'm not an abstractionist." 42
He explained that color was important to him as a vehicle to express
". . .basic human emotions tragedy, ecstasy, doom. . . .The people who
weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when

I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color
43
relationships, then you miss the point. Rothko had always sought to
convey these basic emotions but he had formerly done so through expres-
58 sionist figures, dream-like subway scenes and, finally, mythic and Surrealist
imagery. But it is only in his painting of the 1950's and 1960's that he
achieves "the simple expression of the complex thought" as he distills the
meaning of his earlier work into color; color which is the vessel for transcen-
dental meaning.
Red fascinates Rothko above all colors as a carrier of emotion. No other
colot appears so insistently in his oeuvre from the time of the multiforms. It

dominates Rothko's work of the fifties and sixies and, in fact, was the color of
his last painting. Red is so potent optically that it overwhelms or obliterates
other hues unless it is diluted or controlled by juxtaposing it, as Mondrian
did, with equally strong colots, such as black and white of the other
primaries, yellow and blue. But Rothko frequently uses it alone, altering its

tonality according to the emotion he wishes to express. Perhaps Rothko was

so drawn to red because of its powerful and basic associations: it is identified
with the elements and ritual with fire and with blood and thus with life,

death and the spirit. The Existentialist philosopher, Kierkegaard, whom

Rothko and his friends deeply admired, wrote movingly of red, in terms that
call to mind Rothko's painting:

The result of my life is simply nothing, a mood, a single color. My result is

like the painting of the artist who was to paint a picture of the Israelites

crossing the Red Sea. To this end, he painted the whole wall red,
explaining that the Israelites had already crossed over, and that the
44
Egyptians were drowned.

Rothko belongs very much in the tradition of such metaphysicians of

painting as Mondrian, Paul Klee and Vasily Kandinsky, for whom color was
the key to the realm of the spirit.The paintings and writings of Mondrian
and Kandinsky, particularly the latter's On the Spiritual in Art received much ,

attention in New York in the 1940's. However, Rothko's commitment to

the expression of the spiritual rather than the physical was inspired not by
their aesthetic theories, but by the evidence of their painting. Moteover,
magic and mysticism, myth and ritual were integral to late nineteenth- and
twentieth- century artmovements as diverse as Symbolism, Surrealism,
Cubism and Suprematism. And Rothko's own youthful religious
background must surely have fostered and supported his concern with the
spiritual aspects of art.
 It is important to reiterate that Rothko did not consider himself, even
in his mature phase, an abstract artist. He said: "I do not believe that there
was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter
of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms
45
again." For Rothko abstract form and pure color had significance only
insofar as they represented a higher truth. Thus, he rejected as far too

limiting the restricted goals of pure geometric abstraction just as he re-

nounced the literary content of Surrealism.

Though Rothko limited his forms and restricted his number of colors,
his intention was to enhance rather than reduce the expressive possibilities of
his painting. To suggest multiple levels of meaning he had first to strip away
extraneous detail, just as the Surrealist poets and painters divested the object
of conventional associations. Once this purification has taken place and
imagery has been renovated, the viewer is permitted new kinds of associa-
tions, in Apollinaire's words, "numerous interpretations that sometimes
46 59
contradict each other." In these often contradictory layers of interpreta-
tion, Rothko expresses rich content. Formal reductivism thus gave rise to

expanded meaning for Rothko as for other artists of his generation.

In a painful, often tortuous process of transformation, Rothko purified

his painting by purging it of many of the European models he admired and
learned from. He now expressed the metaphysical meaning of his Surrealist
works without any recourse to the forms, symbols or allusions of his earlier
canvases. References to the external world are subsumed into disembodied
color, as Rothko attains a synthesis of the physical and spiritual. In this

respect, it is interesting to note Rothko's admiration for the Italian Primi-

tives, in particular Fra Angelico, who represented the beauty of both
spiritual and physical worlds in their religious paintings. That Rothko was
able to achieve this synthesis with the rigorously limited means he allowed
himself is all the more remarkable. In these pure, reduced, transcendent
works, Rothko makes the concrete sublime.
 IV

60 .LVothko banishes entirely any hint of representational imagery from his

painting and resolves his mature, fully integrated style by 1950. He has
arrived at his characteristic formulation: two or three horizontal, relentlessly
frontal rectangles of disembodied color stacked one above another almost fill

the canvas field in which they seem to hover or float. The support is either

long and narrow, as in Green and Red on Orange, 1950 (cat. no. 93), or
near-square, as in No. 8, 1952 (cat. no. 105). Gone are the few vestiges of
linear elements that remained in the paintings of 1949. Gone, too, are the
layers of color bands and contrasting horizontal and vertical forms that had
marked the multiforms.
Spatial illusionism always played a part in Rothko's work from the
Renaissance windows of his first paintings to his Surrealist dream-landscapes
and, finally, to the Mondrian-inspired complex spatial play of the mul-
tiforms. But this illusionism was extremely limited as early as the subway
paintings. In a work like Subway Scene, 1938 (cat. no. 22), for example,
although recession into depth is indicated, one tends to read the image from
top to bottom, on the flat canvas surface. Rothko always creates a figure-
ground relationship but, in virtually all his work from the time of the subway
paintings, he modifies it by dividing his canvas into horizontal bands. These
bands emphasize the canvas surface and therefore flatten the composition.
This sectioning is an underlying, if often subliminal, unifying factor
throughout Rothko's oeuvre.
By 1950, this stratification is stressed further. Because Rothko's rec-
tangles of color are utterly frontal, spatial illusionismis even more limited

than before. But the paintings are not resolutely Rothko has diminishedflat:

the figure-ground relationship but has not abandoned it, and his forms float
ever so slightly above the color field upon which they are placed. This depth
is restricted, not only by means of frontality, but through feathery paint

application which renders the rectangles almost transparent: the ground is

revealed through the color forms and appears to merge with them. In
addition, Rothko often uses a band or accent of stronger color to reassert the
picture plane. Despite the emphasis on the picture plane and the sense of
shallow depth, there is in these paintings a curious, paradoxical fluctuation

in space the color forms seem not only to hover on the canvas surface but
actually to move forward. Because these veils of color are so weightless,
because there is about them a sensation of mist and atmosphere, they advance
and appear to exist somewhere between us and the picture, somewhere
between what we know to be true and what we perceive.
In these paintings, which are the essence of simplicity, Rothko express-
es his ideas with increased clarity and directness. As he had said somewhat
earlier:

The progression of a painter's work, as it travels in time from point to point,

will be toward clarity: toward the elimination of all obstacles between the
painter and the idea and between the idea and the observer. As examples of
such obstacles, I give (among others) memory, history or geometry, which
are swamps of generalization from which one might pull out parodies of

ideas (which are ghosts) but never an idea in itself. To achieve this clarity
47
is, inevitably, to be understood.

Rothko's commitment to reduction and clarity him with self- filled

doubt and was achieved at great emotional cost. But this commitment
endows his paintings with a nobility and monumentality which place him "*

among the foremost artists of his generation, perhaps even among the greatest
of the twentieth century and thus enables him to attain his grand ambition. He
later came to question his single-minded direction and often told his friends

that he felt trapped in it; he nevertheless produced an astonishing body of work

which, especially from 1950 to 1956, was at once remarkably consistent and
extraordinarily varied. For, while he severely limits the general format of his
compositions, rigorously restricting the number, kind and orientation of his
shapes, he uses canvases of different sizes and an enormous range of colors,

combining them in seemingly infinite ways, and exquisitely adjusts the

relationships of rectangles whose proportions are slightly altered from painting
to painting. Through this rich and subtle formal variety, Rothko gives
expression to an unpatalleled range of emotions, moods and sensations, a range
and a sensibility that neither his contemporaries nor the younger generation of
color-field painters of the later 1950's and early 1960's were able to approach.
In these paintings, Rothko is clearly creating a set of rules for himself,

but he would not Or could not remain within them. Constantly exploring,
reshaping and re-evaluating form and color, he seems to have established
these principles only to break them. Reinhardt shares with Rothko the sense
of need for perfection, the desire to express a Utopian order, a metaphysical
truth with his abstract form and color. And, like Rothko, he reduces his

painting to its essence. But Reinhardt adheres obsessively to the series of

aesthetic principles he formulated for himself. By I960 he had established a

fixed module of a five-by-five-foot canvas and limited his color to black, his
imagery to a cruciform structure of nine squares. The color painters of the
sixties, too, felt the need to remain within a system. They, however, dispense
with metaphysics in favor of the pragmatism of pure color*painting.
Rothko perfected a technique of dyeing (or staining, as it later came to
be called) with his paint which enabled him to satutate the threads of his
canvas with his medium so that pigment and canvas become one. By
applying many thin washes of paint, one over another, and often allowing
some of the colors in the bottom layers to appear through the top coat of
pigment, Rothko achieves the effect of a hidden light source. In most of the
paintings of this period, Rothko creates a quality of inner light which seems
to emanate from the very core of the work, a quality that calls to mind the
palpable and spiritual light of Rembrandt, an artist whom he very much
admired. Rothko often enhances this effect of inner light by floating a thin
 .

seam or sliver of another color through his rectangles or around their edges.
Thus, in Green, White, Yellow on Yellow of 1951 (cat. no. 102), fleeting
glimpses of pink underpainting punctuate the large green upper mass, which
is partially surrounded by a narrow border of softly brushed white. There is a
layer of green underpainting in the yellow block at the bottom of the canvas:
it shines through the yellow, emphasizing the sense of suffused light and also
balancing the composition. The yellow field behind the two rectangles
provides yet another border of light and further unifies the painting.
Rothko's mastery of both coloristic and formal nuance is revealed in
painting after painting of the 1950's. A comparison of Brown, Blue, Brown on
Blue, 1953, and Homage to Matisse, 1954 (cat. nos. 108, 107), demonstrates
his supreme ability to achieve astonishingly different results within his

severely restricted format. The former painting, roughly square in shape, is

illuminated by an electric blue in its midsection. So powerful is this blue that

it must be offset by two darker and larger brown forms to prevent it from
62 destroying the stability and balance Rothko seeks. Because the blue is more
intense in value than the other colors, would burst out of the rectangle if
it

the heavier and denser masses of brown above and below it did not press in
upon it to hold it in place. The blue field which surrounds the three bands
(and is also behind them) locks them together in a single plane. Contradic-
tions between foreground and background, flatness and shallow depth
emerge and coexist in tenuous and ever-shifting relationships. This canvas
indicates that Rothko could exploit blue to powerful effect, yet it is a color he
worked with less often than red perhaps because it had come to be identified
with Newman, who had used it so early and so well. The richness of Brown,
Blue, Brown on Blue certainly derives in large part from Rothko's successful use
of the several blues disposed throughout it, but also depends upon the variety
and textures of the surrounding browns. Extraordinary balance, a superb
handling of scale and proportion and the tension between emphatic frontality
and flatness and an effect of shallow space also contribute to the painting's
majesty.
Despite the large size of Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue and the other
paintings of this period, Rothko's work is refined and subtle and thus remains,
despite its majestic proportions, intimate and emotionally accessible. As
Rothko said:

/ paint very large pictures. I realize that historically the function of

painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous

The reason I paint them, however / think it applies to other painters I

know is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To

paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look
upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass ....
However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn't something you
48
command.

A special, intensely personal relationship is achieved between the viewer and

the canvas and, by extension, Rothko. Acutely aware of the need for this
relationship, the artist noted:

A picture lives by companionship expanding , and quickening in the eyes of

the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky act to

send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the
 unfeeling and the cruelty of the impotent who would extend their affliction
universally!^

The words that describe the qualities and components of Rothko's

art measure, balance, shape, texture, tonality cannot adequately express
its breathtaking beauty. Indeed, Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue and other
mature paintings elicit a sense of awe on the part of the viewer and convey a
feeling of mystery, a harmony and meaning that is magical and larger than
the sum of the parts of each canvas. In these transcendent works, Rothko
creates the contemporary spiritual equivalent of the great Renaissance paint-
ings he revered, paintings which were meant to inspire the beholder, not
merely with their formal perfection but also as reminders of an order beyond
man and nature.
The ultimate effect of Homage to Matisse is completely unlike that of
Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue. This difference is in part produced by Rothko's
use of a long narrow canvas, the one alternative he allows himself to the 63
squarish format of Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue.Once again he employs blue,
here in the form of a rectangle at the bottom of the composition. It is
surmounted by a floating, vaporous yellow square. The misty yellow and the
red beneath it behave in an unexpected way. The red that peers through from
underneath the yellow overlay has a bluish tinge. This is curious, because
when red and yellow interact they normally produce orange. To create this
unusual effect, Rothko must have made the square an extremely bluish-red.
But the uncovered portion of it is a true red: in all probability Rothko
overpainted the band with this color. Therefore, in a quite inexplicable way,
the veiled red, which should be more orange than the uncovered band, is

actually bluish. The result is a sense of coherent shape and implausible color.

Rothko refuses to accept proven rules about the behavior of color that is,

that red and yellow make orange. Here he creates his own rules and reinvents

fig. 46
Henri Matisse, The Red Studio. 1911.
The Museum of Modern Art,
Collection
New York. Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund
 color, and this is his homage to Matisse.
Matisse was profoundly important to Rothko and his contemporaries.
His The Red Studio. 1911 (fig. 46), and The Blue Window, autumn 1911.
without doubt inspired the artists of the New York School. To be sure,
Rothko did not find relevant Matisse's rather straightforward representation
of objects in such paintings. But his radical use of unifying planes of sensuous
color which flatten space into the two-dimensional surface of the canvas had
enormous impact on Rothko.
There is also a symbolic and spiritual dimension in Homage to Matisse. In

his choice of scarlet and true red, Rothko perhaps makes reference to Catholic

vestments. The dense blue rectangle is emphatically, intensely physical; it

contrasts with and acts as a foil for the evanescent, incorporeal form of the
golden square. This shimmering halo-like form calls forth associations with
religious imagery. Thus, the painting speaks of form and space, of the real and
immaterial, the physical and sensual yet disembodied presence of paint.
During the course of the 1950's Rothko experiments ,
in a number of
64
ways: the size of the field and the interior configuration differ in relationship
to one another and from painting to painting, the widths of the spaces
between colors vary, colors range from bright to dark, from gay to sober, but
are rarely somber, small amounts of black are introduced, although this color
does not figure prominently until the late 1960's. Paint is handled in a loose,
brushy manner, feathered out so that the edges of forms are never clearly
defined. The canvas is stretched and then painted not only on its front surface
but on its sides as well. The works are left unframed so that the depth of the
stretchers and the entire painted surface are revealed. Although his composi-
tions are generally weighted towards their tops, Rothko occasionally concen-
trates his darkest, heaviest colors at the bottom of the canvas, as, for

example, in Light. Earth and Blue , 1954 (cat. no. 116). Light, Earth and Blue
is one of the few paintings of this time with a title that enhances its meaning.
Rothko had no fixed system for naming his canvases: most are either left
untitled or identified with numbers or colors, since he probably felt that
more interpretive or descriptive names would restrict their meanings. Some-
times he bleeds the edges of rectangles so they appear unfinished he then
completes their forms by enclosing them within another color area, as in

Number 8, 1952 (cat. no. 105), or he leaves part of the rectangle so well
defined that the viewer can read it as a totality and complete the shape
himself, as in Yellow. Orange. Red on Orange , 1954 (cat. no. 1 10).

Rothko minimizes the tactility of his paint by dyeing it into the canvas;
as we have seen, his color, despite its intensity, becomes disembodied and
seems to hover somewhere in front of the paintings. Because by now the
canvases are larger than life-size and are often very large indeed the
spectator encompassed by these floating color shapes, drawn into space
is

that exists somewhere between himself and the picture plane and is engulfed
in an overwhelming emotional experience. Rothko's commitment to creat-
ing this exalted emotional experience, to art as an act of revelation, shared by
Still and Newman, contrasts markedly with the attitudes of painters like
Pollock or de Kooning and Franz Kline, for whom the physical rather than
the spiritual aspects of painting were of central importance. For these artists
who emphasized the gestural elements of Abstract Expressionism, the canvas
must reflect the very act of painting. Pollock, pouring paint, walking around
and in his canvas, using his entire body as he worked, was the quintessential
action painter. Because his canvases were so large, Rothko probably had to
expend as much physical energy when he painted as Pollock did. But
Rothko's approach was contemplative rather than physical; unlike Pollock,
who worked intuitively, rapidly and spontaneously, Rothko proceeded from
long periods of meditation to the physical act of painting.
As the 1950's advance, Rothko's canvases grow larger, the edges of his
forms become more concrete, the colors more opaque, the mood of the work
more somber. This shift in direction was clarified and emphatically reflected
in a mural series Rothko executed for the Four Seasons restaurant in the

Seagram Building in 1958. Rothko had never before received a mural

commission nor had he ever painted a formal and unified series. He worked
on them for nearly a year and actually completed three separate sets of murals
before he was satisfied. Each set became progressively darker: the first were
primarily orange and brown, the last, deepest maroon and black. In them,
Rothko abandons solid color-forms in favor of rectangles with open centers
that reveal the field behind them and therefore suggest doorways. For the first
time he employs a horizontal support with a vertical configuration and restricts 65
his palette more severely than ever before, using only two colors in each panel.
Rothko explained that the panels were inspired by Michelangelo:

After I had been at work for some time, I realized that I was much
influenced subconsciously by Michelangelo's walls in the staircase room of
the Medicean Library in Florence . . . he makes the viewers feel that they
are trapped in a room where all the doors and windows are bricked up, so
50
that all they can do is butt their heads forever against the wall.

For thefirst time, the work is brooding, forbidding, tragic.

Rothko completed the commission but did not deliver the paintings:
when he saw the space for which they were intended, he said he was offended
and returned the sum he had been paid for them. In fact, this was not the only
time Rothko refused to sell his work or accept patronage. He would not allow
museums to buy his paintings in the 1950's and returned the
certain
Guggenheim International Award prize money he won in 1958. These
actions no doubt depended upon deep-seated emotional and moral attitudes.
By this time famous and financially secure, he must still have been outraged
by social injustice, as he had been in his impoverished youth. The radical,
liberal Jewish immigrant probably felt guilty because he was himself rich

and had accepted a commission for a commercial establishment that served

the wealthy. It is well known that Rothko's success brought him at least as
much torment as comfort. Whether or not Rothko was ever really satisfied
with the Four Seasons murals is open to conjecture. He did consent to sell the
first group The second set was abandoned and the third,
as separate paintings.

completed in 1959, Rothko gave to The Tate Gallery in London (figs. 47, 48).
In I960, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., openedanew
wing and set aside a room in it to display their three Rothkos, which
included Green and Tangerine on Red, 1956 (cat. no. 13 1). A fourth painting,
Ochre and Red on Red, 1954 (cat. no. 1 18), was acquired in 1964 and added to
the room at that time. The idea was conceived by Duncan Phillips, who was
moved by the artist's profound use of light and color. The windows in the
room were darkened, and thus was born the first "Rothko Chapel." This
installation undoubtedly affected Rothko's thinking about future presenta-
tions of his work.
Rothko was given his first important one-man museum exhibition by
66

figs.47, 48
The Tate Gallery, London, installation view

The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1961. He directed the

installation himself and made radical decisions about lighting and place-
ment. When he participated in the 15 Americans The Museum of
show at

Modern Art in 1952, Rothko had asked that his paintings be hung in blazing
light and placed so close together that they touched one another. Some time
later, however, when one of his canvases was installed in the Modern's

collection galleries, Rothko indicated that he wanted the lighting dimmed.

Now he had all of the works hung very close to one another and drastically
reduced the lighting, so that the paintings appeared to glow in the dark. The
effect produced was one of an intimate environment, of a dark space in which
the paintings, instead of existing as individual entities, constituted a series
although they ranged in date from 1945 to I960 and varied considerably in
style.
 Rothko was commissioned to execute a series of murals in 1961 for

Harvard University by Professor Wassily Leontief, Chairman of the Society

of Fellows and Professor of Economics of Harvard University, and John P.
Coolidge, Director of the Fogg Art Museum. They were slated to be installed
in the penthouse of Holyoke Center, designed by Jose Luis Sert, but were
ultimately placed on permanent view in the faculty dining room at the
Center. Completed in 1962, the Harvard murals were exhibited at the
Guggenheim Museum in the late spring of 1963 before they were sent on to
Cambridge. The series consisted of five monumental panels which were
intended to be hung in two distinct but interrelated groups (cat. nos.
175-177). For the Guggenheim installation, Rothko flanked a wide panel
with two narrower ones; these formed a triptych. The remaining panels, one
wide, one narrow, were hung on separate walls adjoining the triptych.
Rothko's configurations in these murals are made up of post and lintel
forms single ones in the narrower panels, double ones merged together in
the wide ones. The plinth-like masses are linked at top and bottom by very 67
narrow bands and by small discrete rectangles. The ground is dusky plum-
purple, one of Rothko's favorite colors, which is offset by black, deep alizarin

and creamy yellow columns. The relationship of the pillars to the picture

plane creates the illusion of space, while the saturated pigment and
brushwork assert the two-dimensionality of the canvas surface. The murals,
more impetuously painted than his earlier canvases, are replete with tempes-
tuous strokes and aggressive blocky forms. The somber colors and massive
shapes create at once a sense of architecture, silence and stasis. The cumula-
tive effect of the installation at the Guggenheim was a feeling of a sanctuary

within a public space.

The Museum of Modern Art installation may have influenced an in-
creasing bias on Rothko's part in favor of dimly lit presentations and the
evolution of ever-darker paintings throughout the sixties. This development
must also be attributed to a change in Rothko's personality, for as his fame
grew, so did his uneasiness, and he became increasingly depressed as the

years passed. Internal and external pressures mounted. The strain of The
Museum of Modern Art he produced very
exhibition took its toll little in

1962 and 1963- He attended more and more ceremonial such events as the

Kennedy and Johnson inaugural and dinner

festivities a state celebrating the
arts at theWhite House and painted and Although highly
less less.

acclaimed in the fifties, he was barely earning enough then to support his
wife, Mell, and his daughter, Kate, born in 1950. Now he was able to travel
abroad extensively with his family and visit the cities and monuments he
must have yearned to see. In 1963, his son, Christopher, was born. He
should have been happy and confident but he was deeply troubled. Friends
relate that he spoke of being trapped and feared his work had reached a dead

end.
But by 1964, Rothko was preoccupied with a major undertaking, a
commission from Dominique and John de Menil to execute murals for a
chapel in Houston (figs. 49, 50). This chapel, originally intended to be
Roman Catholic and part of the University of St. Thomas, was finally
realized as an interdenominational chapel affiliated with the Institute of
Religion and Human Development at Rice University. The octagonal floor
plan was designed by Philip Johnson; the final design was executed under the
supervision of Howard Barnstone and Eugene Aubrey. Rothko accepted the
project with great enthusiasm and began to work on the murals shortly after
 he moved into his last studio, a converted carriage house on East 69th Street.
The commission gave Rothko the opportunity to fulfill one of his life's
ambitions to create a monument that could stand in the great tradition of
Western religious art. He placed a parachute over his skylight to adjust the
natural light that filtered in during the daytime, preferring to keep the
studio relatively dark. Rothko became obsessed with the chapel. He started
the panels in the winter of 1964 and continued to work intensively on them
until 1967, when they were basically complete. Yet even after 1967 he
returned to them from time to time to make minor changes.
Tragically, Rothko did not live to see this project realized, and it was
dedicated almost one year to the day after he committed suicide. Rothko
designed three triptychs, five single panels and four alternatives for the
chapel (figs. 49, 50). His theme was the Passion of Christ and he had, at one
point, planned to place the numbers of the fourteen Stations of the Cross on
the exterior of the building to indicate the location of each panel inside the
68 structure. Two triptychs and one single panel are comprised of black hard-
edged rectangles on maroon fields; one triptych and four single panels are
entirely black, veiled with a wash of maroon. Variations in the thickness of

paint produce nuances of color. In these murals on the Passion of Christ,

Rothko evokes with his red and black his belief in the passion of life, the

finality of death, the reality of the spirit. Red, so often the principal carrier of

Rothko's emotions and ideas, is now accompanied by black, which sym-

bolizes his state of mind and the character of his existence in the latter part of
his life. Black, however, does not signify only death. It is one of the richest
colors in the artist's palette. Rothko had reduced his painting in the fifties by
restricting it to the simplest shapes and to color; now he was purifying it even
of colors, limiting himself to red and, finally, black. These reds and blacks
do not any longer seem to exist as physical color, but rather, as tranquil,
tragic, twilit dreams of color. Even more than the Four Seasons or Harvard
murals, the Houston paintings create a total environment, a unified atmo-
sphere of all-encompassing, awe-inspiring spirituality.
In 1968, Rothko suffered an aneurysm of the aorta. This condition was
aggravated by other ailments, by heavy drinking common among artists

of his generation and by family problems. Nevertheless, in the last two

years of his life Rothko produced an astonishing and prolific body of work.
These were in acrylics, a medium which Rothko chose because he was
attracted to their fast-drying qualities he was
make one painting aable to
day.Some were canvases but the majority were extraordinary paper pieces,
among the most exquisite work he had done. He had, of course, worked on
paper in the forties and he executed small-scale paper versions of his oils on
figs. 49. 50
canvas in 1958. Rothko had his assistant roll out a length of paper on the The Rothko Chapel, Houston
floor as he watched. Once he decided on the size he wanted, he had a series of
ten to fifteen sheets cut to approximately the same dimensions. Then he
tacked the papers on the wall in a row and worked on them one at a time.
The new acrylics are simplicity itself: in most of them two dark
planes either brown or black on grey are surrounded by a narrow white
border. The borders were of extreme importance to Rothko, who constantly
readjusted their proportions in relation to the inner configurations. Imagery,
mood and meaning are vastly different from his work of the 1950's and early

1960's. The glowing colors of the earlier paintings are replaced here by
deeper, quieter hues; the rectangles, which formerly floated, are denser,
more stable, because of the more opaque quality of the acrylics. Rothko's
fig. 51
Caspar David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea. 1810.

Collection Staatliche Schlosser und Garten,

Schloss Chatlottenburg, Berlin

69

preference for horizontal divisions within vertical canvases and configura-

tions is replaced by an insistence upon horizontal divisions of horizontal
supports. Where the vertical called to mind architecture, the horizontal
alludes to landscape. The doorways to a higher reality created before the
Houston Chapel were still redolent with sensuous color and form: there was
in them an equilibrium between two states of existence, the spiritual and the
physical. The new works, however, speak entirely of another, transcendent
world, of a painter who has crossed a threshold into the far side of reality.
These landscapes of the spirit bear a certain resemblance to paintings by
Caspar David Friedrich, such as Monk by the Sea (fig. 51). Both artists stand in
awe of the spirit, both use nature to express that spirit. Friedrich, of course,
felt it necessary to incorporate a human element in the figure of the monk;
Rothko has long since banished all allusions to the human form. Specific
references to beach, sea and sky are also unnecessary for Rothko. He conveys
all of his meaning through gesture and in the way the darker, heavier top
mass meets the lighter, usually smaller area of grey below. The two planes are
painstakingly adjusted and readjusted; between them is a band which
appears to be a flicker of light. Often, especially in the paper pieces, this
luminosity is Inness-like. The weight and texture of the canvas create a
heavier, darker presence than the paper does. In both paper pieces and
canvases, however, Rothko moving towards darkness, "...the abstract
is

idea is incarnated in the image. But this is not to say that the images
. . .

created by Rothko are the thin evocations of the speculative intellect; they are
rather the concrete, the tactual expression of the intuitions of an artist to
whom the subconscious represents not the farther, but the nearer shore of
art," wrote the author of the preface to the catalogue of Rothko's one-man
exhibition at Art of This Century in 1945. By the end of his life Rothko had
moved beyond such concepts in his painting. No longer is his art earthbound,
sensual, corporeal. He had attained a harmony, an equilibrium, a wholeness,
in the Jungian sense, that enabled him to express universal truths in his

breakthrough works, fusing the conscious and the unconscious, the finite and
the infinite, the equivocal and the unequivocal, the sensuous and the spiritual.
Now he had left behind all that spoke of the carnate, the concrete. He had
reached the farther shore of art.
Diane Waldman
 FOOTNOTES Memoirs, Francis V. O'Connor, ed., 36. "Clyfford Still" in Art of This Century,

Washington, D.C., 1972, p. 120. New York, Clyfford Still, February

1 Interview with Edward Weinstein,
12-March7, 1946.
January 24, 1978. According to Weins- 18. Letter from H. R. Hays, December 27,
tein, there were numerous variants of 1977. 37. Quoted in San Francisco Museum of

the name, such as Rothkovich, adopted Modern Art, Clyfford Still, January
19- Leter from Solman, November 15,
by different family members. One 9-March 14, 1976, pp. 108-109.
1977.
branch of the family changed its name
38. Idem., opposite pi. 10.
to Weinstein and another to Nagel. 20. Ibid.

39. Idem., p. 52.

2. Letter from Weinstein, February 24, 21. Mercury Galleries, New York, The Ten:
1978. Whitney Dissenters, November 15, 40. Meyer Schapiro, "The Younger Ameri-

1938. can Painters of Today," The Listener,

3- John Fischer, "The Easy Chair: Mark
vol. lv, no. 1402, January 26, 1956, p.
Rothko: portrait of the artist as an angry 22. Letter from Solman, November 15,
147.
man," Harper's, vol. 241, no. 1442, 1977.
July 1970, p. 17. 41. Quoted in Morton Feldman, "After
23. J. L., "Three Moderns: Rothko,
Modernism," Art in America, vol. 59,
4. Letter from Dr. Max Naimark, Feb- Gromaire and Solman," Art News, vol.
70 no. six, November-December 1971, p.
ruary 14, 1978. xxxviii, no. 16, January 20, 1940, p.
72.
12.
5. Current Biography Yearbook, Charles
42. Selden Rodman, Conversations with Art-
Moritz.ed, New York, 1961, p. 398. 24. Joseph Liss, "Portrait by Rothko," un-
ists. New York, 1957, p. 93.
published, n.d. On deposit in Rothko
6. Fischer, "The Easy Chair," p. 22.
file, Whitney Museum of American 43. Idem., pp. 93-94.
7. Letter from Naimark, December 27, Art, New York.
44. Stfren Kierkegaard, Either/Or, trans.
1977.
25. Letter from Edith S. Carson, January 5, David F. Swenson and Lillian Marvin,
8. "The Romantics were Prompted," Pos- Princeton, New Jersey, 1971, vol. I, p.
1978.
sibilities 1, Winter 1947/8, p. 84. 28. This is "A," an aesthete, speaking.
26. Breton, What is Surrealism, p. 59.
9- Quoted in Brian O'Doherty, American
45. "The Romantics were Prompted," Pos-
Masters: The Voice and the Myth, New 27. John D. Graham, System and Dialectics
sibilities I, Winter 1947/48, p. 84.
York.ca. 1973, p. 153. of Art, New York, 1937, p. 15.

46. Quoted in Anna Balakian, Surrealism:

10. Quoted in "A Certain Spell," Time vol. 28. Marcus Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb
,

The Road to the Absolute, New York,

lxxvii, no. 10, March 3, 1961, p. 75. with unacknowledged collaboration of
1959, p. 64.
Barnett Newman [letter], in Edward
1 1 Jane Schwartz, "Around the Galleries,"
Alden Jewell, "The Realm of Art: A 47. "Statement on his Attitude in Paint-
Art News, vol. xxxii, no. 9, December
New Platform and Other Matters: ing," The Tiger's Eye, vol. 1, no. 9,
2, 1933, p. 16.
'Globalism' Pops into View," The Neu 1

October 1949, p. 114.

12. Quoted in 0[scar] C[ollier], "Mark York Times, June 13, 1943, p. x9.
48. "A Symposium on How to Combine
Rothko," The New Iconograph, no. 4,
29. Sidney Janis, Abstract and Surrealist Art Architecture, Painting and Sculpture,"
Fall 1947, p. 41.
in America, New York, 1944, p. 118. Interiors, vol. ex, no. 10, May 1951, p.

13. Letter from Sally M. Avery, December 104.

30. Interview with Solman, March 3, 1978.
14, 1977.
49. The Museum of Modern Art, New
31. Art of This Century, New York, Mark
14. Eulogy for Milton Avery, delivered York, 15 Americans. March 25-June
Rothko: Paintings, January 9-February
January 7, 1965, New York Society for
4, 1945, n.p.
11, 1952, p. 18.

Ethical Culture.
50. Quoted in Fischer, "The Easy Chair,"
32. "Personal Statement" in David Porter
15. L[awrence] C[ampbell], "Reviews and p. 16.
Gallery, Washington, DC, A Paint-
Previews: Painting from the WPA," ing Prophecy 1950.
Art News, vol. 60, no. 5, September
1961, p. 14. 33. "Reviews and Previews," Art News,
vol. xlvii, no. 2, April 1948, p. 63.
16. Andre Breton, What is Surrealism, Lon-

don, 1936, p. 65. 34. Sam Hunter, "Diverse Modernism,"

TheNew York Times. March 14, 1948,
17. Joseph Solman, "The Easel Division of
p. 8x.
the WPA Federal Art Project," TheNew Ca. 1964-66. Photo by Alexander
Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of 35. Ibid. Liberman
1. Portrait of Rothko's Mother, n.d.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 16!4"

Estate of Mark Rothko
L

2. Untitled, late 1920s

Watercolor on paper, 15 x 22"
Lent anonymously
 I **
/fa

3. Untitled, late 1920s

Watercolor on paper, 15 x 21V4"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 "l^^H^^B^H

mm

Untitled, late 1920s

Watercolor on paper, 15 x \2Ys"
Estate of Mark Rothko
5. The Bathers. late 1920s
Watercolor on paper, 1214 x 15"
Estate of Mark Rothko
6. Untitled, late 1920s
Watercolor on paper, 12 A
l
X 15"
Estate of Mark Rothko

1. Untitled, [ate 1920s

Watercolor on paper, 12% x 15"

Estate ot Mark Rothko

8. Pasture., late 1920s

Watercolor on paper, 10% x 15%"
Estate of Mark Rothko
9- Untitled. 1930
Oil on canvas, 21 x 27"
Estate of Mark Rothko
10. Untitled. 1930
Oil on canvas, 28 x 17"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
1 1. Interior. 1932
Oil on masonite, 23% x 18"
Estate of Mark Rothko
12. Untitled. 1932
Oil on muslin mounted on
canvas board, 26% x 20 34"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 / .... k\
S

</

13. Untitled. 1936-37

Oil on canvas, 24 x 18"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
r
14. Nude. 1936
Oil on canvas, 36 x 2AVa"
.V "" '-.
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko

15. Untitled. 1938

Oil on canvas, 49 34 x 37"
Estate of Mark Rothko
16. Untitled. 1936-38
Oil on canvas, 40Ks x 30Vs"
Lent anonymously
 i

17. Untitled. 1936-38

Oil on canvas, 28 x 36"
Estate of Matk Rothko
18. Untitled, ca. 1936
Oil on canvas, 32 x 42"
Estate of" Mark Rothko

19. Self Portrait. 1936

Oil on canvas, 32(4 x 26"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
20. Subway (Subterranean Fantasy), ca. 1936
Oil on canvas, 33% x 46"
Estate of Mark Rothko
21. Untitled. 1936-38
Oil on canvas, 20V4 x 30"
Estate of Mark Rothko
22. Subway Scene. 1938
Oil on canvas, 35 x 4714"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 "WW**

^jm&b k
39*/.

23. Antigone. 1938

Oil on canvas, 34 x 46"
Lent anonymously
24^ Untitled. 1939-40
Oil on canvas, 29 3/4 x 36"
Estate ot Mark Rothko
 $
**
l

25. Untitled. 1940-41

Oil on canvas, \1Va x 25V5"
Estate of Mark Rothko
26. The Omen of the Eagle. 1942
Oil on canvas, 25'/2 x 17%"
Estate- ill Mark Rotlikn
27. The Omen. 1942-43
Oil on canvas, 19 x 13"
Estate ot Mark Rothko
 .

28 The Syrian Bull. 1943

Oil on canvas. 3914 X.27W"
Collection Mrs. Barnctt Newman
29. Sacrifice of lphigenia. 1942
Oil on canvas, 50 x 37"
Lent anonymously
30. Horizontal Procession
(Gyrations on Four Plana: >'> i i

Oil on canvas, 23% x 47%"

Lent anonymously
5 1 Poised Elements .
1944
Oil on canvas, 37 x 49"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
$2. Unlit led. 1944
Watercolor on paper, 26 x 19%"
Lent anonymously
33. Phalanx of the Mind. 1944
Oil on canvas, 54 x 35%"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 I : I . -

35. Archaic Phantasy. 1945

M. Ttresias. 1944
Oil on canvas, 48 x 24"
Oil on canvas, 79% x 40"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
Oil on ca
Courtesy The Pace GaJIery
3
T . Birth of Cephalopods. 1944
Oil on canvas, 39^ x 53VS"
Estate of Mark Rothko
38. TotemSign. 1945-46
Watercolor on paper, 29'/2 x 21 '/t"

Courtesv The Pace Gallery

39. Rites of Lilith. 1945
Oil on canvas, 81% x 100%"
Estate of Mark Rothko
iO I ntitled 1945-46
Watc-rcolor on paper, 27'/; x 20H"
Courtesy The Pate Gallen
1. Untitled. 1944-45
Watercolor on paper, 22% x 30%"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 * ^ *^1 -r /

42. Entombment I 19 S6

Gouache on paper, 20-H x 25'4"

Collection Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
43. Entombment II. 1946
Watercolor on paper, 30 x 38"
Private Collection
44. V mitUd. 1945-46
Watercolor on paper, 40% x 2714"
Lent anonymously
 Untitled. 1945-46
Watercolor on paper, 29Vs x 2\ }A"
Lent anonymously

I. Untitled. 1944 -45

Watercolor on paper, 29 34 x 2\yg"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 . 1945-46

rrcolor on paper.

Estate or' Mark Rochko

j> j jar^sf "
'** i-^i

e* i * %
i9 Untitled. 1944-45
Watercolor on paper, 20% x 28'/i"
Estare ot Mark Korhko
50. Untitled. 1945-46
Watercolor on paper, 39% x 26 3/s"

Estate of Mark Rothko

5 1 Untitled. 1945-46
Watercolor on paper, 22 x 15VV'
Estate of Mark Rothko

52. Vessels of Magic. 1946

Watercolor on paper, 38% x 25W
Collection The Brooklyn Museum

53. Untitled. 1946

Oil on canvas, 38'/2 x 54'/4
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
54. Figure in Archaic Sea. 1946
Oil on canvas, 54!/* x W>/&"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 ^^mt
^'
,
*^^1mP^3I

55. Horizontal Vision. 1946

Oil on canvas, 387s x 54 V$"
Lent anonymously
56. Personage Two. 1946
Oil on canvas, 55 34 x 32"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 #*

57. The Source. 1945-46

Oil on canvas, 39'4 x 27 34"
Estate of Matk Rothko
58 Untitled. 1945-46
Oil on canvas, 31'/2 x 3914"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
59. Aquatic Drama. 1946
Oil on canvas, 36 x 48"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
 * Wfi
*&0tE**

^J mjL/t .t^
i'vr
jBP'^
ill W*
. * *

60. Prehistoric Memory. 1946

i

i r
w
Pastel on paper, 25% x 19%"
Collection Steingrim Laursen, Copenhagen
u
61. Untitled. 1946
Watercolor on paper, 38% x 25'/2"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Donald Blinken

62. Untitled. 1945

Oil on canvas, 22 x 30"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
 \.

A '"^
'^ J)
V

\qgp/

63. Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea. 1944

Oil on canvas, 75 x 8454"
Estate ot Mary Alice Rothko
64. Untitled. 1945
Watercolor on paper, 27 x AOVi"
Estate of Mark Rothko
65. Gethsemane. 1945
Oil on canvas, 54 3/g x 35H"
Lent anonymously
66. Primeval Landscape. 1945
Oil on canvas, 54% x 35"
Estate of Mark Rothko
 I

m ^ *.

". **
'-Xjcj^

.
^

67. Untitled. 1945

Watercolor on paper, 21% x 30"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
 ## *'

68. Untitled. 1945

Watercolor on paper, 40Vi x ZlVi"
Estate of Mark Rothko
69. Compost! ion. 1946
Oil on canvas, 27% x 18%"
Private Collection

70. Multiform. 1948

Oil on canvas, 89 x 65"
Estate of Mark Rothko
7 1 Untitled. 1946
Oil on canvas, 39V5 x 54Vi"
Estate of Mark Rothko
72. Untitled. 1946
Oil on canvas, 27% x 38"
Estate of Mark Rothko
73. Number 26. 1947
Oil on canvas, 33 34 x 45!4"
Collection Betty Parsons, New York

74. Untitled. 1947

Oil on canvas, 61 x A6V2
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
75. Untitle J. n d.

OH on canvas, 48 x 40"
Lent anonymously
76. Untitled, 1947
Oil on canvas, 39 34 x 33"
Estate of Mark Rothko
77. Number 18. 1948-49. Oil on canvas, 6lVi x 55 7/e"

Collection Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie , New York Gift of Mrs John D Rockefeller, III
78. Untitled. 1947
Oil on canvas, 54'/2 x 35W
Estate of Mark Rothko
79. Untitled. 1947
Oil on canvas, 38% x 39!4'
Estate ot Mark Rothko

80. Untitled. 1947

Oil on canvas, 61 x 43"
Estate. of Mark Rothko
SI. Untitled. 1947
Oil on canvas, 38V5 x 27 1 .;'

Estate of Mark Rothko

32. Untitled. 1947

Oil on canvas, 47Ms x 35"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
 * .*

83 Multiform. 1948
Oil on canvas, 53Vs x 46%"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
84. Number 15. 1948
Oil on canvas, 52 x 29"
Lent anonymously
85. Number 24. 1948
"
Oil on canvas, 34 x 50!
Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New "lurk

Gilt of the artist

86 Multiform. 1949
,"
Oil on canvas, 80 x }9!
Lent anonymously
 _, -!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B
87. Number 11. 1949
Oil on canvas, 68 x 43!4"
Lent anonymously

88. Number 19. 1949

Oil on canvas, 68 x 40"
Collection The Art Institute of Chicago, Anonymous Gift
89. Untitled. 1949 90. Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red. 1949
Oil on canvas, 98 x 65" Oil on canvas, 81'/2 x 66"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery Estate of Mark Rothko
 -w^HK^Hi^^H
91. Number 22. 1949
Oil on canvas, 1 17 x \01Vg"
Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Gift of the artist
92. Magenta. Black, Green on Orange. 1949
Oil on canvas, 85% x 64 /5"
1

Estate of Mary Alice Rothko

93. Green, Red on Orange. 1950
Oil on canvas, 93 x 59"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
94. Untitled, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 90 x 43%"
Estate of Mark Rothko
95. White Center. 1950 96. Untitled. 1951
Oil on canvas, 81 x 55V2" Oil on canvas, 93 x 57"
Private Collection, New York Collection Mr. and Mrs. Gifford Phillips, New York
97. Untitled. 1949
Oil on canvas, 56 x 30!4"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery

98. Number 10. 1950

Oil on canvas, 90% x 57Vs"

Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Gift of Philip Johnson

99. Number 12. 1951
Oil on canvas, 57V4 x 52JV
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko

100. Number 18. 195 1. Oil on canvas, 8 VA x 67"

Collection Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York
 *we?a-

Mi^WMM^Ti ii^m .J
101. Untitled. 1950 102. Green, White, Yellow on Yellow. 1951
Oil on canvas, 81!4 x 42W Oil on canvas, 67'/2 x 44W
Lent by Galerie Beyeler, Basel Lent anonymously
103. Black, Pink and Yellow over Orange. 1951-52 104. Number 10. 1952
Oil on canvas, 1 16 x 92W Oil on canvas, 8IY2 x 4214"
Collection Graham Gund Collection Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright
 ^^^^H

105. Number 8. 1952 Oil on canvas, 8OV2 x 68"

Collection Mr- and Mrs. Burron Tremaine, Meriden, Connecticut
106. Untitled. 1952
Oil on canvas, 55% x 30%"
Lent anonymously
107. Homage to Matisse. 1954
Oil on canvas, 105^ x 5 1"

Collection McCrory Corporation, New York

108. Number 61 (Brown, Blue, Brown on Blue). 19'

Oil on canvas, 1 16V$ x 92"

Collection Panza di Biumo
109. Yellow. Black, Orange on Yellow. 1953
Oil on canvas, 106 x 5 1"

Lent anonymously

110 Yellow. Orange. Red on Orange. 1954

Oil on canvas, 1 1 5 x 90 34"
Lent anonymously
Ill Untitled. 1953
Oil on canvas, IGV2 x 6IV2"
Lent anonymously
112. Untitled. 1953
Oil on canvas, 74 x 61"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Roberr Kardon
113. White, Yellow, Red on Yellow. 1953
Oil on canvas, 90% x 7 1"

Courtesy The Pace Gallery

114. Orange, Gold and Black. 1955
Oil on canvas, 89'/2 x 3854"
Collection Honorable and Mrs. Irwin D. Davidson
115. Blue, Yellow, Green on Red. 1954
Oil on canvas, 77% x 65V6"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Kolin
16. Light, Earth and Blue. 1954
Oil on canvas, 76 x 67"
Private Collection
117. Number 20}. 1954
Oil on canvas, 84 x 68"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko

118 Ochre and Red on Red. 1954

Oil on canvas, 90 x 69"
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
119. Untitled. 1954
Oil on canvas, 93 x 56'4"
Private Collection
120. Untitled. 1954
Oil on canvas, 93% x 56!4"
Collection Museum of Art,
Rhode Island School of Design,
Providence. Purchased in honor of Daniel Robbins
121. White Band (Number 27). 1954
1"
Oil on canvas, 86Vs x 8
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller, New York

122. Untitled. 1955

Oil on canvas, 91 '-4 x 69"
Collection Graham Gund
123 Three Reds. 1955
Oil on canvas, 68 x 38>/:>"

Collection Mr. and Mrs- Donald Blinken

124. Yellow, Blue on Orange. 1955

Oil on canvas, 102!^ x 66W
Collection Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
125. Blue over Orange. 1956
Oil on canvas, 86 x 79"
Collection Mr. and Mrs Donald Blinken
126. Number 2. 1954
Oil on canvas, 1 13V2 x 68'/4"
Collection Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
127. Blue Cloud. 1956
Oil on canvas, 54'/2 x 53"
Lent by Gimpel & Hanover Galene, Zurich

128. Blackish Green Tone on Blue. 1957

Oil on canvas, 103 x 1 16H"
Estate of Mark Rothko
129. Violet and Yellow on Rose. 1954
Oil on canvas, 84 x 67 34"
Collection Panza di Biumo
130. Green, Red, Blue. 1955
Oil on canvas, 8 Wi x 77%"
Collection Milwaukee Arc Center.
From the Collection of
Mrs. Harry Lynde Bradley
131. Green and Tangerine on Red. 1956
Oil on canvas, 93'/2 x 69W"
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
132. Orange and Yellow. 1956
Oil on canvas, 91x71"
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery,
Buffalo, New York, Gift of Seymour H. Knox
133. Untitled. 1955
Oil on canvas, 53% x 2714"
Estate of Mark Rothko

134. Untitled. 1956

Oil on canvas, 79% x 69"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Lee V. Eastman
135. Red and Pink on Pink. 1953
Tempera on paper, 39Vs x 2554"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery

136. White Cloud. 1956

Oil on canvas, 66V2 x 621/2"
Private Collection
137. Black, Ochre, Red over Red. 1957 138. Brown, Black on Maroon. 1957
Oil on canvas, 100 x 82'4" Oil on canvas, 91Vi x 76"
Collection Panza di Biumo, Estate of Mark Rothko
139. Four Reds. 1957
Oil on canvas, 81 x 50"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Schwartz
140. Untitled. 1957
Oil on canvas, 19Yi x 69V3"
Frederick Weisman Family Collection
Untitled. 1957
Oil on canvas, 79V? x 69%"
Private Collection, Zurich
142. Untitled (Number 7). 1957
Oil on canvas, 69Y2 x 44"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
143. Untitled. 1955-56
Oil on canvas, 64 x 58"
Collection Gerald S. Elliott, Chicago
44. Yellow and Gold. 1956
Oil on canvas, 61Vs x 62%"
Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New Yotk.
Gift of Philip Johnson
145. Brown and Black m Reds. 1958 146. Number 16. 1958
Oil on canvas, 91'/i x 60" Oil on canvas, 79% x 69"
Collection Joseph E.& Seagram Sons, Inc. Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
147. Yellow over Purple, 1956
Oil on canvas, 69 1
/: x 59 4"
l

Morton Neumann Family Collection

148. Saffron. 1957
Oil on canvas, 69!4 x 53'/i"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Ralph I. Goldenberg, Chicago
149. Number 9. 1958
Oil on canvas, 101 x 82"
Collection Mr and Mrs. Donald Bhnken
150. Black, Maroons and While. 1958
Oil on canvas, 105 x 166"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller, New York
1
">
I Light Cloud. Dark Cloud. 1957
Oil on canvas, 66-H x 62Vi"
Collection The Fort Worth Art Museum Benjamin
, J Ti liar Trust Fund
52. Red, Brown and Black. 1958
Oil on canvas, 106% x 11714"
The Museum of Modern Art,
Collection New York.
Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund
153. White, Red on Yellow. 1958
Oil on canvas, 95 x 81 /2"
l

Lent anonymously
154. Untitled. 1961
Oil on canvas, 105 x 83"
Collection Arnold and Milly Glimcher, New York
155. Reds, Number 16. 1960
Oil on canvas, 102 x 119'/i"
Collection The Metropolitan Museum ot Art,

New York, Purchase, Arthur A. Hearn Fund,

George A. Hearn Fund, Hugo Kastor Fund, 1971
156. Untitled. 1960
Oil on canvas, 92% x 81"
Collection The Toledo Museum of Art.
Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
157. Untitled. 1959
Acrylic on paper, 38V6 x 25"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
158. Untitled. 1959
Acrylic on paper, 38 x 25"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
159 Untitled. 1960
Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 25'/2 x 19V5
Collection Mr and Mrs. Lee V. Eastman
160. Greyed Olive Green, Red on Maroon. 1961
Oil on canvas, 10156 x 89!/2"
Lent anonymously
161. Number 101. 1961
Oil on canvas, 79 x 81"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.
 ^HBHHSm _

162. Number 117. 1961

Oil on canvas, 93 x 81"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Donald Blinken
163. Number 118. 1961
Oil on canvas, 115 x 102'/2"
Collection Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westtalen, Dusseldorf
164. Number 207 (Red over Dark Blue on Dark Grey). 1961
"
Oil on canvas, 92V4 x 81V8
Collection University Art Museum,
University of California, Berkeley
 .

165 . Orange and Lilac over Ivory, n . d

166. Orange, Wine, Grey on Plum. 1961
Oil on canvas, 1 16 x 94"
Oil on canvas, lOAVi x 92V2"
CollectionDartmouth College Museum and Galleries,
Lent anonymously
Hanover, New Hampshire
167. Painting. 1961 168. Untitled. 1961
Oil on canvas, 93 x 80" Oil on canvas, 69 x 50"
Collection The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Collection Mr. and Mrs. Lee V. Eastman
169. Untitled. 1961
Oil on canvas, 92 l
/2 x 8 1 Vi
Courtesy The Pace Gallery
170. Blue and Grey. 1962
Oil on canvas, 79V4 x 69"
Frederick Weisman Family Collection
171. Number 1, White and Red. 1962
Oil on canvas, 102 x 90" 172. Number 28. 1962
Collection Art Gallery of Ontario; Oil on canvas, 81 x 76%"
gift from the Women's Committee Fund, 1962 Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
173. Number 212. 1962
Oil on canvas, 69% x 62"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko

174. Red, Orange, Orange on Red. 1962

"
Oil on canvas, 92 x 80'/2
Collection The St. Louis Art Museum
Purchase: funds given by
the Shoenberg Foundation
175-177. Triptych from Harvard Murats. 1962
Oil on canvas, left panel 104 7/s x 1 17"; central panel 104% x ISO //'; right panel 104ys x 96"
1

Courtesy of the President and Fellows of Harvard College

178. Rust. Blacks on Plum. 1962
Oil on canvas, 60 x 57"
Courtesy The Pace Gallery

179- Dark Grey Tone on Maroon. 1963

Oil on canvas, 134 x 72"
Estate of Mark Rothko
180. Black on Dark Maroon. 1964 181. Brown, Green, Green-Grey on Deep Brown . ca. 1965
Oil on canvas, 97 x 76" Oil on canvas, 93H x 8II/2"
Lent anonymously Collection Carter Burden, New York
182. Untitled. 1963
Oil on canvas, 69 x 90"
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Richard E Lang,
Medina, Washington

183. Untttled. 1964

Oil on canvas, 81 x 69"
Collection Barbara and Donald Jonas
^Piujm.1
184. Green, Black, Green. 1966 185. Red. 1968
Oil on canvas, 82 x 70" Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 33 x 25W
Collection Dr. Paul Todd Makler Collection Mrs. Hannelore Schulhof
186. Untitled. 1967
Oil on canvas, 81 x 76"
Private Collection
187. Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 29 x 22"
Estate of Mary Alice Rothko
Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 32 7/s x 25"
Estate of Mark Rothko
189. Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 40V2 x 21"
Estate of Mark Rothko
190. Black on Grey. 1969
Acrylic on canvas, 81W x 93 4"
l

Estate of Mark Rothko

191. Brown and Grey. 1969
Acrylic on paper, 72 x 48"
Estate of Mark Rothko
192 Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 58% x 29%"
Estate of Mark Rothko
193. Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 597s x 42}
Lent anonymously
194. Brown and Grey. 1969 195. Broun and Grey. 1969
Acrylic on paper, 60!4 x 48 4"
l
Acrylic on paper, 62 x 48Vs"
Estate of Mark Rorhko Lent anonymously
" -._
196. Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 60 x 42'4"
Lent anonymously
197. Untitled. 1968
Acrylic on paper, 33% x l^Va"
Lent anonymously
 Dm

198. Black on Grey. 1970

Acrylic on canvas, 80'4 x 69"
Lent anonymously
 265

Downtown Portland, ca. 191520 Yale, ca. 1921-23 Rothko and Max Naimark, Yale 1921

Chronology

1903-1913 1913-1921 Attends Shattuck Grade School and Lincoln

High School. Completes high school in three
September 25 Marcus born in Dvinsk, Russia, to Jacob, a
years. Interested in literarure, social studies,
pharmacist, and Anna Goldin Rothkowitz.
labor and radical causes. Loves music, plays
Youngest of four children: sister, Sonia, four-
mandolin, later piano. During high school,
teen, brothers, Moise and Albert, eleven and
studies drawing at local art school, works in
eight respectively, at time of birth.
shipping department of Weinstein business.
Attends Hebrew school, studies scriptures and
19211923 Attends Yale University, New Haven, with
Talmud.
Portland friends, also Russian emigtants, Aaron
1910 Jacob emigrates to United States, arrives Ellis Harry Director and Max Naimark. Their scho-
Island. Travels to Portland, Oregon, where his larships cancelled after one year. Takes English,
brother, Samuel Weinstein, settled earlier. French, history, mathematics (in which he ex-
cels), physics, biology, economics and
1911 Albert and Moise arrive Portland, passage ar-
philosophy. Sketches often. Works at Yale stu-
ranged by father.
dent laundry and two cleaners.
1913
Freshman year rooms with Naimark at 820
August 5 Marcus, morher and sister depart Libau, Russia, Howard Avenue, New Haven, home and office
aboard S.S. Czar. Travel second-cabin. of Dr. Herman W. Grodzinski. Takes meals at
Yale Commons, Lawrence Hall.
August 17 Arrive New York, able to speak only Russian
and Yiddish. Sophomore year, with Director and another
classmate, Simon Whitney, publishes short-
To New Haven; stay ten days with Weinstein
lived weekly pamphlet The Yale Saturday Eve-
cousins, proceed by rrain to Portland. Live at
ning Pest. Progressive tone unusual for Yale at
538 Second Street, in Jewish neighborhood,
this time.
southwest Portland.

Mother takes name Kate. In 1922-23 lives at 161 Lawtence Hall, Yale
University, with Director and another student.
1914
Takes meals at Weinstein family home, 5 10
March 27 Jacob dies.
Howard Avenue.
go to work at New York
Sonia, Alberr and Moise
Leaves Yale without receiving degree.
Outfitting Company, Weinstein family mens'
clothing business. Marcus becomes delivery Moves to New York; takes odd jobs including
boy, takes newspaper route. work in garment district and as bookkeeper for
 uncle, Samuel Nichtberger, C.P.A. and tax Sally. Avery's style important to his develop-
attorney. ment.
1924 1928-1929 Clyfford Still in New York again; studies with

January- Begins taking anatomy courses with George Vaclav Vytlacil at Art Students League.

February Bridgman at Art Students League, New York. 1929

Address on application is c/o Mrs. Goreff, 19 November 8 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, opens.
West 102nd Street. Uses this address until
1929. Begins teaching art to children part-time at

Center Academy, Brooklyn Jewish Center.

Returns briefly to Pottland, |oins acting com- Keeps position until 1952.
pany there run by Josephine Dillon.
Lives at 23 1 East 25th Street.
Addresses in Portland are: #C, Parkhurst
Apartments, 635 Northrop Street and c/o ca. 1929-1930 Meets Adolph Gottlieb.

Weinstein Brothers, Morgan Building. Continues to work in expressionist style; paints

1925 Moves back to New York, which remains his

cityscapes, nudes, figure studies, domestic

home until his death. scenes.

266 1931
October- Paints in Max Weber's class at Art Students
December League; studies still life and figure. November 18 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,

Meets Louis Harris in Weber's class.

opens.

Student work is in realist style; does urban November Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Newer
scenes, still lites and landscape. Super-Realism. First ma|or Surrealist exhibition
in United States.
Clyfford Still visits New York for first time;

returns to Spokane, Washington, three months 1932

later.
January 929 Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Surrealist Group

Milton Avery moves to New York. Show. Exhibition previously shown at

Wadsworth Atheneum.
1926
July 2 While camping with Nathaniel Dirk at Hearth-
March- Continues studies at Art Students League with
stone Camping Grounds, Lake George, New
May Weber.
York, meets Edith Sachar.
Influenced by Weber, experiments with expres-
Summer Vacations with Averys and Gottliebs at Cape
sionist style.
Ann, Massachusetts; does so again in 1934,
Becomes member ot Art Students League, re- 1935, 1936.
mains such until 1929. thereby entitled to take
November 10 Marries Edith Sachar, who makes costume
certain courses and vote on issues. (To qualify as
jewelry to help sustain them.
member, student must be enrolled at League at
least three months.)
Address is 137 West 72nd Street.
1926-1927
ca. 1932-1933 Meets David Smith.
November- Marcel Duchamp's Large Glass shown publicly
1933
January for first time in Internationa/ Exhibition at The
Brooklyn Museum, New York. Summer Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon. First one-
man exhibition. Shows drawings and water-
Late 1920's Draws maps for popularized biblical history
colors with work of his students from Center
book. The Graphic Bible, by Lewis Browne, re-
Academy.
tired Portland rabbi. Not credited for draw-
ings, presses unsuccessful suit against Browne
November 2 1- Contemporary Arts Gallery, New York, An
and Macmillan, publisher, for $20,000 and
December 9 Exhibition of Paintings by Marcus Rothkowitz.
share of royalties.
First one-man exhibition in New York. Shows
1928 Nude. Man Smoking. Portland. Riverside Drive.

November 15- Opportunity Galleries, New York. First group

among other oils, watercolors and drawings.

December 12 exhibition. Organized by Bernard Karfiol who Hans Hofmann opens art school in New York.
chooses several of Rothkowitz's paintings.
Other participants include Avery, Louis G. Josef Albers becomes head of art department at
Black Mountain College, Black Mountain,
Ferstadt, Gela Forster, R. W. Gerbino, Harris,
Olive Riley. North Carolina.

Becomes close friends with Avery and his wife 1934 Meets Joseph Solman ?t Avery's studio.
May 22- Uptown Gallery, New York, Paintings by Most extensive of government-supported art

June 12 Selected Young Americans. Rothkowitz shows programs during Depression. Consists of easel
Sculptress, Woman and Cat, Lesson. division, mural division, graphic division,
sculpture division and supports creation of
June 12- Uptown Gallery, New York, Group Exhibition.
Index of American Design.
July 2 Rothkowitz shows The Pugilist.

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York [Andre Mas-

August 14- Uptown Gallery, New York, Group Exhibition.
son].
September 17 Rothkowitz shows Mother and Child, The Sewing
Lesson. James Thrall Soby, After Picasso, published.
First book primarily devoted to Surrealism to
Artists' Union fotmed in New York, with local
appear in United States.
chapters elsewhere, to agitate for creation of art
projects for the unemployed. Rothkowitz Meets wtiter H. R. Hays.
among 200 members at inauguration. Similar
Gottlieb begins to collect primitive art;
organizations founded around same time are Ar-
Rothkowitz interested in archaic art of Aegean,
tists' Committee of Action and Art Students'
African sculpture, art of Nineveh, Egypt and
Council in New York.
Mesopotamia but does not collect.

November Art Front begins publication, continues until 1935-1936 267

December 1937. Sponsored jointly by Artists'
Union and Artists' Committee of Action, edited
Decembet 16- Montross Gallery, New York. The Ten. Group's
January 4 first exhibition. Each of nine artists shows four
by Stuart Davis. Becomes official organ of Ar-
paintings. Rothkowitz shows Woman Sewing
tists' Union, advocates community involvement
(fig. 16, p. 32), Subway.
in arts, debates majot aesthetic issues, reviews

current exhibitions. 1936

November 2 1- Julien Levy Gallery, New York, Paintings by January 7-18 Municipal Art Galleries, New York, The Ten.
December 10 Salvador Dali. Dali makes first visit to United Group forms section of inaugural exhibition of
States on this occasion. Galleries. Joined for this show by Gottlieb's
ftiend Edgar Levy. Rothkowitz shows Crucifix-
December 15 Robert Godsoe opens Gallery Secession. Mem-
ion (fig. 15, p. 32), The Sea, Portrait. Before
bers include Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky,
opening, TheTen, several other artists threaten
Gottlieb (probably brought to gallery by Harris
and Rothko), to withdtaw work and picket unless Galleries
Harris, Yankel Kufeld,
tescind its Alien Clause, which stipulates that
Rothkowitz, Louis Schanker, Solman and
only citizens can exhibit there.
Nahum Tschacbasov.

December Julien Levy Gallery, New York. Abstract February 14 American Artists Congress holds inaugural
session this Friday evening. It is "Fot Peace,
Sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. First one-man 1 '

exhibition in United States. For Democracy, For Cultural Progress.

Rothkowitz belongs to this group.
1934-1935
Fall Meets Annalee and Barnett Newman at break-
December 15- Gallery Secession, New York, Group Exhibi-
fast given for them shortly after their marriage
January 15 tion. Rothkowitz shows Duet.
by Gottliebs; may have known Batnett previ-
1935 ously.

January 10- Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, Joan Miro American Abstract Artists founded ;n New
February 9 1933-1934. York.

January 15- Gallery Secession, New York, Group Exhibi- November 10-24 Galerie Bonaparte, Paris, TheTen. Group's only
February 5 tion. Rothkowitz shows Nude. exhibition in Europe. Organized by Joseph
Brummer. Pamphlet with text by Waldemar-
Above-mentioned membets of Gallery Secession
George, who comments on Rothkowitz, nostal-
leave to form The Ten: group of independents has
gia for Italian Trecento. Rothkowitz shows
no declared program, but majority of members
Subway Scene, Crucifixion (fig. 15, p. 32),
paint representationally in loose, flat manner yet
Woman Sewing (fig. 16, p. 32).
are sympathic to abstract art,- admire Expres-
sionism. They protest conservative policies of Julien Levy publishes anthology, Surrealism, in
art establishment; meet once a month at one New York.
another's studios. Group seldom numbers more
than nine and is commonly referred to as "The Lives at 313 East 6th Street from now until

Ten Who are Nine." 1940.

1936-1937
August Works Progress Adminisrration, Federal Art
September 1 1-
Project established, Holger Cahill, Director.
May 15 Employed by easel division of WPA in New
 .

York; produces painrings for federal buildings and Thought of Six Key Figures, unpublished
Earns $95.44 for sixty hours work per month. Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University,
1955, pp. 20-21.)
Others on WPA at this time are William
Baziotes,Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, 1939
Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Ad
June 1 Museum ot Non-Ob|ective Painting opens in
Reinhardt, Jack Tworkov.
New York, renamed The Solomon R. Guggen-
December 9- The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fan- heim Museum in 1952.
January 17 tastic Art, Dada. Surrealism. Organized by
October 23- Bonestell Gallery, New York, The Ten. Group
Alfred H. Barr, Jr.
November 4 joined for this show by David Burliuk.
December 14- Montross Gallery, New York, The Ten. Group
November Yves Tanguy arrives in New York.
January 2 loined for this show by Lee Gatch. Tschacbasov
no longer member. Rothkowitz shows Interior. Marra moves to New York, where he remains
Music, among others. until 1948.

Effect of Surrealism begins to be felt in New Perls Galleries, New York [Wifredo Lam].
York art circles, automatic techniques will pro-
1939-1940
foundly influence development of American art.

268 November- The Museum of Modern Art, New York,

1937
January Picasso: Forty Years of His Art.

April 26- Passedoit Gallery, New York, The Ten. Mem-

1940 The Ten breaks up because members begin to
May8 bers include Ben-Zion, Bolotowsky, Gatch,
show individually at various galleries.
Gottlieb, Harris, Kufeld, Rothkowitz,
Schanker and Solman. January 8-27 Neumann-Willard Gallery, New York. New
Work by Marcel Gromaire. Mark Rothko. Joseph
Gottlieb moves to desert near Tucson, where he
Solman. Rothko shows Entrance to Subway. Con-
remains until 1939
templation. The Party, among others. First ap-
John Graham's System and Dialectics of Art pub- pearance of name Mark Rothko in announce-
lished in New York. ment for rhis show; hereafter consistently uses
this name in exhibitions, usually signs work
Artists' Union joins CIO as Local 60.
Mark Rothko, although does not change name
1938 legally until 1959.

February 2 1 Becomes United States citizen. April 16- Julien Levy Galley, New York, Matta. First

May 7 exhibition in New York.

May 5-21 Second Annual Membership Exhibition: American
Artists Congress Inc.. New York. Rothkowitz April Signs statement with Avery, Bolotowsky, Jose
shows Street Scene (fig. 17, p. 32 ) in Painting De Creeft, Gottlieb, Harris, Manfred Schwartz,
Section. among others, declaring secession from Ameri-
can Artists' Congress, because of irs sancrion of
May 9-21 Passedoit Gallery, New York, The Ten. Group is
Russian invasion of Finland.
now Ben-Zion, Bolotowsky, Gottlieb, Graham,
Harris, Ralph Rosenborg, Rorhkowitz, May 10 Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors
Schanker and Solman. Joined for this show by founded in New York by group that broke from
Karl Knaths. American Artists' Congress. Among its mem-
bers are: Avery, Baziotes, Bolotowsky,
November
Gottlieb, Gatch, George L. K. Morns, Rothko,
5-26 Mercury Galleries, New York, The Ten: Whit-
Schwartz, David Smith, Solman, Joseph Stella,
ney Dissenters. Group mounts exhibition as pro-
Bradley Walker Tomlin, Ossip Zadkine.
test against Whitney's bias towards Re-
Rothko very active on Federation's Cultural
gionalism and American Scene painting; joined
Committee, which is concerned with politics as
for this show by Earl Kerkam. Rothkowitz
well as culture.
shows Conversation

Experiments with automatic drawing. Deeply June 20- Rorunda of the American Art Today Building,
interested in Oedipus myth. (Dore Ashton, The July8 New York World's Fair. Federation exhibits for

New York School: A Cultural Reckoning. New first time.

York, 1973, p. 98). Paints Subway Scene. An-
tigone (cat. nos. 22, 23) Interest in theater and September Fitst issue of View. Surrealist magazine,
early reading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Trag- founded by Charles Henri Ford, published until
edy, perhaps influence a number of painrings of 1947.
1939-40 on mythological and dramatic themes.
(William C. Seitz, Abstract-Expressionist Paint- October Piet Mondnan arrives in New York, remains
ing in America: An Interpretation Based on the Work until his death in 1944.
1941

March 9-23 Riverside Museum, New York, first annual

Federation exhibition. Rothko shows Portrait of
Mary, Craftsman, Underground Fantasy, Subway.
Other participants include: Avety, Bolotowsky,
George Constant, Morris Davidson, Gottlieb,
Graham, Harris, Schwartz, Tomlin.

July Max Ernst emigrates to United States; marries

Peggy Guggenheim in September After brief
stay in New York travels across country. Re-
mains in America until 1953.

October-
November Special issue of View devoted to Sutrealism.

Andre Breton emigrates to United States.

Andre Masson arrives in New York, where he

continues to work until 1946.
269
Addtess at this time is 29 East 28th Street.

1941-1942 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2

Exhibitions: Paintings, Drawings, Prints -Joan Artists in Exile, photograph taken on the occasion of an
Miro, Salvador Dali. exhibition at Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, March
1942. Bottom row, I. to t.: Matta Echautten, Ossip
1941-1943 Works closely with Gottlieb developing aesthe- Zadkine, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Fernand
tic based on interest in Graeco-Roman and Leger; second row: Andre Breton, Piet Mondtian, Andre
Christian myth. Rothko's mythological paint- Masson, Amedee Ozenfant, Jacques Lipchitz, Pavel
ings are stratified in composition, sometimes Tchelitchew, Kurt Seligmann, Eugene Berman. Photo by
divided into sharply differentiated registers. Geotge Piatt Lynes

Irrationally juxtaposed images disposed in

orderly, geometfic manner, at times segregated among whom are Robert Motherwell, Hare and
in zones. Imagery drawn from archaic sculpture, Baziotes.
Northwest coast Indian art, also architectural
Peggy Guggenheim founds gallery. Art ot This
motifs. Palette ptimatily pastel.
Century, New York; shows established modern
1942 artists, unknown Ameticans and her private
collection of avant-garde art there. Jimmy Ernst
January 5-26 R. H. Macy Depattment Stote, New York
is secretary. Closes in 1947 when Mrs.
[Group Exhibition]. Organized by Samuel
Guggenheim moves to Venice.
Kootz. Rothko shows Antigone. 1938 (cat. no.
23) and Oedipus. Other participants include Introduced to Jimmy Ernst by Baziotes.
Avery, Gorky, Gottlieb, Graham, Karl Holty,
1943
Jan Matulka and Geotge L. K. Morris.
June 3-26 Wildenstein and Co., New York, third annual
January- Valentine-Dudensing Gallery, New York [Piet
Federation exhibition. Rothko shows The Syrian
February Mondrian]. First one-man exhibition in New
Bull, 1943 (cat. no. 28), Gottlieb's Rape of
York.
Persephone, 1943 (fig. 26, p. 42), is only other
March 3-28 Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York. Artists in work with mythological title included.
Exile. Breton, Ernst, Fernand Leger, Masson,
June 7 With Gottlieb writes to Edward Alden Jewell,
Matta, Mondrian and Tanguy are among four-
The New York Times art critic, in response to his
teen expatriates shown.
negative review of Federation exhibition. New-
April Special issue of View devoted to Ernst. man contributes to letter but does not sign it.

Published in The New York Times, June 13, it

May Special issue of View devoted to Tanguy.
articulates their commitment to use of simple

June First issue of VVV, magazine, founded and flat shapes, belief in importance of mythic con-
edited by David Hare with Breton and Ernst tent, kinship with primitive art. Rothko gives
as editorial advisers. The Syrian Bull, Gottlieb gives Rape of Persephone
to Newman in appreciation for his collaboration
October 14- 451 Madison Avenue, New York, First Papers of
on letter.
November 7 Surrealism. Participants include Duchamp, Max
Ernst, Paul Klee, Matta, Miro, Masson, Picasso August Meets Buffie Johnson in Los Angeles; later in

and Tanguy, together with young Ameticans, year in New York she introduces him to Howard
 1 . 1

270
Mark and Mell Rothko with Clyfford Still, 1945-46
California, ca. 1946

Putzel, Peggy Guggenheim's assistant from October 24- Art of This Century, New York, Robert Mother-
1942-44. November 1 well: Paintings. Papiers Col/es, Drawings. First

one-rrfan exhibition.
October 1
1- The 460 Park Avenue Galleries, New York, As
November 3 We See Them. Portraits by Federation members. November Sidney Jams, Abstract and Surrealist Art in

Rothko shows Leda, 1943, Gottlieb shows America, published.

Oedipus
December 4-30 67 Gallery, New York, Forty American Moderns.
October 13 Rothko and Gottlieb discuss their aesthetic Gallery opened in Fall by Putzel. Participants
principles and theories on WNYC radio broad- include I. Rice Pereira, Rothko, Kay Sage.
cast. Assert their intetest in Jungian and eternal
Peggy Guggenheim represents Rothko on Put-
symbols, belief in power of myth, importance of
zel's advice.
archaism and of psychological content.
Our presentation oj these myths however, must
, Meets Max Ernst.
he in our own terms, which are at once more
Geometric curvilinear forms are flattened, jux-
primitive and more modern than the myths
taposed against indeterminate opaque grounds
themselvesmore primitive because we seek the
which are sometimes divided into emphatic
primeval and atavistic roots of the idea rather
horizontal bands. Continues to use pastel
than their graceful classical version; more
palette, with accents ot brighter or deeper color.
modern than the myths themselves because we
Often works in watercolor from now until 1946.
must redescribe their implications through our
For example, Horizontal Procession (Gyrations on
own experience.
Four Planes). Poised Elements. Slow Swirl at the

November 9-27 Art of This Century, New York, Jackson Pollock: Edge of the Sea. Birth of Cephalopods. all 1944 (cat.

Paintings and Drawings. First one-man exhibi- nos. 30, 31, 63, 37).

tion.

Meets Mary Alice Beistle (Mell), illustrator of

Kootz publishes New Frontiers in American Paint-
children's books, thtough photographer Aaron
ing. In it he says, if "the ultimate potential of
Siskind.
Abstraction and Expressionism" were known,
the future of art could be predicted. Gottlieb elected head of Federation ot Modern
Painters and Sculptors, continues as such until
Address is 165 East 31st Street.
1945.
1944
1945
February 8-26 Artists' Gallery, New York [Ad Reinhardt].
January 9- Art of This Century, New York, Mark Rothko
First one-man exhibition.
February 4 Paintings. First one-man exhibition at this gal-

October 3-2 Art of This Century, New York. Paintings and lery. Shows fifteen paintings including Sacrifice

Drawings by Baziotes. First one-man exhibition. oflphigema, 1942, The Syrian Bull. 1943, Birth
 1

of Cephalopoda , Poised Elements. Sloiv Swirl at the April 22- Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York, Mark
EdgeoftheSea, all 1944(cat. nos. 29. 28, 37, 31, May 4 Rothko: Watercolors. Shows Gethsemane. 1945
63), Omens of Cods and Birds, 1945, Entombment (cat. no. 65), Olympian Play. 1945, Tentacles of
I, Entombment 11, both 1946 (cat. nos. 42, 43). Memory. 1945-46, Geologic Reverie, 1946,
Works reveal strong affinity to Surrealism, re- among others.

flecting influence of Miro, Masson and Ernst.

Summer Rents house in East Hampton, Long Island.
February David Porter Gallery, Washington, D.C., A
Painting Prophecy 1950. Porter includes artists
August 16- San Francisco Museum of Art. Oils and Water-
September colors by Mark Rothko. Travels in part to Santa
he feels may be forming a new tendency in
!

Barbara. Shows Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea,

painting, uniting the romantic and the abstract.
Poised Elements, Ritual, Tiresias, Phalanx of the
Participants include Baziotes, Stuart Davis,
Mind, all 1944, Gethsemane, Primeval Landscape,
Jimmy Ernst, Gottlieb, Knaths, Pollock,
Richard Pousette-Dart and Rothko.
both 1945, Prehistoric Memory, 1946 (cat. nos.

63, 31, 36, 34, 33, 65, 66, 60), among others.
Spring 67 Gallery, New York, A Problem for Critics.
September- Visits family in Portland. Spends time in
Participants include Gorky, Gottlieb, Hof-
mann, Pollock and Rothko. Putzel asks critics
November California.

toname the "new metamorphism" and states "I Late in year Pollock begins all-over drip paint-
we see real American painting beginning
believe 271
ings.
now." (Published in Edward Alden Jewell,
Still begins teaching at California School of Fine
"Toward Abstract of Away," The New York
Arts, San Francisco; retains position until 1950.
Times, July 1, 1945, Section II, p. 2.)

Figures and grounds begin to merge, forms lose

March 13 Divorce from Edith Sachar granted.
definition. Influence of Gorky emerges in
March 3 Marries Mell in Linden, New Jersey. biomorphic shapes, of Still in abstract color-

forms which suggest landscape.

March Julien Levy Gallery, New York. Arshile Gorky.
Becomes friendly with Motherwell.
Special issue of View devoted to Duchamp.
Address from now until 1954 is 1288 Sixth
1945-1946
Avenue.
November 27- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
January 10 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American 1946-1947
Painting. Rothko shows Primeval Landscape, December 10- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
1945 (cat. no. 66).
January 16 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American

Lives at 22 West 52nd Street.

Painting. Rothko shows Room in Karnak.

1947
1946

January 26- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadel-

March 3-22 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York. Mark Rothko:
March Recent Paintings. First of five annual one-man
3 phia, The One Hundred and Forty-First Annual
exhibitions here. Shows Archaic Phantasy, Rites
Exhibition. Rothko shows Landscape, 1945.
ofLilith, both 1945 (cat. nos. 35, 39), [Omens
February 5- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, of?]Gods and Birds, 1945? .The Source, 1945-46
March 13 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American (cat. no. 57), Entombment , 1946, Astral Image,
Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings. Rothko ca. 1946, Room in Karnak , Votive Figure, among
shows Baptismal Scene, 1945. others.

February 12- Art of This Century, New York, Clyfford Still.

April 14-26 Betty Parsons Gallery. Clyfford Still: Recent

March 7 First one-man exhibition at this gallery. Rothko Paintings.

wrires catalogue text which Still later re-

While New York, proposes to Douglas
April in Still
pudiates. MacAgy and Rothko the creation of school for
young artists taught by contemporary artists.
March 30 Robert M. Coates reviewing Hofmann show at
School ultimately realized as The Subjects of the
Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York, in The
Artist.
New Yorker, uses term "abstract expressionism"
in discussing New York artists: ". . .he is cer-
Early Summer Visits family in Portland before proceeding to
tainly one of the most uncompromising rep-
teaching job.
resentatives of what some people call the
spatter-and-daub school of painting and I, more June 23- Guest Instructor at California School of Fine

politely, have christened abstract Expres- August 1 Arts, San Francisco. Teaches ten hours a week:
sionism." Alfred H. Barr, Jr. had employed painting course restricted to artists and ad-
same term in relation to Kandinsky in 1936 in vanced students; contemporary art lecture
his book Cubism and Abstract Art. series.
 Remains in San Frar isco until end of August, July 21 Gorky dies by suicide.

lives at 2500 Leave -.orth Street.

Fall With Baziotes, David Hare and Motherwell,
September 9-2 7 Wildenstein and o Inc., New York, seventh founds school. The Sublets of the Artist, at 35
annual Federati :i exhibition. Rothko, who does East 8th Street. Name is Newman's suggestion;
not particip.! e, sponsors Still as guest of he |oins faculty second semester. Still partici-

membet. St- shows Apostate. pates in initial planning stages but does not
teach, as he returns to position at California
December With Mar arreno, Herbert Ferber, Gottlieb,
(
School of Fine Arts. There are no formal courses
Boris Margo, Newman, Felipe Orlando,
but a "spontaneous investigation into the sub-
Theodoros Stamos, John Stephan and Hedda
Sterne, contributes sratement to The Tiger's Eye,
jects of the modern artist what his subjects

are, how they are arrived at, methods of inspira-

general cultural magazine published from Oc-
tion and transformation, moral attitudes, pos-
tober 1947 until 1949, edited by Ruth Stephan,
sibilities for further explorations.. .
." (An-
art editor John Stephan. Newman is an editor on
nouncement for School, The Subjects of the Artist,
second, third issues.
New York, 1948-49) Approximately fifteen

Literary references and symbols, organic forms, students attend school.

automatic calligraphy largely disappear from
Newman initiates Friday evening lectures open
work. Diffuse, rectangular patches of color, dis-
272 to public Some of speakers are Jean Arp, John
posed vertically and horizontally, float in am-
Cage, Joseph Cornell, Gottlieb, de Kooning and
biguous space. Larger formats made of unsized
Reinhardt. Friday evening lectures at Studio 35.
duck used. Re|ects watercolor for oils, which he
school started on premises of The Subjects of the
applies in thin washes. For example. Untitled.
Artist after it dissolves, and The Club, informal
Number 26. both 1947 (cat. nos. 74, 73). Begins
Abstract Expressionist group, grow out of this
to number some of his paintings
series.
1947-1948
December In letter to Still, Rothko states that Newman
December 6- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
proposes to carry on public relations, arrange
January 25 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American
lectures and seminars for The Subjects of the
Painting. Rothko shows Archan Phantasy, 1945
Artist. In later letter to Still, writes of being on
(cat. no. 35).
eve of nervous breakdown, says he is withdraw-
Winter First and only issue of Possibilities appears ing from participation in school. (San Francisco
Editors are: Motherwell, art; Harold Rosen- Museum of Modern Art, Clyfford Still. January
berg, writing; Pierre Chareau, architecture; 9-March 14, 1976, p. 113)
John Cage, music. First magazine to deal exclu-
Configurations are simplified, reduced in
sively with contemporary American art. It is
number, colors intensified, canvases increase in
published as first generation of Abstract Expres-
size. Color and shape assume autonomy as ma-
sionists were abandoning Surrealist-inspired
ture style begins to emerge.
imagery and formulating their marure styles.

Includes statement by Rothko. 1949

1948 March 28- Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark Rothko.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Apnl 16 Shows Number 1-10, 23-
January 3 1-

March 21 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American April 2- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
Watercolors and Drawings. Rothko
Sculpture, May8 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American
shows Fantasy. Sculpture. Watercolors and Drawings. Rothko
shows Brown and Yellow.
March 8-27 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark Rothko:
Recent Paintings. Shows Poised Elements. 1944, Spring The Subjects of the Artist fails financially and
Phalanx of the Mind, 1945 (cat. nos. 31, 33), closes.
Beginnings , Companionship, Dream Imagery,
among others. July 5- Still recommends to MacAgy that Rothko again
August 12 be invited to teach at California School of Fine
June Still, Baziotes and Motherwell meet in Rothko's
Arts. He is made Guest Instructor, painting,
apartment and discuss creation of a school.
philosophy and practice of painting today, open
Still's notes of this meeting read: "A group of
to artists and advanced students only. Also gives
painters, each visiting the center one afternoon a
illustrated lectures on thoughts of contemporary
week, each free to teach in whatever way he
artists and their work.
chose or free to stay away, every student free to
work or remain away, attend every teacher's September 15- Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, The ln-
meeting or none." (Published in San Francisco October 3 trasubjectives. Reopening exhibition of gallery
Museum of Modern Art, Clyfjord Still. January that had been closed since summer 1948, or-
9-March 14, 1976, p. 113.) ganized by Kootz and Rosenberg. Participants
 1

are Baziotes, de Kooning, Gorky, Gottlieb,

Graves, Hofmann, Motherwell, Pollock,
Reinhardt, Rothko, Mark Tobey and Tomlin.
Name is taken from Jose Ortega y Gasset.

November 18 Gives lecture, My Point of View, as part of series

of forum talks on Contemporary Art at Studio
35.

Numbers most works; descriptive titles some-

times added later.

1949-
Winter 1950

December 16- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,

February 5 Annua/ Exhibition of Contemporary American
Painting. Rothko shows Number 19.

Mature style crystallizes. Frontal rectangles of

varying sizes, aligned one above another, fill
The lrascibles, 1950, photograph by Nina Leen which 273
most of canvas. These seem to hovet slightly
accompanied article in Life, January 15, 1951. Bottom row,

above color field upon which they are juxta-

1. to r.: Theodoros Stamos, Jimmy Ernst, Barnett Newman,
posed. Thin washes of pigment saturate canvas; James Brooks, Mark Rothko; second row: Richard
Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jackson Pollock, Clyffotd
colors are disembodied, luminous, intense. For
Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin; top row;
example, Magenta. Black. Green on Orange and
Violet, Black, Orange. Yellow on White and Red. Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhatdt,
both 1949 (cat. nos/92, 90). Hedda Sterne. Time Inc.

1950
and for first time identifies it in print as "School
January 3-2 1 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark Rothko.
Shows Number 7 , 10, 11, 14, 15, among others. of New York." Participants include Baziotes,
Gottlieb, de Kooning, Matta, Pollock, Rein-
January 23- Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Barnett hardt, Rothko, Still.
February 1 Newman. First one-man exhibition.
January 15 "Irascible Group of Advanced Artists Led Fight
Mother dies. Against Show," Life. Publication with this cap-
tion of now famous Nina Leen photograph of
Spring Travels in England, France and Italy.
group which, May 1950, protested jury for
in

May 20 Open letter to Roland L. Redmond , President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, contemporary American painting (fig. ).

from eighteen avant-garde painters and ten

late January- Studies printmaking for one week in Will Bar-
sculptors, protesting national |uried exhibition
early February net's graphics class at Art Students League.
of contemporary American art, American Paint-
ing Today 1950. planned for December, which February 1 Appointed Assistant Ptofessor, Department of
they felt would be prejudiced against advanced Design, Brooklyn College. Retains position
artists. Letter published in entirety in this

summer's issue of Art News. Signatories include

Baziotes, James Brooks, Fritz Bultman, Jimmy
Ernst, Gottlieb, Hofmann, Weldon Kees, de
Kooning, Rothko.

Fall Still moves to New York.

November 10- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,

December 30 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American
Painting. Rothko shows Number 7 -A.

December 30 Daughter, Kathy Lynn (Kate), is born.

Meets Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Dorothy C. Mil-

ler.

1951

January 1 1- Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills, Seventeen

February 7 Modern American Painters. Catalogue with text,
"The School of New York," by Motherwell, in
Mark and Mell Rothko, 1948-53
which he defines the characteristics of this group
 1 .

until June 30, 1954. Teaches contemporary art,

theory of art, color, elements of drawing,

graphic workshop. Reinhardt had been teaching
there since 1947.

March 19 Participates in symposium on How to combine

architecture, painting and sculpture at The
Museum of Modern Art, New York. Statement
reprinted in Interiors, May 1951.

April 2-12 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark Rvthko.

Shows Number 1-16.

June 2- Los Angeles County Museum, 1951 Annual Ex-

July 12 hibition: Contemporary Painting in The United
States. Rothko shows Number 11. 1951.

Meets Dore Ash ton

ca. 1951-1952 Meets Sally and William Scharf.

274
1952

March 13 Rothko invited by Joseph Fiore, Black Moun-

tain College, Black Mountain, North Carolina,
to teach painting there from June 25-August
22. Retuses offer.

March 25- The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fifteen

June 1 Americans. Organized by Dorothy C. Miller.

Participants include Baziotes, Herbert Ferber,
Frederick Kiesler, Pollock, Rothko, Still and
Tomlin. Rothko and Still refuse to let their work
Early 1950s
travel, causing cancellation of plans to circulate
exhibition in Europe.

December 20 Writes to Lloyd Goodrich, Associate Director of

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
regarding the acquisition and display of his
work by museums:
Since I have a deep sense of responsibility for
the life my pictures will lead out in the world,
I will with gratitude accept any form of their
exposition where their life and meaning can be

maintained, and avoid all occasions where 1

feel that this cannot be done. . . .at least in my

life, I must maintain a congruity between my
actions and convictions, if I am to continue to
function and do my work. And I do hope that I
have here clarified my position

First and only issue of Modern Artists in America,

which deals with abstract art and is edited by

Motherwell and Reinhardt.

1952-1953 Clyfford Still teaches graphics at Brooklyn Col-

lege.
Mark Rothko and daughter, Kate, early I950's
Studio at 106 West 53rd Street; continues to
live on Sixth Avenue.

1953

May 11 Tomlin dies

1954

October 18- The Art Institute of Chicago, Recent Paintings by

December 3 1 Mark Rothko. Travels in part to Providence,
 . ,

Rhode Island. Organized by Katharine Kuh.

Shows Number 12, 1951, Number 10, 1952
(cat. nos. 99, 104), Number 1, 1953, Number 1

Number 9. both 1954, among others.

November 3 Henri Matisse dies.

From about this time uses both titles and num-

bers for his paintings, for example Homage to

Matisse, Light, Earth and Blue, both 1954 (cat.

nos. 107, 116).

1955

Spring Clement Greenberg in "American-Type' Paint-

ing," Partisan Review, discusses origins of
Abstract Expressionism, noting importance to Early 1950s
development of this movement of WPA, pre-

sence of emigre artists in New York during

World War II, Hofmann and his school and
early Kandinskys at Museum ot Non-Ob|ective
Painting. Painters analyzed are Gorky,
Gottlieb, Hofmann, Kline, de Kooning,
Motherwell, Newman, Pollock, Rothko, Still,
Tobey

April 11- Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. First of two

May 14 one-man exhibitions there. Shows Light. Earth
and Blue. 1954 (cat. no. 116), Violet Center.
1954, Earth and Green, 1955, The Ochre.
Yellow Expanse, among others.

Summer Teaches for approximately ten weeks at Univer-

sity of Colorado, Boulder.

1956
Early 1950's
February 20 "The Wild Ones," Time, includes discussion of
Baziotes, Gorky, Gottlieb, Guston, de Koon-
ing, Motherwell, Pollock and Rothko:
A cursory study of advance-guard painting

gives rise to the conclusion that it consists, like

the Mock Turtle's arithmetic of "Ambition,

Distraction, Uglifi cation and Derision." It

is wild, woolly willful. But nothing has only

,

one side, and negatives cannot sum up Ameri-

ca's newest painting. A good deal can be said
for its positive qualities , once they have been set

in the context of modern history. . . .

August 11 Pollock dies in car accident.

Address is 102 West 54th Street until 1961.

1957

February- Visiting Artist, Tulane University, New Or-

March leans. Does not teach specific courses but gives

series of talks and critiques and consults with

faculty and students. While there, paints White
Mark and Mell Rothko, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1957
and Greens in Blue and Red. White and Broun;
he feels these constitute an important break-
through for him. While at Tulane lives on
Glendale Boulevard and Iona Street in Metairie,
suburb of New Orleans.

April 1-20 Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, 8 Americans.

Rothko shows The Black and The White, 1956.


December In Letter to the Editor ot Art News, Rothko his ceramic wall at UNESCO. Pans; Rothko
refutes Elaine de Kooning's article, "Two refuses $1,000 United States National Sec-
Americans in Action," Art News Annua/, 1958, tion Award tor White and Greens in Blue.
which labels both Rothko and Kline as "action 1957, and withdraws painting. "I look forward
painters" to the time when honors can be bestowed, sim-
/ reject that aspect of the article which clas- ply, for the meaning of a man's life work
sifies my work as "Action Painting." An without enticing pictures into the competitive
artist herself, the author must know that to arena," he explains in letter to James Johnson
classify is to embalm. Real identity is incom- Sweeney, Guggenheim Museum's Director
patible with schools and categories, except by
1960
mutilation. To allude to my work as Action

Painting borders on the fantastic . No matter

May 4-31 The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC,
Paintings by Mark Rothko. Small one-man exhibi-
what modifications and adjustments are made
word
tion. Green and Maroon, 1953, Blue and Green.
to the meaning of the action. Action
1957. Green and Tangerine on Red. 1956 (cat no
Painting is antithetical to the very look and
131), Orange and Red on Red, 1957, included.
spirit of my work. The work must be the final
Phillips purchases latter two.
arbiter.

November The Phillips Collection opens new wing in

1958
276 which small room is designated to display their
June 14- Venice, XXIX Esposizione Biennale Internazionale three Rothkos, two acquired in May and Green
October 19 d'Arte. Rothko shows Black over Reds, Deep Red and Maroon , 1953, which had been purchased in
and Black, Two Whites, Two Reds. White and 1957 Ochre and'Red'on Red, 1954(cat.no. 118),
Greens in Blue, all 1957, Reds. 1957-58, among is acquired in 1964 and added to room.
others.
Lives at 1 18 East 95th Street
1961
June Buys cottage at 250 Bradford Street in Province-
town, Massachusetts. January Accepts invitation to participate in John F.

Moves studio to 222 Bowery, which had been Kennedy's inaugural activities

YMCA gymnasium Here starts his first com- January 18- The Museum ot Modern Art. New York, Mark
mission, monumental canvases for Four Seasons March 12 Rothko. Major one-man exhibition Rothko di-
restaurant, Seagram Building, ordered by Phil-
rects installation. Shows Baptismal Scene. 1945,
ip Johnson Has never before worked in series. Number 24. 1947, Number 20, 1949, Number
Employs horizontal formats with verncal ele- 22, 1949 (cat. no. 91), Number 10. 1953, Hom-
ments for first time. Restricts palette in each
age to Matisse, 1954 (cat. no. 107), Number 9.
panel to two colors. Makes three separate series
1958 (cat. no 149), Number 22, 1960, among
of murals which become progressively darker, fifty-four works. Circulated into January 1963
evolving from -orange to deepest maroon and
by The International Council ot The Museum of
black. First set sold as separate paintings, second
Modern Art to London, Amsterdam, Basel,
abandoned; third completed in 1959 but never Rome, Pans
delivered to restaurant, eventually given by
Rothko to The Tate Gallery, London. October 13- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New
December 3 1 York, American Abstract Expressionists and Im-
Legally changes name to Mark Rothko; daugh- agisls. Shows Reds Number 22, 1957.
ter's name legally changed to Kate
Begins mural panels commissioned by Professor
June Travels with Mell and Kate to England. France,
Wassily Leontief, Chairman of the Society of
Italy, Belgium and The Netherlands. Fellows and Henry Lee Professor of Economics,

Shortly after trip meers poet Stanley Kunitz. Harvard University, and John P. Coolidge, Di-
rector, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mas-
October Gives lecture at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, in sachusetts. These were to be housed in pent-
which he disassociates himself from Abstract house of Holyoke Center, designed by Jose Luis
Expressionist movement, discusses his de- Sen but are instead ultimately placed on perma-
velopment from figuration to abstraction and nent view in faculty dining room at Center.
use of large scale.
1962
Meets Katharine Kuh when she moves to New April 21- Seattle Fine Atts Pavilion, Seattle World's Fair.
York. October 2 1 Art Since 1950: American and International.
Travels in part to Waltham, Massachusetts,
Begins to work on paper again.
1958-1959 Boston.

October 22- The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum. New May 13 Kline dies.

February 23 York, Guggenheim International Award 1958. May Attends state dinner celebrating the arts at

Miro receives $10,000 International Award for White House.

 Meets Dominique and John de Menil.

Completes Harvard Murals (cat. nos. 175-177).

New formulation appears: in each of the five
panels are two or three vertically oriented rect-
angles linked at top and bottom by hotizontal
lines and small, loosely brushed rectangles. He
seeks to turn his "pictorial conceprs into mutals
which would serve as an image for a public
place." (Quored in "Rothko Murals for Har-
vard," College Art Journal, vol. xxii, no. 4,

Summer 1963, p. 254.)

1963

April 9- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New

June 2 York, Five Mural Panels Executed for Harvard
University by Mark Rothko. Panels are shown

there before they are sent to Cambtidge.

June 4 Baziotes dies. 277

Mark Rothko and son, Chtistopher, Summer 1964
August 3 1 Son, Christopher Hall, born.

October 26 Dining room where murals are hung is used for

the first time for meeting ot ditectors of Harvard
Alumni Association and Associated Hatvard
Clubs.

)oins Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York.

1964

Spring Dominique and John de Menil visit Rothko in

his studio; upon seeing Fout Seasons panels
there, commission him to make murals for
chapel in Houston.

April 2- The Tate Gallery, London, Painting and

June 28 Sculpture of a Decade 54-64. Rothko shows
Light. Earth and Blue. 1954 (cat. no. 116),
Black in Deep Red. Reds. Number 22. both 1957,
among others.
Ca. 1964-66
Summer Rents summer cottage in Amagansett, Long Is-

land.

Winter Selects last studio, converted carriage house at

157 East 69th Street. Places parachute over

skylight to keep studio relatively dark.

Starts wotk on Houston chapel murals.

1965

January 7 Delivers eulogy tor Milton Avety, who died

January 3, at New York Society tor Ethical Cul-

ture.

Meers Ann and Bernard Malamud at Lyndon

Johnson's inaugural activities.

March 28 Wins Medal Award of Brandeis Universiry Crea-

tive Atts Awards.

May 24 David Smith dies in car accident.

June 14 Participates in The White House Festival ot the

Arts, shows Ochre and Red on Red. 1954 (cat. no.

118).

July 16- Los Angeles County Museum of Aft, The New Mark Rothko and son, Christopher, August 30-Septembet
Augusr 1 York School: The First Generation. Paintings of the 2, 1968, Provincetown, Massachusetts
 1940's and 1950's. Rothko shows Number 26, Winter Begins to use larger paper; concerned about
1947 (cat. no. 73), Number 24, 1948 (cat. no. paper pieces' fragility, he mounts them on can-
85), Green on Blue, 1956, White Center, 1957. vas.

Ray Kelly becomes assistant, remains as such Jonathan Ahearn becomes assistant, remains
until 1968. as such until February 1969

December Roy Edwards becomes assistant, remains as such 1969

until August 1966
January 1 Leaves home and moves into East 69th Street

1966 studio. However, remains in constant touch

with family.
June Travels with family to Italy, France, The
Netherlands, Belgium, London. February Oliver Steindecker becomes assistant, remains
until Rothko's death.
October 15- The International Council of The Museum of
November 27 Modern Art organizes Two Decades of American April 1-30 Gallery of Art, Washington University, St.

Painting. Travels to Tokyo, Kyoto, New Delhi, Louis, The Development of Modernist Painting:
Melbourne, Sydney. Rothko shows Green on Jackson Pollock to the Present. Rothko shows
Blue. 1956, Black Stripe on Red, 1958, Number Number 101. 1961 (cat. no. 161).

278 10. 1960-61.

June Mark Rothko Foundation incorporated to pro-

1967 vide financial assistance for older painters,

sculptors, writers and composers.
February- University of St. Thomas Art Department,
April Houston, Six Painters. Organized by June 9 Receives Honorary Degree, Doctor of Fine Arts,
Dominique de Menil. Participants are Mond- from Yale University. Kingman Brewster, Pres-
rian.de Kooning, Guston, Kline, Pollock and ident of Yale, says:
Rothko. Rothko shows Composition, 1945, Ast- As one of the few artists who can be counted
ral Image, ca. 1946, Green Stripe, 1955, Unti- among the founders of a new school of Ameri-
tled, 1960, Untitled. 1963, among others. can painting, you have made an enduring
place for yourself in the art of this cen-
Summer Teaches at University of California, Berkeley, at
tury. Your paintings are marked by a simplic-
suggestion of Peter Selz. Meets Brian O'Doherty
and Barbara Novak, who also teach there.
ity of form and a magnificence of color. In
them you have attained a visual and spiritual
November 9- Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The grandeur whose foundation is the tragic vein
December 17 Netherlands, Kompass III. Travels to Frankfurt. in an human existence. In admiration of your

Houston murals influence, which has nourished young artists

are basically complete, but
throughout the world, Yale confers upon you
Rothko continues to make minor changes on
them. the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts. (Reprinted
in Yale University Art Gallery, New Ha-
1968 ven, Salute to Mark Rothko, May 6-June
20, 1971.)
March 27- The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Dada,
June 9 Surrealism, and Their Heritage. Travels to Los
Donates Seagram murals to The Tate Gallery,
Angeles, Chicago. Rothko shows Slow Swirl at
London. Rothko stipulates that the nine can-
the Edge of the Sea , 1944 (cat. no. 63).
vases are to be placed in a room by themselves
Spring Suffers from aneurysm of aorta and is hos- and are never to be shown with other paintings.
pitalized for three weeks. Forced to stop work- "It seems to me that the heart of the matter is

ing. now to give this space you propose the greatest

eloquence and poignancy of which my pictures
May 28 Together with Albers, Federico Castellon, are capable." (Quoted in Alastair Gordon, "In
Dorothea Greenbaum, William Gropper, the Galleries: The Rothko Room," The Connois-
Gyorgy Kepes, Louise Nevelson and Saul Stein- seur, vol. 175, no. 706, December 1970, p.
berg is inducted into National Institute of Arts 303.)
and Letters, Department of Art.
1969-1970
Summer Rents house in Provincetown near Motherwell.
Resumes work and within weeks does many October 16- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
small acrylics on rag paper. Their dimensions February 1 Painting and Sculpture: The First Generation. Or-
dictated by size of studio and available paper. ganized by Henry Geldzahler. Rothko shows
Vessels of Magic, 1946, Number 26, 1947,
Starts to employ acrylics; able therefore to use
Number 10. 1952 (cat. nos. 52, 73, 104, 155),
water with medium in monumental paintings,
Reds, Number 16, 1960.
spreads and soaks colors with wide brushes and
sponges. Creates black and grey or brown series: canvases
 279

Ca. 1964

comprised of two rectangles, black at top, gtey Rice University, is finally realized as inter-

or brown at bottom, framed by thin white band. denominational chapel affiliated with Institute
They are stark, quiet, remote, somber. of Religion and Human Development. Octa-
gonal floor plan designed by Philip Johnson; the
1970
final design executed under supervision of How-
February 25 In studio, during early hours of morning, takes ard Barnstone and Eugene Aubrey.
own life.
Murals comprised of thtee triptychs, five single

February 28 Buried in cemetery overlooking Shelter Island panels, four alternatives. Theme is Passion of
Sound. Christ.

May 29 Rothko room at The Tate Gallery, London, Two triptychs, one single panel composed of
opens. black hard-edged rectangles on maroon fields.

One triptych, four single panels entirely black,

August 26 Mell dies.
veiled with maroon wash. Varied paint
1971 thicknesses produce nuances of color.

February 27,28 The Rothko Chapel, Houston, dedicated. Orig- Rothko said of these murals: "I was always look-
inally to be Roman Catholic and part of Univer- ing for something more." (Quoted in Vogue, vol.
sity of St. Thomas, then interdenominational at 157, no. 5, March 1, 1971, p. 111.)

Clair Zamoiski
 8 , 1 , ,,

At Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1949 At Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1949

Exhibitions and Selected Reviews

280
Knows How to Forfend Trouble," The Art Whitney Dissenters, November 5-26,
/. Group vol. x, no. 8, January 15, 1938. Pamphlet with
Digest , 1936, p. 6 text by Bernard
Braddon and Marcus Rothkowitz
Galerie Bonaparte, Paris, The Ten, Novem- "Whitney
J.L., Dissenters' Hold Their
ber 10-24, 1936. Pamphlet with text
own Exhibition," Art News, vol. xxxviii,
Opportunity Galleries, New York [Group by Waldemar-George
no. 7, November 12, 1938, p. 15
Exhibition], November 15-December 12,
"Whitney Dissenters," The Art Digest,
1928 Montross Gallery, New York, The Ten, De-
vol. xiii, no. 4, November 15, 1938, p. 9
Murdock Pemberton.'Mann andOthers," cember 14, 1936-January 2, 1937
vol. iii, no. vi, December
Creative Art, "The Nine That are Ten,'" The Art Digest, Bonestell Gallery, New York, The Ten, Oc-
1928, pp. xlv xlvi December 15, 1936, p. 16
vol. xi, no. 6, tober 23-November 4, 1939
M.D., "A New Group Exhibition of J.L "The Ten:' a Substantial Showing,"
.

Uptown Gallery, Continental Club, New Work by The Ten," Art News vol. xxxv, , Art News vol xxxviii, no. 4, October 28,
.

York, Paintings by Selected Young Ameri-

no. 12, December 19. 1936, p. 18 1939. p. 16
cans, May 22-June 12, 1934
"Solo Figures and Group Landings," The
Neumann-Willard Gallery. New York, Neu'
Uptown Gallery, Continental Club, New Neu' York Times , December 20, 1936, Sec-
Work by Marcel Gromaire. Mark Rothko.
York, Group Exhibition, June 12-July 2, tion II, p. 1
Joseph Solman, January 8-27, 1940
1934 Jacob Kainen, "Our Expressionists," Art
J.L., Three Moderns Rothko, Gromaire
Front, vol. 3, no. 1, February 1937, pp.
Uptown Gallery, Continental Club, New 14-15
and Solman," Art Neus . vol xxxviii, no.

York Group
, Exhibition: American Moderns 16, January 20, 1940, p 12

August 14-September 17, 1934 Passedoit Gallery, New York, The Ten, April
Rorunda ol the American Art Today Build-
26-May8, 1937
Gallery Secession, New York, Group Exhibi- ing, New York World's Fair, The Federa-
'"The Ten' at Passedoit's," The Art Digest
tion, December 15, 1934-January 15, tion of Modern Painters and Sculptors: The
vol. xi, no. 15, May 1, 1937, p. 23
1935 First Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture,
H[oward] Dfevree], "Five of the Current
J[ane] S{chwartz], "Exhibitions in New June 20-July 8, 1940
Group Shows," The New York Times , May
York: Gallery Secession," Art Neu s, :

vol.
2, 1937, Section II, p. 90 Smith College Museum of Art. Norrhamp-
xxxiii, no. 12, December 12, 1934, p. 12
J. L., "Versatility of Talent Exhibited by ton, Massachusetts, American Art from the
Gallery Secession, New York [Group The Ten,'" Art News , vol. xxxv, no. 32, Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors
Exhibition], January 15-February 5, 1935 May 8, 1937, p. 17 November 12-December 1, 1940

Montross Gallery, New York, The Ten, De- Wanamaker's Picture Gallery, John Riverside Museum. New York, The First

cember 16, 1935-January 4, 1936 Wanamaker, New York, Second Annual Annual Exhibition ol the Federation of Mod-
"Exhibitions in New York: The Ten," Art Membership Exhibition: American Artists ern Painters and Sculptors, March 9-23,
News, vol. xxxiv, no. 12, December 21, Congress Incorporated, May 5-21, 1938 1941
1935, p.
Herbert Lawrence, "The Ten," Art Front, Passedoit Gallery, New York, The Ten, May R.H. Macy Department Store, New York

9-21, 1938
[Group Exhibition], January 5-26, 1942
vol. 2, no. 3, February 1936, p. 12
Organized by Samuel Kootz
M.D., "New Experiments by The Ten'
Municipal Art Galleries, New York, The
Group in its Seasonal Show," Edward Alden Jewell. "Mr Kootz Dis-
Ten, January 7-18, 1936 covers, " The
'

New York Times January 1

Art News, vol. xxxvi, no. 34, May 21,
, 1

"A Municipal Adventure," The New York 1942, Section 9, p. 9; reply by Samuel
1938, p. 16
Times January 12, 1936, Section 9, p. 9
, Kootz, "Letter to the Editor: Opinions
"New York's New Municipal Gallery Mercury Galleries, New York, The Ten: under Postage," The New York Times,
 ,

January 18, 1942, Section 9, p. x9 Painting Prophecy-1950, February 1945. Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture
Catalogue with texts by Rothko and other by Members of the Federation of Modern Paint-
Wildenstein and Co., Inc., Galleries, The
participating artists ers and Sculptors and guest artists September
,

Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors:

18-October 5, 1946. Traveled to: The
Second Annual, May 21-June 10, 1942. 67 Gallery, New York, A Problem for Critics
Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, New
Catalogue May 14-July 7, 1945
York; The Saint Paul Gallery, Minnesota;
Robert M. Coates, "The Art Galleries,'
Wildenstein, New York, The Federation of M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San
The New Yorker, vol. xxi, no. 15, May 26
Modern Painters and Sculptors Inc.: Third Francisco; The Museum of Fine Arts,
1945, p. 68
Annual Exhibition June 3-26, 1943
,
Houston, William Rockhill Nelson Gal-
Maude Riley, "Insufficient Evidence,'
Edward Alden Jewell, "End-Of-The- lery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
The Art Digest, vol. 19, no. 17, June 1

Season Melange," The New York Times,

1945, p. 12 Whitney Museum of American Art, New
June 6, 1943, Section II, p. x9; reply by
Clement Greenberg, "Art," The Nation York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
Marcus Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb with
vol. clx, no. 23, June 9, 1945, pp. 657 American Painting, December 10, 1946-
unacknowledged collaboration of Barnett
659 January 16, 1947. Catalogue
Newman [letter], Edward Alden
in
Edward Alden Jewell, "Toward Abstract Alfred M. Frankfurter, "What's Modern
Jewell, "The Realm of Art," The New York
or Away? A Problem for Critics," The New at the Whitney: Abstract Emphasis Builds
Times, June 13, 1943, p. x9
York Times, July 1, 1945, Section II, p. 2 Up the Naturalists," Art News, vol. xlv,
The 460 Park Avenue Galleries, New York, no. 11, January 1947, pp. 18-19,57 281
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San
As We See Them, October 1 1-November 3,
Francisco, Contemporary American Paint-
1943 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, The Ideo-
ing, May 17-June 17, 1945. Catalogue
graphic Picture, January 20-February 8,
Abstract and Surrealist Art in the United States. with text by Jermayne MacAgy
1947. Announcement with text by B[ar-
Organized by Sidney Janis, circulated by
Wildenstein and Co., Inc., New York, Fifth nett] B. Newman
San Francisco Museum of Art. Traveled
Anniversary Exhibition of Paintings and Edward Alden Jewell, "New Phase in Art
to: Cincinnati Art Museum, February
Sculpture by Members of the Federation of Noted at Display," The New York Times
8-March 12, 1944; The Denver Art
Modern Painters and Sculptors and guest ar- January 23, 1947. p. 21
Museum, March 26-April 3, 1944; The
tists , September 12-29, 1945 Edward Alden Jewell, "By British Mas-
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, June-July
"Unhampered Flow of Tradition..." Lim- ters: 'The Ideographic Picture,'" The New
1944; San Francisco Museum of Art, July
ited Edition , September 1945, p. 2 York Times, January 26, 1947, p. x9
1944. Catalogue with text by Sidney
"Reviews and Previews," Art News, vol.
Janis. Traveled to Mortimer Brandt Gal- Art of This Century, New York, Autumn
xlv, no. 12, February 1947, p. 44
lery, New York, November 29-December Salon, October 6-29, 1945

30, 1944. Separate catalogue published as "The Passing Shows," Art News, vol. xliv, The Brooklyn Museum, International Water-
Sidney Janis, Abstract and Surrealist Art in no. 13, October 15-31, 1945, p. 29 color Exhibition, 14th Biennial , April 16-
America, New York, 1944 June8, 1947
Whitney Museum of American Art, New
M[aude] R[iley], "Whither Goes Abstract Thomas B. Hess, "One World in Water-
York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
and Surrealist Art?" The Art Digest, vol. color," Art News, vol. xlvi, no. 3, May
American Painting, November 27, 1945-
xix, no. 5, December 1, 1944, pp. 8, 31 1947, pp. 25, 54-55
January 10, 1946. Catalogue
Emily Genauer, "New Surrealist Show,"
Alfred M. Frankfurter, "The Whitney The Art Institute of Chicago, Abstract and
The New York World Telegram , December
Sets the Pa.ce," Art News , vol. xliv, no. 16,
Surrealist American Art, November 6,
2, 1944, p. 9
December 1-14, 1945, pp. 13-15
1947-January 1948. Catalogue with
Howard Devree, "Among the New 1,

Shows," The New York Times, December Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, texts by Katharine Kuh and Frederick

x8 Philadelphia, The One Hundred and Sweet

3, 1944, Section II, p. Forty-
First Annual and Peyton Boswell, Jr. , "Chicago Surveys the
Exhibition of Painting
Art of This Century, New York, First Exhi- Abstract and Surrealist Art of America,"
Sculpture, January 26-March 3, 1946.
bition in America of (twenty paintings) never The Art Digest vol. 22, no. 4, November
Catalogue ,

shown in America Before [sic] , April 15, 1947, pp. 9-10

11 -May 6, 1944 Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Whitney Museum of Ametican Art, New
New Art Circle, New York, Some Aspects of American Sculpture, Watercolors and Draw- York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
Modern Art, closed October 23, 1944 American Painting, December 6, 1947-
ings , February 5-March 13, 1946.
Maude Riley, "Fifty-Seventh Street in Catalogue January 25, 1948. Catalogue
Review," The Art Digest, vol. 19, no. 2, Thomas B. Hess, "The Whitney Draws
October 15, 1944, p. 17
Whitney Museum of American Art, New
Slowly to the Left," Art News, vol. xlv, no.
York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
1, March 1946, pp. 29, 62
67 Gallery, New York, Forty American Mod- American Sculpture, Watercolors and Draw-
erns, December 4-30, 1944 Charles Egan Gallery, New York, 12 Works ings, January 31-March 21, 1948.
R.F. "Gifts for Dollars: A Fair Ex- of Distinction , May 20-June 8, 1946 Catalogue.
change," A rt News, vol. xlii, no. 17, De- "Reviews and Previews," Art News, vol.
cember 15-31, 1944,
Venice, La XXIV Biennale di Venezia: La
p. 18 xlv, no. 5, July 1946, pp. 48-49
Collezione Peggy Guggenheim, May 29-
David Porter Gallery, Washington, D.C., A Wildenstein and Co. Inc. , , New York, Sixth September 30, 1948. Catalogue with
 texts by Bruno Alfieri and Peggy November 11, 1950 University Gallery, University of Min-
Guggenheim Belle Krasne, "Youth: France vs. U.S.," nesota, Minneapolis, 40 American Paint-
The Art Digest , vol. 25, no. 3. November ers, 1940-1950, June 4-August 30, 1951.
Wildenstein and Co. , New York, Eighth An-
Catalogue with text by H.H. Arnason
1, 1950, p. 17
nual Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by
Rfobert} Gfoodnough], "Reviews and
Members of the Federation of Modern Painters
Previews," Art News, vol. xlix, no. 7,
The Museum of Modern Art, New York,
and Sculptors, September 14-October 2, Selections from New York Private Collections.
November 1950, p. 47
1948 Summer 1951. Catalogue
Whitney Museum of American Art, New
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, La Collezione Rathaus Schonberg, Berlin, Berliner
York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
Guggenheim February 19-March 10, Festwochen 1951: Amerikamsche Malerei:
American Painting. November 10-
,

1949- Catalogue with text by Peggy Werden und Gegenwart. September 20-
December 31, 1950. Catalogue
Guggenheim. Traveled to Palazzo Reale, October 5, 1951. Traveled to Schloss
Thomas B. Hess, "Invited Guests of the
Milan, June 1949 Separate catalogue Charlottenburg, October 10-24, 1951
Whitney," Art News. vol. xlix, no. 8,
with additional text by Francesco Flora Catalogue
December 1950, pp. 32-33, 63
National Arts Club, New York, Federation of
Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills, Seventeen Sao Paulo, Brazil, / Bienal do Museu de Arte
Modern Painters and Sculptors, March Moderna de Sao Paulo. October-December
Modern American Painters, January 11-
14-31, 1949 195 Catalogue
February 7, 1951 Catalogue with text by 1

282 Robert Motherwell

Whitney Museum of American Art, New
City Art Museum of Saint Louis, Contempor-
York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Surrealisme ary American Painting. November 12-
American Sculpture. Watercolors and Draw-
+ Abstraction: Choi x de la Collection Peggy December 10, 1951. Catalogue
ings April 2-May 8, 1949. Catalogue
,

GuggenheimlSurrealtsme + Abstractie:

San Francisco Museum of Art, The Western Keuze nit de Verzameling Peggy Gug- The Brooklyn Museum, New York, Revolu-
genheim, January 19-February 26, 1951. tion and Tradition: A n Exhibition of the Chief
Round Table on Modern Art, April 8-10,
Traveled to Palais des Beaux-Arts de Movements in American Painting from 1900
1949
Bruxelles, March 3-28, 1951. Catalogue to the Present . November 15, 1951-January
Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York, The in French and Dutch. Traveled to 6, 1952. Catalogue with text by John
Intrasubjectit'es , September 15-October 3, Kunsthaus Zurich, as Moderne Kunst aus I H Baur
1949. Catalogue with text by Samuel der Sammlung Peggy Guggenheim. April- Dforothy] S[eckler], "The American Con-
Kootz May 1951. Separate catalogue in German flict: Rebel and Conformist," Art News.
Margaret Breuning, "Kootz Re-opens," with text by Max Bill vol. 50, no. 8, December 1951, pp. 21,
The Art Digest, vol. 23, no. 20, September 58-59
15, 1949, p 15 The Museum of Modern Art, New York,
and Sculpture in America.
Abstract Painting The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 7 5
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, New Ac-
January 23-March 25, 1951. Catalogue Americans. March 25-June 1 1, 1952. Cat-
cessions. U.S.A.. from Great Britain, The
with text by Andrew Carnduff Ritchie alogue with reprinted and new texts by
United States and France, with Sculpture from
Belle Krasne. "The Modern Presents 37 Rothko and other participating artists
the United States. November-December
Years of Abstraction in America," The Art James Fitzsimmons, "Fifteen More Ques-
1949
Digest, vol. 25, no. 8, February 1, 1951, tions Posed at the Modern Museum," The
pp. 11,21 Art Digest, vol 26, no. 15, May 1952,
Whitney Museum ot American Art, New 1,

Thomas B Hess, "Is Abstraction Un- pp. 11, 24

York, Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
American?" Art News. vol. xlix, no. 10,
American Painting. December 16, 1949-
February 1951, pp. 38-41 Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, 9 American
February 5, 1950. Catalogue
Painters Today. January 4-23, 1954
University Galleries, University of Neb-
Lotos Club, New York, Exhibition of Water-
raska, Lincoln, Nebraska Art Association Joe and Emily Lowe Art Center, Syracuse
colors and Sculpture By the Members of the
Sixty-First Annual Exhibition. March University, Painting and Sculpture from the
Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.
4-April 1, 1951. Catalogue Institute Collection . February 9-28, 1954
February 21-March 5, 1950
"Nebraska Shows Old and New," The Art
Modern Art in the U.S.A. Organized by The
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Urbana, Digest, vol. 25, no. 12, March 15. 1951,
Illinois, University of Illinois Exhibition of
International Council of The Museum of
p. 11
Contemporary American Painting. February
Modern Art, New York. Separate
College of Fine and Applied Arts, Urbana, catalogue in language of each country with
26-April 2, 1950. Catalogue with text by
Illinois, University of Illinois Exhibition of texts by some or all of following: Holger
Allen S. Weller
Contemporary Painting. March 4-April 15, Cahill, Mildred Consrantine, Greta
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1951. Catalogue with text by Allen S Daniel, Arthur Drexler, Richard Griffith,

American Painting 1950. April 22-June 4, Weller Henry Russell Hitchcock, William S.

1950. Catalogue with text by James Lieberman, Edward Steichen. Traveled to:

Johnson Sweeney Los Angeles County Museum, 1951 Annual Musee Nationale d'Art Moderne, Paris,

Exhibition: Contemporary Painting m the as Cmquante ans d'art aux Etats-Unis,

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, Young United States. June 2-July 22, 1951. March 30-May 15, 1955; Kunsthaus
Painters in U.S. and France. October 22- Catalogue with text by James B. Byrnes Zurich, zs Moderne Kunst aus U.S.A.. July
 ,

16-August 28, 1955; Museo de Arte dustrial Exhibirion Grounds, Hyderabad, Museum of Modern Art, New York, as

Moderno, Barcelona, as El Arte Moderno en April 15-25. 1957; Calcutta, May 4-25, TheNew American Painting. May 28-
el Estados Unidos (architecture), and 1957 September 8, 1959. Traveled in part to
Palacio de la Virveina, Barcelona, as 3rd Albany Institute of History and Art, New
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 8 Ameri-
Bienal Hispano- Americano de Arte: El Arte York, as The Neu- American Painting. Sep-
cans. April 1-20, 1957. Catalogue
Moderno en el Estados Unidos (painting, tember 25-October 25, 1959
J[ames] Stchuyler], "Reviews and Pre-
sculpture, prints), September 24-October Emily Genauer, "Abstract Art that
views," Art Neus. vol. 56, no. 2, April
24, 1955, with two catalogues; Haus des Touted Europe is Displayed Here," The
1957, p. 11
Deutschen Kunsthandwerks, Frankfurt, New York Herald Tribune. May 28. 1959.
as Moderne Kunst aus U.S.A.. November Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, Contemporary p. 17
13-December 11, 1955; Tate Gallery, Art Acquisitions 1954-1957. May 15. Hilton Kramer. "The End of Modern
London, as Modern Art in the United States. 1957-February 15, 1958. Catalogue Painting," The Reporter. July 23, 1959,
January- 5-February 12, 1956; Gemeente p. 42
Museum, The Hague, as 50 jaar moderne Gimpel Fils, Ltd., London, Summer Exhibi- Kenneth Rexroth, "Ameticans Seen
kunst in de U.S.A.. March 2-April 15, tion, July 16-August 24, 1957 Abroad," Art Neus, vol. 58, no. 4, Sum-

1956; Wiener Secession Galerie (paint- Robert Melville, "Exhibitions," Architec- mer 1959, pp. 30-33, 52, 54
ing, sculpture, prints, architecture) and tural Ret ieu\ vol. cxxii, no. 729, Octobet Lawrence Alloway, "The New American
Neue Galerie, Vienna (photogtaphy), as 1957, pp. 269-271 Painting," Art International, vol. Ill, no.
Moderne Kunst aus U.S.A. . May 5-June 2, 3-4, 1959, pp. 21-29
Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State Univer-
1956, with one catalogue; Kalemagdan
sity, Hetzel Union Building, An Exhibi- Fieldston School Arts Center, New York,
Pavilion (painting, sculpture), ULUS Gal-
tion in Tribute to Sidney Janis. February American Art Today. April 26-30, 1958
lery, (prints, photographs), Fresco
3-24, 1958
Museum (architecture), Belgrade, as Sav- Venice, XXIX Exposizione Biennale Inter-
remena utmetnost U.S.A.D. , July 6-August Institute of Contemporary Aft, London, nazionale d'Arte. June 14-October 19
6, 1956, with one catalogue Some Paintings from the E.J. Power Collec- 1958. Catalogue with text on Rothko by
Emily Genauer, "Bad Press for U.S. Art tion. March 13-April 19, 1958. Catalogue Sam Hunter
Show in Paris Examined," New York with text by Lawrence Alloway Ettore Camesasca, "La Pittura Straniera,'
Herald Tribune. April 17, 1955, Section 6, Parrick Heron, "London," Arts. vol. 32, Le Am, May
vol. vii, no. 4/5, 5, 1958
P. 13 no. 8, May 1958, pp. 22-23 pp. 4-5
Lawrence Alloway, "U.S. Modern: Paint- Heinz Keller, "Ausstellungen: Venedig,'
ings," Art Neus and Review, vol. vii, no.
The Neu- American Painting. Organized by
Werk, jg. 45, heft 8, August 1958, pp
26, January 21, 1956, pp. 1,9
The International Council of The Museum
153-156
Patrick Heron, "The Americans at the
of Modern Arr, New York. Separate
Tate Gallery, "Arts. vol. 30, no. 6, March catalogue in language of each country with Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, X Years of

1956, pp. 15-17

texts by Alfred H. Barr, Jr.. Portet Janis: 10th Anniversary Exhibition. Sep-
McCray, repnnred texts by Rothko and tember 29-November 1, 1958
Milwaukee Art Institute. Wisconsin, 55 other participating artists. Ttaveled to:
Americans. September 9-October 23, Kunsthalle Basel, as Die neue amenkanische
Root Art Center, Clinton, New York, New
1955 Trends in 20th Century American Painting.
malerei. April 19-May 26, 1958, with ad-
October 26-November 30, 1958
ditional catalogue text by Arnold Rud-
Katonah Gallety, Katonah, New York,
linger; Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Insti-
American Watercolors from the Whitney
Milan, La Nuova Pittura Americana.
as
tute, Pittsburgh, The 1958 Pittsburgh
Museum of American Art. November 26,
June 1-29, 1958; Museo Nacional de Arte Bicentennial International Exhibition of Con-
1955-January 3, 1956
Contemporaneo, Madrid, as La Nueva Pin- temporary Painting and Sculpture. De-
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Ten Years. tura Americana. July 16-August 11, 1958; cember 5, 1958-February 8, 1959.
December 19, 1955-January 14, 1956. Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste, Berlin, Catalogue
Announcement with text by Clement as Die neue amerikanische malerei, Sep-
Greenberg tember 1-Ocrober 1, 1958; Stedelijk Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 8 American
Museum, Amstetdam, as Jong Amerika Painters, January 5-31, 1959. Catalogue
Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, Recent schilderl, October 17-November 24, J[ames] S[chuyler], "Reviews and Pre-
Paintings by 7 Americans. September 24- views," Art News, vol. 57, no. 9, January
1958; Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles,
October 20, 1956 as La nouvelle peinture am'ericaine. De- 1959. p. 10

The cember 6, 1958-January 4, 1959; Musee

Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Neu-
Narional d'Art Moderne, Paris, with ad-
Paintings by Mark Rothko. Bradley Tomlin York and Paris: Painting in the Fifties,
ditional exhibition ah Jackson Pollock et la
and Kenzo Okada, January 6-February 26, January 16-February 8, 1959- Catalogue
nouvelle peinture americaine, January 16-
1957 with texts by Dore Ashton and Bernard
February 15, 1959, with additional
Dorival
All India Arts & Crafts Society, New Delhi, catalogue texts by Sam Hunter on Pollock
Third International Contemporary Art Exhib- and by Jean Cassou; Tate Gallery, Lon- Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis,
ition. Febtuary 23-March 7, 1957. don, as The Neu- American Painting, Feb- The Roy and Marie Neuberger Collection, 21
Traveled to: Municipal Museum, ruary 24-March 22, 1959, with additional American Paintings: 1944-1956. February
Ahmedabad, closed March 31, 1957; In- catalogue text by Gabriel White; The 13-March 1, 1959
 Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, Neue Herbert Read. Reprinted in Art Neu s, i

28-May 31, 1961

Amerikanische Malerei, March 14-April May 1960, see Bibliography, General Ar-
Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, 70 Ameri-
26, 1959. Catalogue with texts by R. ticles, p. 293
can Painters, May 8-June 3, 1961.
Hanhart, E. Naegeli and Hans Theler
Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, 9 American Catalogue
Kassel, Germany, Museum Fridericianum, Painters, April 4-23, 1960. Catalogue I[rving] H. S[andler}, "Reviews and Pre-
// Documenta '59, Kunst nach 1945: Inter- views: Ten Americans," Art News, vol.
Yale University Christian Association, New
nationale Ausslellung. July 1 1-October 11, 60, no. 4, Summer 1961, p. 10
Haven, Religious Perspectives in Post-1950
1959- Catalogue with text by Werner
American Art, April 18-29, 1960 Centro Internazionale delle Arti e del Cos-
Haftmann
tume, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Arte e Con-
Lawrence Alloway, "Before and After Galleria dell'Ariete, Milan, Undtci Ameri- templazione, July 7-October 18, 1961.
1945: Reflections on Documenta II," Art cani, April 27-May 1960. Catalogue with Catalogue with text by Paolo Mannotti
International, vol. Ill, no. 7, 1959, pp. text by Guido Ballo and poem by Willem Sandberg
29-36, 79
San Francisco Museum of Art, Paintings and Stedeli|k Museum, Amsterdam, Polariteit,
Sokolniki, Moscow, American Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of Mrs. John D July 22-September 18, 1961. Catalogue
Sculpture: American National Exhibition in
Rockefeller, 111, July 1-August 7, 1960 with texts by Thomas Grochowiak and
Moscow July 25-September
, 5, 1959. Or-
Annelise Schroder
ganized by Archives of American Art, De- Cleveland Museum of Art, Paths of Abstract
284 troit. Catalogue with text in English by Art, October 4-November 13, I960. Smolin Gallery, New York, Paintings from
Lloyd Goodrich Catalogue published as Edward B. Hen- the W.P.A., September 1 1-October 5,
ning. Paths of Abstract Art, New York, 1961
The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio,
1960 L[awrence] C[ampbell], "Reviews and
Contemporary American Painting, January
Previews: Paintings from the W.P.A.,"
14-February 18, 1960. Catalogue with Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica,
Art Neu s, :

vol. 60, no. 5, September

text by Tracy Atkinson New York, Art Across America, October
1961, p. 14
15-December 31, I960. Catalogue with
Modern American Painting 1950-1958. Or- texts by Howard Mumford Jones and San Francisco Museum of Art, American Bus-
ganized by City Art Museum of St. Louis, Richard B.K. McLanathan iness and the Arts, September 14-October
circulated by United States Information
15, 1961
Agency. Separate catalogue in language of Helmhaus Zurich, Konkrete Kunst: 50 Jahre
each country with anonymous texts. Entwicklung, I960 The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller.

Traveled to: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Organized by The Museum of Modern

Kunstmuseum Basel, Die J ubildumss chenkung
Moderna, Rome, January 23-February Art, New York. Traveled to: The Art In-
des Schweizerischen National-Verstcher-
22, I960; Permanente Gallery, Milan, as stitute of Chicago, September 22-October
ungs-Gesellschaft an das Basler Kunst-
25 Anni di Pittura Americana, March 5-31, The Baltimore Museum of Art,
22, 1961;
museum, 1960
I960; Amerika Haus, Berlin, April December 3-31, 1961; Contemporary
Maria Netter, "Die Jubiliiumsschenkung
15-May 15, I960; Hessisches Landes- Arts Center, Cincinnati, January 22-
des Schweizerischen National-Versicher-
museum Darmstadt, as Moderne February 25, 1962; The Cleveland
ungs-Gesellschaft an das Basler Kunst-
Amerikanische Malerei 1930-1958, June Museum of Art, March 13-April 10,
museum," M'erk, jg. 47, heft 5, May
3-26, I960; Goteborgs Konstmuseum, 1962; California Palace of the Legion of
1960, pp. 182-183
Goteborg, Sweden, as Modern! Amertkanst Honor, San Francisco, April 30-June 3,

Maleri 1932-1958, July 15-August 7, Stadtisches Museum Leverkusen, West 1962; Portland Art Museum, Oregon,
1960; City Art Gallery, York, England, Germany, Monochrome Malerei, I960 June 15-July 22, 1962; Los Angeles
mid-August-mid-September, I960 County Museum of Art, September
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery and At-
J. AS. Ingamells, "American Painting at 5-October 14, 1962. Catalogue with texts
York," Museums Journal, vol. 60, no. 6,
kins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City,
by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Ben Heller and
Missouri, On the Logic of Modern Art,
October 1960, pp. 165-168 William Seitz
January 19-February 26, 1961. Catalogue Henry Geldzahler, "Heller: New
Galerie Neufville, Paris [Group Exhibition], with text by Ralph T. Coe
American-type collector," Art Neus, vol.
February 23-March 22, I960
Union College, Schenectady, New York, 60, no. 5, September 1961, pp. 28-31,
University of California, Berkeley, Art from New Trends in 20th Century American Paint- 58
Ingres to Pollock, March 6-April 3, I960. ing, March 5-26, 1961 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
Catalogue with texts by Herschel B.
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, New York, American Abstract Expressionists
Chipp and Grace Morley
and Imagists, October 13-December 31,
Sarasota, Florida, The Sidney Janis Paint-
Whitney Museum of American Art, New ers, Apnl8-May7, 1961 1961. Catalogue with text by H.H. Arna-
York, Business Buys American Art, March son
17-Apnl 24, I960. Catalogue Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Jack Kroll, "American Painting and the
Paintings and Sculpture from the Albright Art Convertible Spiral," Art News, vol. 60,
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 60 Ameri-
Gallery, April 26-September 4, 1961 no. 7, November 1961, pp. 34-37, 66,
can Painters I960: Abstract Expressionist
68-69
Painting of the '50's, April 3-May 8, 1960. Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, Lawrence Alloway, "Easel Painting at
Catalogue with text by H.H. Arnason and Tenth Anniversary Exhibition . April the Guggenheim," Art International, vol.
 ,

v, no. 10, Christmas 1961, pp. 26-34 Brandeis University, Waltham, Mas- York, December 1, 1963-January 5,

Dore Ashton, "Art," Arts & Architecture, sachusetts, Novembet 21-December 23, 1964; Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, New
vol. 78. no. 12, December 1961, pp. 4-5 1962; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Orleans, February 7-March 8, 1964; At-
Boston, as American Art Since 1950. Sepa- lanta Art Association, March 18-April 22,
Vanguard American Painting. Organized by rate catalogue with text by Sam Hunter 1964; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louis-
H. H. Arnason for United States Informa- reprinted from Seattle catalogue ville, May 4-June 7, 1964; Aft Museum,
tion Service. Separate catalogue in lan- Indiana University, Bloomington, June
H.H. Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 10 Ameri-
Washington
guage of each country with text by 22-September 20, 1964;
various cities,
can Painters, May 7-June 2, 1962.
University, Octobet 5-30,
Arnason. Traveled to: St. Louis,
Catalogue
Yugoslavia, as Savremena Amerika umenost 1964; Detroit Institute of Arts,
1961; USIS Gallery, American Embassy, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Gegenwart bis November 10-December 6, 1964
London, February 28-March 30, 1962;
Hessischen Landesmuseum , Darmstadt,
1962, June 1962. Caralogue wirh rext by
Manfred de Motte
Danbury Scott Fanton Museum and His-
torical Society, Inc., Danbury, Connec-
as Abstrakte Amenkanische Malerei, April
Smolin Gallery, New York, Art of the Thir- ticut, 27 Contemporary American Artists,
14-May 13, 1962; Salzburg, Zwerglgar-
ties, Septembet 25-October 13, 1962 January 9-25, 1964. Organized by Whir-
ten, as Amenkanische Maler der Gegenwart,
ney Museum of American Art, New York
July 10-August 3, 1962
Oakland Art Museum, California, Treasures
Galerie Jacques Benador, Geneva, Artistes
from East Bay Collections, September 28-
Deparrment of Fine Arrs, Carnegie Insti-
November 2, 1962. Catalogue americaines , February 14-late March 1964
tute, Pittsburgh, The 1961 Pittsburgh In-
ternational Exhibition of Contemporary Paint- Univetsity of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 2 Genera-
ing and Sculpture, October 27, 1961- tions: Picasso to Pollock, March 3-April 4,
Arbor, Contemporary American Painting,
January 7, 1962. Catalogue with text by Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. 1964
Gordon Bailer Washburn Roy R. Neuberger, October 21-November University Art Museum, University of Texas
New 18, 1962
Whitney Museum of American Art, at Austin, Re cent American Paintings Aptil ,

York, American Art of our Century: 30th 15-May 15, 1964. Catalogue
Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles [Group
Anniversary Exhibition, November 15-
Exhibition], 1962 Fine Arts Gallery, Indiana Universiry,
December 10, 1961. Catalogue with texts
H[opkins], "Reviews: Los
H[enry] T. Bloomington, American Painting 1910-
by John I.H. Baut and Lloyd Goodrich
Angeles," Artforum, vol. i, no. 6, 1960, April 19-May 10, 1964. Catalogue
Florida Union Social Room, University of November 1962, p. 48 with text by Henry R. Hope
Florida, Painting and Sculpture in Florida
Amon Cartet Museum of Western Art, Fort The Tate Gallery, London, Painting and
Collections, January 14-18, 1962
Worth, Texas, The Artist's Environment: Sculpture of a Decade: 54-64 April 22-June
,

Whitney Museum of American Art, New The West Coast, Novembet 6-December 28, 1964. Organized by Alan Bowness,
York, Masters of American Watercolor, Feb- 24, 1962. Traveled ro: UCLA Arr Gal- Lawrence Gowing and Philip James for

ruary 13-March4, 1962 leries, Los Angeles, January 6-February Calouste Gulbenkian Foundarion. Cat-
Dore Ashton, "New York Commentary: 10, 1963; Oakland Art Museum, Califor- talogue with unsigned text by Bowness,
De Kooning's Verve," Studio International, nia, March 17-Apnl 15, 1963 Gowing and James
vol. 163, no. 830, June 1962, p. 225 Alan Bowness, "54/64 Painting & Sculp-
Galerie Miiller, Stuttgart, Sam Francis,
ture of a Decade," Studio International vol. ,

Gimpel Fils Ltd. , London, A Selection of East Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Robert Mother- 167, no. 853, May 1964, pp. 190-194
Coast & West Coast American Painters, well, Marc Rothko, January 19-February
15, 1963 Adelphi University, Garden City, New
March 1962
Reichardt, "Les Expositions a
York, A Century of American Art, 1864-
J[asia]
Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London, As- 1964, July 10-26, 1964
Londres: peinture americaine," Au-
pects of 20th Century Art, July-August
jourd'hui, 6eannee, no. 36, April 1962, p. Milwaukee Art Center, Wisconsin Collects,
1963- Catalogue
55 September 24-October 25, 1964.
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 11 Abstract Catalogue
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Continuity
Expressionist Painters, October 7-
and Change: 45 American Abstract Painters
November 2, 1963- Catalogue Arr Gallery, The University of New Mexico,
and Sculptors, April 12-May 27, 1962.
Albuquerque, Art Since 1889, October
Catalogue with text by Samuel Wagstaff, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Four Cen-
20-November 15, 1964. Caralogue
turies of American Art, November 27,
Daniel Robbins, "Continuity and Change 1963-January 19, 1964. Catalogue with Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, A Selection

at Hartford," Art International, vol. vi, text by Marshall B. Davidson of 20th Century Art of 3 Generations
no. 8, Ocrober 25, 1962, pp. 59-65 November 24-December 26, 1964.
New Directions in American Painting. Or-
Catalogue
Seattle Fine Arts Pavilion, Seattle World's ganized by The Poses Institute of Fine
Fair, Art Since 1950: American and Interna- Arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, The Tate Gallery, London, The Peggy
tional, April 21-October 21, 1962. Massachusetts. Catalogue with text by Guggenheim Collection, December 31,
Catalogue with text by Sam Hunter. Sam Hunter. Traveled to: Munson- 1964-March 7, 1965. Caralogue with text
Traveled in part to: Rose Arr Museum, Williams-Procror Institute, Utica, New by Peggy Guggenheim
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Cleveland Museum of Art , Fifty Years of Mod- Selected from the Woodward Foundation Col-
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1943-1953: ern Art 1916-1966, June 14-July 31, lection. September 30-November 5, 1967.
The Decisivi Years, January 14-March 1, 1966. Catalogue with text by Edward B Catalogue with text by Henry Geldzahler
1965. Catalogue Henning
Institute ot Contempotary Art, University of
Providence Art Club. Rhode Island, 1965 Whitney Museum of American Art, New Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Selected Works
Kant Memorial Exhibition, Critic's Choice: York, Art of the United States: 1670-1966, from the Collection of Mr and Mrs. H. Gates
.

Art Since World War II, March 31-April September 28-November 27, 1966. Lloyd. October 18-November 19, 1967.
24. 1965. Catalogue with texts by Catalogue with text by Lloyd Goodrich Catalogue
Thomas B. Hess, Hilton Kramer and
Barbara Rose, "The New Whitney: The M Knoedler et Cie., Paris, Six peintres ameri-
Harold Rosenberg ,"
Show A rtforum , vol. 5, no. 3, November cams: Gorky, Kline, de Kooning. Newman.
1966, pp. 51-55 Pollock. Rothko. October 19-November
Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie,
25, 1967. Catalogue with reprinted texts
New York, Art Since 1923: An Exhibition Detroit Institute of Arts, The W '.
Hawkins
m Honor Agnes Rindge Claflin May by Elaine de Kooning, Rothko and other
oj , Ferry Collection, October 1 1-November
participating artists
5- June 16, 1965 20, 1966

The White House, Washington, D.C., The Stedeli|k van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven,
Two Decades oj American Painting . Organized
White House Festival of the Arts, June 14, by The International Council of The The Netherlands, Kompass 111: Schilder-

kunst na 1945 uit Neu York: }

Paintings after
1965 Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sepa-
rate catalogue in English in each country
1945 in New York, November 9-
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The December 17, 1967. Catalogue in Dutch
with texts by Lucy R. Lippard, Waldo
New York School: The First Generation, and English with text by Jean Leering.
Rasmussen, Irving Sandler, G.R. Swen-
Paintings of the 1940's and 1950's, July Traveled to Frankfurter Kunstverein as
son. Traveled to: The National Museum of
16-August 1, 1965. Catalogue with ex- Kompass New York: Malerei nach 1945. De-
Modern Art, Tokyo, October 15-
cerpts from earlier texts by Lawrence Al- cember 30, 1967-February 1 1, 1968. Sepa-
November 27, 1966, with catalogue with
loway, Robert Goldwater, Clement rate catalogue in German and English
Japanese section; The National Museum
Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, William with texts by Leering and E. Rathke
of Modern Art, Kyoto, December 12,
Rubin and Meyer Schapiro and reprinted
1966-January 22, 1967, with catalogue The Royal Dublin Society, Rose '67: The
texts by Rothko and other participating
with Japanese section; Lalit Kala Poetry of Vision. November 13, 1967-
artists
Academy, New Delhi, March 25-Apnl January 10, 1968. Catalogue
Philip Leider, "The New York School: 15, 1967; National Gallery of Victoria,
The First Generation," Artforum vol. iv,
Clement Greenberg, "Poetry of Vision,"
,
Melbourne, June 6-July 8, 1967; Art Gal-
September 1965, pp. 3-13 Artforum, vol. vi, no. 8, April 1968, pp.
no. 1, lery of New South Wales, Sydney, July
18-21
17-August 20, 1967
University of California, Berkeley, The Uni-
versity Arts Center, January 6-February 16, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, Tun The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The

1966 Generations oj American Art: 1943-1965 ,

Sidney and Harriet Jams Collection. January
November 11-December, 1966 17-March 4, 1968. Traveled to: The Min-
Williams College Museum of Art, Wes- neapolis Institute of Arts, May 15-July
leyan, Massachusetts, Williams-Vassar Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Peggy 28, 1968; Portland Art Museum, Ore-
Exchange Exhibition, February 28-March Guggenheim samling fran Venedig. Novem- gon, September 13-October 13, 1968;
18, 1966 ber 26, 1966-January 8, 1967. Catalogue Pasadena Art Museum, November 1-
1

with text by Peggy Guggenheim December San Francisco

15, 1968;
The Larry Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield,
Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, 2 Genera-
Museum ot Art, January 13-February 16,
Connecticut, Brandeis University Creative
1969; Seattle Art Museum, March 12-
Arts Awards, 1957-1966: Tenth Anniver- tions: Picasso to Pollock, January 3-27,
April 13. 1969; Detroit Institute of Arts,
sary Exhibition, April 17-June 26, 1966. 1967. Catalogue
July 14-August 17, 1969; Albright-Knox
Catalogue
University of St. Thomas Art Department, Art Gallery, Buffalo, September 15-

Seven Decades, 1895-1965: Crosscurrents in Houston, Six Painters, February-April October 19, 1969; Cleveland Museum of
Modern Art. April 26-May 21, 1966. Or- 1967. Catalogue with texts by Morton Art, November 18, 1969-January 4,
ganized by Public Education Association, Feldman, Thomas B. Hess and Domi- 1970. Catalogue with text by Alfred H.
New York. Exhibition divided among nique de Menil Barr, Jr. Circulated further by The Inter-
New York galleries: Paul Rosenberg and Kurt von Meier, "Houston," Artforum.
national Council of The Museum of Mod-
Co., 1895-1904; M. Knoedler & Co., ern Art. Separate catalogue in language of
vol. v, no. 9, May 1967, pp. 59-60
Inc., 1905-1914; Perls Galleries, E. V. each country. Traveled to: Kunsthalle
Thaw & Co. , 1915-1924; Saidenberg Gal- Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence, Basel, February 28-March 30, 1970; The
lery, 1925-1934; Stephen Hahn Gallery, France, Dix ans d'art vtvant 1955-1965, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London,
1925-1934; Pierre Matisse Gallery, May 3-July 23, 1967. Catalogue with text May 1-31, 1970; Akademie der Kunste,
1935-1944; Andre Emmerich Gallery and by Francois Wehrlin Berlin, June 12-August, 1970; Kunst-
GalleriaOdyssia, 1945-1954; Cordierand halle, Nurnberg, September 1 1-October
Ekstrom, Inc., 1955-1965 . Catalogue Washington Gallery of Modern Art, 25, 1970; Wurttembergischer Kunst-
with text by Peter Selz Washington, D.C., Art for Embassies verein, Stuttgart, as Von Surrealismus bis
 zur Pop Art, November 12-December 27, Hilton Kramer, "The Absttact and the American Art from 1945 to Now," Inter-

1970; Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, Real, From Metaphysics to Visual Facts," national Herald Tribune. November 1-2,
January 7-February 11, 1971, with no The New York Times, July 21, 1969, Sec- 1969, p. 7
catalogue; Kunsthalle Koln, Von Picasso tion II, p. D31
Kunsthaus Zurich, American Art 1948-
bis Warhol. March 5-Apnl 18, 1971.
Philip Leider, "Art of the Real, Museum 1968, January 20-February 23, 1969
Separate catalogue with text by Helmut
of Modern Art," Artforum, vol. vii. no. 1,
R. Leppien Gallery of Art, Washington University, St.
Seprember 1968, p. 65
Louis, The Development of Modernist Paint-
Art Gallery, University of California, Irvine, "Laufen der Ausstellungen: Der Raum in
ing: Jackson Pollock to the Present. April
Twentieth-Century Works on Paper, January der Amerikanischer Kunst 1948-1968," 1-30, 1969- Caralogue with text by
30-February 25, 1968. Traveled to Werk, jg. 56, no. 1, January 1969, p. 71
Robett T. Buck, Jt.
Memotial Union Art Gallery, University
Robert Melville, "Gallery: Minimalism,"
of California, Davis, March 26-April 20, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The
Architectural Review, vol. cxivi, no. 870,
1968. Catalogue with text by James Neu American Painting and Sculpture: The
[

August 1969, pp. 146-148

Monte First Generation, June 18-October5, 1969
Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield
Finch College Museum of Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art New
Hills, Michigan, Betty Parsons' Private Col-
Betty Parsons' Private Collection, March York, Seven Decades of 20th Century Art,
lection, September 22-October 20, 1968.
13-April 24, 1968. Catalogue with text July 3-September28, 1969
Traveled to Brooks Memorial Art Gallery,
by E.C. Goossen
Memphis, November 1-December 1, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New
J.B., "In the Museums: The Betty Parsons 1968. Catalogue with text by E.C. Goos- York, A rt in Westchester from Private Collec-
Collection," Arts Magazine, vol. 42, no. sen tions, September 28-November 2, 1969-
5, March 1968, p. 54 Catalogue with text by Donald M. Haley
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii, Signals
Rosalind Constable, "The Betty Parsons Col-
in the Sixties, October 5 -November 10, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
lection," Art News, vol. 67, no. 1, March
1968. Catalogue with text by James York, New York Painting and Sculpture:
1968, pp. 48-49, 58-60
Johnson Sweeney 1940-1970, October 16, 1969-February

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1, 1970. Catalogue with texts by Michael
Milwaukee Art Center, The Collection of Mrs. Henry Geldzahler, Clement
Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage. Fried,
Harry Lynde Bradley, Octobet 25, 1968- Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, Robert
March 27-June 9, 1968. Traveled to: Los
February 23, 1969. Catalogue with text Rosenblum and William Rubin, re-
Angeles County Museum of Art, July
by Tracy Atkinson printed or revised from earlier sources
16-September 8, 1968; The Art Institute
of Chicago, October 19-December 8, Stadtische Kunsthalle Diisseldorf, Malerei Buenos
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes,
1968. Catalogue with text by William des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts 1968
,

Aires, 109 Obras de Albright-Knox Art Gal-

Rubin
lery, October 23-November 30, 1969.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, Catalogue
New York, Works of Art from the Peggy
D.C. Paintings from the Albright-Knox Art
,
Guggenheim Foundation, January 16-March Pasadena Art Museum, Painting in New York:
Gallery, May 18-July 21, 1968
23, 1969- Catalogue with text by Peggy 1944 to 1969, November 24, 1969-

Whitney Museum of American Art, New Guggenheim January 11, 1970. Catalogue with text by

York, Recent Acquisitions. May 23-July 7, Alan R. Solomon

The Disappearance and Reappearance of the Im-
1968
age: Painting in the United States since 1945. Palais des Beaux- Arts de Bruxelles, Petnture
Organized by Inrernational Art Program, americaine depuis 1945, 1969
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The
National Collection of Fine Arts, Smith-
Art of the Real: USA 1948-1968. July Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Trends in
sonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
3-September 8, 1968. Catalogue with Twentieth Century Art: a loan exhibition from
Separate catalogue in language of each
text by E.C. Goossen. Circulated by The the San Francisco Museum of Art, January
country with texts by Ruth Kaufman and
International Council of The Museum of 6-February 15, 1970
John W. McCoubrey, and reprinted texts
Modern Art. Separate catalogue in lan-
by Rothko and other participating artists.
The Katonah Gallery, Katonah, New York,
guage of each country with text by Goos-
Traveled to: Sala Dalles, Bucharest, Color, February 1-March 15, 1970.
sen. Traveled to: Centre National d'Art
January 17-February 2, 1969; Museul Catalogue with texts by Michael Fried and
Contemporain, Paris, as L'Art du reel:
Banatului, Timosoara, Romania, Feb- Clement Greenberg adapted in part from
USA 1948-1968, November 14-
ruary 14-March 1, 1969; Galeria de Arta, earlier sources
December 23, 1968; Kunsthaus Zurich,
Cluj, Romania, March 14-April 2, 1969;
as Der Raum in der Amerikanischer Kunst
& Applied Arts Gallery, Bos-
Slovenska Narodna Galeria, Bratislava, School of Fine
1948-1968. January 19-February 23,
Czechoslovakia, April 14-June 15, 1969; ron University School of Fine and Applied
1969, with catalogue with Goossen text in
Arrs, Centennial Exhibition: American
Narodni Galerie, Prague, July 1-August
English, additional text by Felix Andreas February
15, 1969; Palais des Beaux-Arts de
Artists of the Nineteen Sixties,
Baumann; The Tate Gallery, London, as
6-March 1970. Catalogue with text
14,
Bruxelles, October 21-November 16,
The Art of the Real: An Aspect of American
by H.H. Arnason
1969
Painting and Sculpture, 1948-1969, April
24-June 1, 1969 Rona Dobson, "Brussels: The Look of Whitney Museum of American Art, New
 , .

York, Recent Acquisitions, July 9- 19, 1970 lery. January 19-February 20, 1972. Pace Gallery, New York, Selected American
Catalogue Painters of the Fifties. February 9-March
Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence,
19, 1974
France, Exposition I'art vtvant aux Etats
Peter Schjeldahl, "Down Memory Lane to

Unis, July 16-Seprember 30, 1970. the Fifties," TheNew York Times, February Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, 25 Years of
Catalogue with text by Dore Ashton 6, 1972, Section II, p. 23 Jams: Part 2: From Pollock to Pop. Op and
Sharp-Focus on Realism, March 13-April
Whitney Museum of American Art, New Mead Art Building, Amherst College, 13, 1974
York, Landmarks of American Art: 1900- Amhetst, Massachusetts, Color Painting.
1960. July 24-September 13, 1970 February 4-March 3, 1972. Catalogue Fort Worth Art Center Museum, Texas,

with text by Cad N. Schmalz Twentieth Century Art from Fort Worth Dal-
Albnght-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Color
las Collections, September 8-October 15,
and Field: 1890-1970. September 15- Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, Abstract 1974. Catalogue with text by Henry T.
November 1, 1970. Traveled to: Dayton Expressionism and Pop Art, February Hopkins
Art Institute, November 20, 1970- 9-March4, 1972
January 10, 1971; Cleveland Museum The Tate Gallery, London , Picasso to Lichten-

of Art, February 4-March 28, 1971. The University Art Museum, The University stein: Masterpieces of Twentieth-Century An
Catalogue with text by Priscilla Colt of Texas, Austin, Color Forum, February from the Nordrhetn-Westfalen Collection in
27-Apnl 16, 1972. Catalogue Diisseldorf, October 2-November 24,
Edward B. Henning, "Color and Field,"
1974. Catalogue
Art International, vol. xv, no. 5, May 20, Marlborough Gallery, New York, Masters of
1971, pp. 46-50 the 19th and 20th Centuries, April-May Orangerie des Tuileries, Paris, Art du XXe
1972 si'ecle, Fondation Peggy Guggenheim. Venise,
San Francisco Museum of Art, Modern Mas-
November 30, 1974-March 3, 1975.
ters in West Coast Collections, October 18- Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, Twenty-Five
Catalogue with text by Peggy
November 27, 1970. Catalogue with text Years of American Painting 1948-1973,
Guggenheim
by George D. Culler March 6-April 22, 1973. Catalogue with
text by Max Kozloff Whitney Museum of American Art,
Kunsthaus Zurich, Malerei des zwansigsten
Downtown Branch, New York, Subjects of
Jahrhunderts. 1970 Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Collects
the Artists: New York Painting 1941-1947
Contemporary Art, July 1 1-August 20,
Whitney Museum of American Art, New April 22-May 28, 1975
1973- Catalogue with text by Edward B.
York, The Structure of Color. February
Henning Institute for the Arts, Rice University,
25-April 18, 1971. Catalogue with text
Houston, Marden. Novros. Rothko,
by Marcia Tucker and reprinted texts by Seattle Art Museum, American Art Third
April-May 1975. Catalogue published as
Rothko and other participating artists Quarter Century, August 22-October 14,
Marden, Novros, Rothko: Painting in the Age
1973- Catalogue with text by Jan van der
Northwood Institute, Cedar Hill, Dallas, of Actuality , Houston, 1978, with text by
Marck
Selections from the Collection of Mrs. Harry Sheldon Nodelman
Lynde Bradley. March 2 1-April 30, 1971. Whitney Museum of American Art,
Cleveland Museum of Art, Landscapes. In-
Catalogue Downtown Branch, New York, Beginnings:
terior and Exterior: Avery, Rothko and
Direction in Twentieth-Century American
Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Art Fair 1971 Basel: Schueler. July 9-August 31, 1975. Cat-
Painting, September-October 26, 1973
America. June 24-29, 197 1 alogue with text by Edward B Henning

Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark, Oakland Museum, Art Department,

The Jewish Museum, New York, Jewish Ex-
Louisiana -Retj: Amerikansk Kunst 1950- California, Period of Exploration , Sep-
perience in the Art of the Twentieth Century.
1970. September 1-October 24, 1971. tembet 4-November 4, 1973- Catalogue
1
October 16, 1975-January 25, 1976.
Catalogue with texts by Stig Brogger, with text by Mary Fuller McChesney
Catalogue
David Galloway, Klaus Honnef, Niels
Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, The Ktrsch
Jensen, Gunnar Jespersen and Erik
Fort Worth Art Center Museum, Texas,
Years: 1936-1958, January 7-February
Thygesen, and texts by Mel Bochner, Selections from the Permanent Collection and
10, 1974. Traveled to University of Neb-
John Cage, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Alan Sol-
Fort Worth Private Collections, October
raska Art Galleries, Lincoln, February
omon and Rothko and other participating
26-November 9, 1975
2 5 -March 31, 1974
artists translated from earlier sources The Edmonton Art Galley, Edmonton,
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Canada, The Collective Unconscious: Ameri-
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Great Decade of American Abstraction: Mod- can and Canadian Art: 1940-1950. De-
Twentieth Century American Artists, ernist Art 1960-1970, January 15-March cember 5, 1975-January 18, 1976.
October 23-November 22, 1971 10, 1974. Catalogue with texts by E.A. Catalogue with text by Karen Wilkin
Carmean, Jr and Phillippe de Montebello
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans
and texts by Walter Darby Bannard, The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio,
Collects. November 14, 1971-January 9,
Kermit Champa, Jane Harrison Cone, Aspects of Postwar Painting in America.
1972. Catalogue
Michael Fried, Clement Greenberg, January 17-February 29, 1976. Or-
Albnght-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Rosalind Krauss, Kenworth Moffet, Bar- ganized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim
Abstract Expressionism: First and Second bara Rose and William Rubin reprinted or Museum, New York. Catalogue. Traveled
Generations in the Albright-Knox Art Gal- revised from earlier sources and expanded form to The Sol-
in revised
 .

omon R. Guggenheim Museum, New July 20, 1976. Organized by Whitney lectors, Collecting, Collection, April 22-
York, as Acquisition Priorities: Aspects of Museum of American Art, New York June 5, 1977
Postwar Painting in America, October 15, 'American Moderns Fail ro Stit Tokyo,"
Separate
The Fitzwilliarn Museum. Cambridge, Eng-
1976-January 16, 1977. TheNeu- York Times. July 15, 1976. p. 40
land Jubilation: American Art During the
,

catalogue
The Brooklyn Museum, New York, Ameri- Reign of Elizabeth 11. May 10-June 18,
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, can Water colors and Pastels from the Museum 1977. Catalogue
New York, Twentieth Century American
Collection. July 3-September 19, 1976
Drawing: Three Avant-Garde Generations Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, American

January 23-March 28, 1976. Catalogue Musee dArt et d'Histoire, Geneva, Peinture Art in Belgium. May 25-August 28, 1977.
with text by Diane Waldman. Traveled as americaine en Suisse: 1950-1965 . July Catalogue with texts by K.J. Geirlandt
Amerikanische Zeichner des 20. Jahrhun- 4-October 4, 1976. Catalogue with text and G. Roque
derts Drei Generationen von der Armory by Charles Goerg
American Embassy, London, American Art at
Show Heute, to: Staatliche Kunsthalle
bis
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York, Home in Britain: The last four decades, July
Baden-Baden, May 26-July 11, 1976; Artists and East Hampton: A 100-Year Per-
6-26, 1977. Organized by The Contem-
Kunsthalle Bremen, July 18-August 29, spective. August 14-October 3, 1976.
porary Art Society in cooperation with
1976. Separate catalogue in German with Catalogue United States Information Service. Cata-
text by Waldman, additional text by Hans
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The logue with text by Marina Vaizey
Albert Peters
Natural Paradise: Painting in America
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, America The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton,
1800-1950, October 1-November 30,
Nou\ February 20-May 2, 1976 New York, Twentieth Century American
1976. Catalogue with texts by Kynaston
Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of
McShine, Barbara Novak, Robert
Heritageand Horizon: American Painting Art. September 25-December 31, 1977.
Rosenblum and John Wilmerding
1776-1976. Organized by The Toledo Catalogue with texts by Henry Geldzahler
Museum of Art, Ohio. Traveled to: Milwaukee Art Center, From Foreign Shores: and Helen A. Harrison
Albnght-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Three Centuries of Art by Foreign Born Ameri-
can Masters, October 15-November 28,
The New York State Museum, Albany, New
March 6-April 11, 1976; Detroit Institute
York: Theof Art. October
State
May 5-June 13, 1976; The Toledo
of Arts, 1976. Catalogue with text by I. Michael
9-November 27, 1977. Catalogue with
Museum of Art, Ohio, July 4-August 15, Danoff
texts by Robert Bishop, William H.
1976; Cleveland Museum of Art, Sep-
Fort Worth Art Center Museum, Texas, Gerdts and Thomas B. Hess
tember 8-October 10, 1976. Catalogue
Selections and New A cquisitions from the Fort
with texts by Robert T.Buck, Frederick J.
Worth Art Museum Permanent Collection. The San Jose Museum of Art, California,
Cummings, Sherman E. Lee and Otto W. America VIII: Post-war Modernism,
January 9-February 20, 1977
Wittmann November 4-December 31, 1977.
Kunsrhaus Zurich, Aspekte Konstruktiver Catalogue
Miami-Dade Community College, South
Kunst. January 14-February 27, 1977.
Campus, Florida, Abstract Expressionism,
Catalogue Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, Mil-
Works from the Collection of the Whitney
ton Avery and His Friends. January 28-
Museum of American Art, March 8-ApriI 1, Rutgers University Art Gallery, New-
February 24, 1978
1976. Catalogue Brunswick, New Jersey, Surrealism and
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, American Art: 1931-1947 . March 5-April Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years.
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 24, 1977. Catalogue with texts by Jack J. Organized by Herbert F. Johnson,
D.C., The Golden Door: Artist-Immigrants Spector and Jeffrey Wechsler Museum of Art, Ithaca, and Whitney
of America, 1876-1976. May 20-October Museum of American Art, New York.
South Dakota Memorial Art Center, Brook-
20, 1976. Catalogue with texts by Daniel Traveled to: Herbert F. Johnson Museum
ings, The Calligraphic Statement, March
J. Boorstin and Cynthia Jaffee McCabe of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New
20-Apnl24, 1977
York, March 30-May 14, 1978; The Seibu
Fort Worth Art Center Museum, Texas, The
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, Less is Museum ot Art, Tokyo, June 17-July 12,
Permanent Collection: A 75th Anniversary
More, April 7-May 7, 1977. Catalogue 1978; Whitney Museum of American Art,
Retrospective, June 6-October 31, 1976
with text by S[idney] Jfanis] New York, October 5-December 3, 1978.
Seibu Department Store Art Gallery, Tokyo, Catalogue with texts by Robett Carleton
Three Decades of American Art, June 18- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Col- Hobbs and Gail Levin

//. One- Man

Museum of Art, Portland. Oregon [Draw- 3, no. 1, November-December, 1933, 1933

ings and watercolors exhibited with work n.p. Jane Schwarrz, "Around the Galleries,"
of the artist's students at Center School,
New York, An Art News, vol. xxxii, no. 9, December 2,
Contemporary Arts Gallery,
Brooklyn], Summer 1933 1933, p. 16
Exhibition of Paintings by Marcus
Bulletin of the Museum of An Portland, vol. Rothkou'itz, November 21 -December 9, Art of This Century, New York, Mark
 , ,

Rothko Paintings, January 9-February 4, April 15, 1949, p. 27 Kooning, excerpted from "Two Ameri-
1945- Catalogue with anonymous text cans in Action," Art News Annual 1958,
Tfhomas] B H[ess], "Reviews and Pre-
see Bibliography, Articles on Rothko, p.
Edward Alden Jewell, "Art: Diverse views," Art Neti'S, vol. xlvin, no. 2, April
295
Shows," The New York Times. January 14, 1949, p 48
1945. Section II, p. 8 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark
Sidney Jams Gallery, New York, Nra Paint-

Rothko, January 3-2 1950 ings by Mark Rothko, January 27-February

"The Passing Shows," ArtNews, vol. xliii, 1 ,

22, 1958
no. 19, January 15-31, 1945, p. 27 Howard Devree, "In New Directions,"
The Neit 1

York Times, January 8, 1950,

Dore Ashton, "Lettre de New York,"
Maude Riley, "The Mythical Rothko and
Cimaise, serie 5, no. 4, March-April 1958,
His Myths," The Art Digest, vol. 19, no. Section II, p. x 10
pp. 30-31
S.January 15, 1945, p. 15 Belle Krasne, "Mark of Rothko." The Art
Digest, vol. 24, no. 8, January 15, 1950, Dore Ashton, "Art," Arts 6 Architecture.
Mortimet Brandt Gallery, New York, Mark
vol. 75, no. 4, April 1958. pp. 8, 29, 32
p. 17
Rothko: Watercolors, April 22-May 4, 1946
Tfhomas] B H[ess], "Reviews and Pre- E.C. Goossen, "The End of Wintet in
Edward Alden Jewell, "Art: Hither and New
views," ArtNews, vol. xlviii, no. 10, Feb- York," Art International, vol. ii, no.
Yon," The New York Times, April 28,
2-3, 1958, p. 37
ruary 1950, p. 46
1946, Section II, p. 6
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark
The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
"Reviews and Previews," Art News, vol. Paintings by Mark Rothko, May 4-31, I960
Rothko. April 2-12, 1951
xlv, no. 2, April 1946, p. 55

Carlyle Burrows, "Final Works by The Museum of Modem Art, New York,
Ben Wolf, "Mark Rothko Watercolors," Mark Rothko. January 18-March 12,
Beckmann and a Group of Americans,"
The Art Digest, vol. 20, no. 15, May 1,
1961. Catalogue with text by Peter Selz.
New York Herald Tribune. April 8, 195 1
1946, p. 19 Circulated by The International Council
Section 4, p. 8
San Francisco Museum of Art, Oils and of The Museum of Modern Art. Sepatate
Stuart Preston, "Chiefly Abstract." The
catalogue in language of each countty with
Watercolors by Mark Rothko, August 13-
New York Times, April 8, 195 1, Section II,
text by Peter Selz and reprinted text by
September 8, 1946. Traveled in part to
p. x9
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Sep-
Robert Goldwatet. Traveled to:

tembet 1946 M[aty] C[oIe], "Fifty-seventh Street in Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, as

Review: Mark Rorhko," The Art Digest. Mark Rothko: A Retrospective Exhibition
Donald Bear, "Rothko's Paintings High
vol. 25, no. 14, April 15, 1951, p. 18 Paintings 1945-1960. October 10-
in Interest, But Far from Easy to
November 12, 1961, with catalogue with
Analyze," Santa Barbara News Press, Sep- The Art Institute of Chicago, Recent Paint-
additional text by Btyan Robertson;
tember 25, 1946, p. B8 ings by Mark Rothko. October 18-
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Novem-
December 31, 1954. Traveled in part to
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark ber 24-December 27, 1961, with cata-
Museum of Aft, Rhode Island School of
Rothko: Recent Paintings. March 3-22, logue with additional text in French by
Design, Providence, as Paintings by Mark
1947 Emilio Villa; Palais des Beaux-Arts de
Rothko. January 19-February 13, 1955
Bruxelles, January 6-29, 1962; Kunst-
Howard Devree, "Diverse New Shows,"
Hubert Crehan, "Rothko's Wall of Light: halle Basel, March 3-ApriI 8, 1962, with
The New York Times. March 9, 1947, Sec-
A Show ot his New Work at Chicago," catalogue in English and German; Gal-
tion II, p. 7
Arts Digest, vol. 29, no. 3, November 1, leria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome,
M[argaret] Bfreuning], "Fifty-seventh 1954, pp. 5, 19 April 27-May 20, 1962, with separate
Street in Review: Subliminal Symbols," catalogue with text by Palma Bucarelli,
Katharine Kuh, "Mark Rothko," The Art
The Art Digest, vol. 21, no. 12, March 15, none by Petet Selz; Musee d'Art Moderne
Institute of Chicago Quarterly, vol. xlviii,
1947, p. 18 de la Ville de Paris, December 5, 1962-
no. 4, November 15, 1954, p. 68
"Reviews and Previews," Art News, January 13, 1963
vol.

xlv, no. 13, March 1947, 42

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, New Paint-
p.
Mark John Canaday, "Is Less More and When
ings by Rothko, April 1 1-May 14,
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark 1955
for Whom?: Rothko Show Raises Ques-

Rothko: Recent Paintings, March 8-27, tions About Painters, Critics and Audi-
Robert M. Coates, "The Art Galleries,"
ence," The Neu' York Times. January 22,
1948
The New Yorker, vol. xxxi, no. 10, April
1961, p. xl7
Sam Hunter, "Diverse Modernism," The 23, 1955, p. 84
Robert M. Coates, "The Art Galleries,"
New York Times. March 14, 1948, Section The New Yorker, xxxvi, no.
L{averne] G[eorge], "Fortnight in Re- vol. 50,
II, p. x8
view," Arts Digest, vol. 29, no. 15, May 1, January 28, 1961, pp. 78-81
"Reviews and Previews," Art News, vol. 1955, p. 23 Irving Herschel Sandler, "New York Let-

xlvii, no. 2, April 1948, p. 63 ter," Art International, vol. v, no. 2,

T[homas] B. H{ess], "Reviews and Pre-
March 1, 1961, pp. 40-41
Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, Mark views," ArtNews, vol. 54, no. 4, Summer
Kathanne Kuh, "The Fine Arts: Art
Rothko, March 28-Apnl 16, 1949 1955, p. 54
Without Isms," Saturday Review, vol.
M[argaret] B[reuning], "Fifty-seventh Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, xhv, no. 9, March 4, 1961, pp. 37, 145
Street in Review: Matk Rothko at Par- Mark Rothko, September 5 -October 6, Robert Goldwater, "Reflections on the
sons," The Art Digest, vol. 23, no. 14, 1957. Caralogue with text by Elaine de Rothko Exhibition," Arts, vol. 35, no. 6,
 March 1961, pp. 42-45 Marlborough New London Gallery, London, Robert Kudielka, "Ausstellungen," Das
Tfhomas] B. H[ess], "Reviews and Pre- Mark Rothko, February-March 1964. Kunstwerk, vol. xxiv, no. 3, May 1971,
views," Art News, vol. 60, no. 1, March Catalogue pp. 51-52
1961, p. 10 Keith Roberts, "Current and Forthcom-
Bergamo, Galleria Lorenzelli; Mark
M[ax] Kozloff, "Mark Rorhko's New Re- ing Exhibitions," Burlington Magazine,
Rothko, March 1971. Catalogue with ex-
trospecrive," Art Journal, vol. xx, no. 3, vol. cvi, no. 733, April 1964, p. 194
cerpts from reprinted texts by Marie-
Spring 1961, pp. 148-149
Joseph Rykwert, "Mostre a Londra," Claude Dane, Sam Hunter, Georgine
J. Harrison, "A Spirirual Experience:
Domus, no. 413, April 1964, 49
p. Oeri, Peter Selz, Guido Perocco, Michel
Painrmgs by Mark Rothko," The Times,
G. S. Whittet, "London Commentary: Ragon, Rothko and Peter Selz
London, October 13, 1961, p. 18
Alan Bowness, "Absolutely Abstract,"
Fresh Facets in Mature Artist's Work," Kunsthaus Zurich, Mark Rothko, March
Studio International, vol. 167, no. 853,
The Observer, Sunday, October 15, 1961 21-May 9, 1971. Separate catalogue in
May 1964, p. 216
John Russell, "A Grand Achievement of language of each country with text by
the Fifties," The Sunday Times, London, Donald McKinney and reprinted text by
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderne, Rome,
October 15, 1961, p. 39 Rothko. Traveled to: Staatliche Museen
Mark Rothko, 1965
Keith Sutton, "Art: Round the London Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Neue
Galleries," The Listener, vol. lxvi, no. Marlborough New London Gallery, London, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, May 26-July 19,
1699, October 19. 1961, p. 616 Mark Rothko, Winter 1965-66 1971; Stadtische Kunsthalle Diisseldorf,

J. Harrison, "Mark Rothko," The Arts as Gemalde von Mark Rothko ( 1 903-1970)
Pierre Rouve, "Rothko: Marlborough ,

Review, vol. xiii, no. 20, October 21- August 24-October 3, 1971; Museum
New London." The Arts Review, vol. xvi,
November4, 1961, pp. 2, 18 Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam,
no. 3, February 19, 1966, pp. 3, 17, 22
Michael Fried, "London: Visitors from November 20, 1971-January 2, 1972.
America," Arts, vol. 36, no. 3, December The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Traveled in part to: Hayward Gallery,
1961, pp. 38-39 Mark Rothko 1903-1970, March 26-May London, February 2-March 12, 1972;
Jasia Reichardt, "Les Expositions a L'Et- 31, 1970 Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris,

ranger: Londres," Aujourd'hui, 6e annee, March 23-May 8, 1972

Museo d'Arte Moderna Ca'Pesaro, Venice,
December 1961, pp. 64-65
no. 34,
Mark Rothko, June 21-October 15, 1970. James Burr, "London Galleries: Caliban
Maria Netter, "Austellungen," Die
Organized under the auspices of La and Calm," Apollo, vol. xcv, no. 120,
Weltwoche. Zurich, |g. 30, no. 1480,
March 23, 1962, p. 26
XXXV Biennale Internazionale d'Arte di February 1972, p. 139

Venezia with the collaboration of Christopher Neve, "Pictures Must Be

Francesco Guerrien, "Mostre Romane:
Mark Rothko," Auditorium, vol. xi, no.
Marlborough Gallery, New York. Miraculous: Rothko at the Hayward Gal-
Catalogue with text by Guido Perocco. lery," Country Life, vol. cli, no. 3897,
5-6,May-June 1962, pp. 20-21
Marcelin Pleynet, "Exposition Mark
Traveled to Marlborough Gallery, New February 17, 1972, p. 391
York, as Mark Rothko Paintings 1947-
Rothko," TelQual, no 12, Winter 1963, Keith Roberts, "Current and Forthcom-
1970, November 13-December 5, 1970
pp. 39-41 ing Exhibitions," The Burlington
Rolf-Gunter Dienst, "Pariser Kunst- David L. Shirey, "Mark Rothko's Adapt- Magazine, vol. cxiv, no. 828, March
winter," Das Kunstwerk, vol. xvi, no. 8, able Rectangles," The New York Times, 1972, p. 190
February 1963, p. 23 November 21, 1970, p. 24
John Ashbery, "Paris Notes," Art Interna-
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven,
Thomas B. Hess, "Rothko: A Venetian
Salute to Mark Rothko, May 6-June 20,
tional, vol. vii, no. 2, February 25, 1963,
Souvenir," Art Neus, vol. 69, no. 7,
1971. Catalogue with text by Andrew
p. 72 November 1970, pp. 40-41, 72-74 Carnduff Ritchie
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
J. Patrice Marandel, "Lettre de New
New York, Five Mural Panels Executed for
York," Art
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport
International, vol. xv, no. 1,
Harvard University by Mark Rothko, April Beach, California, 10 Major Works: Mark
January 20, 1971, p. 45
9-June 2, 1963 Rothko, January 30-March 10, 1974.
Carter Ratcliff, "New York Letter," Art Catalogue with texts by James B. Byrnes
Brian O'Doherty, "Art: Rothko Panels
International, vol. xv, no. January 20,
1, and Morton H. Levine
Seen," The New York Times, April 10,
1971, p. 26
1963, p. 36 William Wilson, "A Window in the
Kenneth Baker, "New York," Artforum, World of Mark Rothko," The Los Angeles
Irving Sandler, "In the Art Galleries," The
vol. ix, no. 5, January 1971, pp. 74-75 Times, February 24, 1974
New York Post, April 21, 1963, Magazine,
p. 14
Willis Domingo, "Galleries," Arts, vol. Mantua, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna,
45, no. 4, February 1971, p. 55 Mark Rothko: Mostra didattica, December
Dfonald] J[udd] , "New York Exhibitions:
1977. Catalogue with text by Ida Panicelli
In the Galleries," Arts, vol. 37, no. 10, Galleria Martano, Turin, Mark Rothko,
September 1963, pp. 57-58 March 17-ApriI 20, 1971. Catalogue
 ,,

Selected Bibliography

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/. General Books
enlarged, New York, Washington, DC, 1975, pp. 104, 112, 135.
138, 141, 159, 161, 163, 166-167, 168, 170, 177-179, 192, 194,
231-232, 258
Sidney Jams, Abstract and Surreal at Art m America. New York, 1944,
Theories of Modern Art: A Source Book by Artists and Critics. Herschel B.
pp. 88, 118
Chipp, ed., Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1968, pp. 544-545, 548-549
John I. H. Baur, Revolution ami Tradition in Modern American Art,
Readings in American Art Since 1900: A Documentary Survey, Barbara
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 195 1, pp. 71, 72, 120
Rose, ed., New York, 1968, pp. 143-145, 160; revised and en-
Thomas B. Hess, Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase. larged as Readings in American Art 19001915: A Documentary Sur-
New York, 1951, pp. 145, 146, 150-152 vey. New York, 1975, pp. 111-113, 134, 136-137, 160, 162, 198

William C. Seitz, Abstract-Expressionist Painting in America: An In- H. H. Arnason, History of Modern Art: Painting. Sculpture. Architec-

terpretation Based on the Work and Thought of Six Key Figures, unpub- ture. New York, ca. 1968, pp. 432, 488, 508, 537, 621, 624;
lished Ph. D dissertation, Princeton University, 1955, passim revised and enlarged. New York, 1977, pp. 436, 508, 533-534,
678, 683
Rudi Blesh, Modern An U.S.A.: Men. Rebellion. Conquest. 1900-
1956. New York, 1956, pp. 172, 226, 227, 234, 243, 247, 250, Barbara Rose, American Painting: The Twentieth Century. Switzerland,
264-266, 291 1969, pp. 36, 57,63,64,70,72,73,77,80.85-87,90, 102, 103,
112
Selden Rodman, Conversations with Artists. New York, 1957, pp. 5 1

55, 84, 92-96, 99, 108, 111, 114 Ronald Alley, Recent American Art. London, 1969, p. 7

Sam Hunter, "U.S.A." in Art Since 1945. Milton S. Fox, ed., New Dore Ashton, A Reading of Modern Art, Cleveland, London, 1969,
York, ca. 1958, pp. 283-348 pp. 25-31

Virgil Barker, From Realism to Reality m Recent American Painting. Edward Lucie-Smith, Late Modern: The Visual Arts Since 1945, New
Lincoln, Nebraska, 1959, pp. 89-91 York, Washington, DC, 1969, pp. 38, 42

Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture: Critical Essays. Boston, 196 1

Harold Rosenberg, Artworks and Packages . New York, 1969, pp. 44,
pp. 125, 169, 219, 222, 225-226, 233, 234 101, 113, 116, 125, 126, 150, 158, 188, 191, 192,222

Current Biography Yearbook. Charles Moritz, ed.. New York, 1961, Irving Sandler, The Triumph of American Painting: A History of

pp. 397-399 Abstract Expressionism . New York, Washington, D.C., 1970, passim

Dore Ashton, The Unknown Shore: A View of Contemporary Art. Bos- Betnhard Kerber. Amerikamsche Kunst Sett 1945. Stuttgart, 1971,
ton, Toronto, 1962, pp. 25-26, 27,42, 57, 59-60, 66, 71-78, 109, pp. 10, 51-54, 56, 59, 65,66-68, 85, 149, 207-208
170, 199, 226, 241-242, 249
Art Since Mid-Century: The New Internationalism. Greenwich, Con-
Henry Geldzahler, American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New necticut, 1971, vol. I , Abstract Art , pp. 14,50, 51,52, 57-58,62,
York, 1965, pp. 172, 188-189 140, 150. 156, 231, 232, 244

Modern Art: From Fauvism to Abstract Expressionism . David Sylvestet, Dore Ashton, TheNew YorkSchool: A Cultural Reckoning. New York,
ed., New York, 1965, pp. 112-113 1972, passim

Barbara Rose, American Art Since 1900: A Critical History. New Harold Rosenberg, The De-Definition of Art, New York, 1972, pp.
York, 1967, pp. 126, 134, 163, 164, 167, 187, 189, 192, 194, 92, 96, 97, 100-107, 130, 193, 194, 218
 Joseph Solman, 'The Easel Division of the WPA Federal Art Proj- E. C. Goossen, "The Big Canvas," Art International, vol. 2, no. 8,
ect," The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs. Francis V. November 1958, pp. 45-47. Reprinted in The New Art: A Critical
O'Connor, ed., Washington, DC, 1972, pp. 115-130 Anthology. Gregory Battcock, ed.. New York, 1966, pp. 4856

Sam Hunter, American An of the 20th Century. New York, ca. 1972, Dorothy Seiberling, "Part I, Baffling U.S. Art: What It Is About."
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Varied Art of Four Pioneers," no. 20, November 16, 1959, pp.
Brian O'Doherty, American Masters: The Voice and the Myth. New
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York, ca. 1973, pp. 23, 24, 25, 88, 90, 105, 111, 120, 121,
150-187, 199, 232, 249, 257, 258, 274, 281, 282 Herbert Read and H. Harvard Arnason, "Dialogue on Modern U.S.
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Peter Plagens, Sunshine Muse: Contemporary Art on the West Coast. New
York, Washington, D.C., 1974, pp. 23, 32, 35, 36. 37. 41, 42, 43, Dore Ashton, "Perspective de la peinture amencaine," Cahiers d'Art,
46, 69, 75, 78, 132 annees 33-35, 1960, pp. 203-221

Cor Blok, Geschichte der Abstrakten Kunst 1900-1960. Cologne, Robert Goldwatet "Reflections on the
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Robert Rosenblum, Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradi- 10, February 1961, pp. 38-41, 56,
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don, 1975, pp. 173-218 1969, see Group Exhibitions, p. 287

Paul Cummings, A Dictionary of Contemporary American Artists. New Rachel Jacobs, "L'ideologie de la peinture amencaine," Aujourd'hui:
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The Metropolitan Museum of Arr, New York, New York Paintingand

//. General Articles
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Lawrence Alloway, "The American Sublime," Living Arts , vol. i, no.

Jules Langsner, "More About the School of New York," Arts and 2, June 1963, pp. 11-22
Architecture, vol. 68, no. 5, May 1951, pp. 20,46
Max Kozloff, "A Letter to the Editor: An Answer to Clement Green-
B. H. Friedman, "The New Baroque," Arts Digest, vol. 28, no.
berg's Article 'After Abstract Expressionism,'" Art International.
20, September 15, 1954, pp. 12-13
vol. vu, no. 6, June 25, 1963, pp. 88-92
Clement Greenberg, "'American-Type' Painting," Partisan Review,
Edward B. Henning, "In Pursuit of Content," The Bulletin of the
vol. xxii, no. 2, Spring 1955, pp. 179-196. Reprinted in Green-
Cleveland Museum of Art . vol. 50, no. 8, October 1963, pp. 218-239
berg. Art and Culture. 1961, see General Books, p. 292
Dore Ashton, "La Voix du tourbillon dans l'Amerique de Kafka,"
Meyer Schapiro, "The Younger American Painters of Today," The
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ThomasB. Hess, "Private faces in public places," ArtNeus. vol. 63,

Hubert Crehan, "Is there a California School?" Art Neus. vol. 54,
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no. 9, January 1956, pp. 32-35, 64
Lawrence Alloway, "The Biomorphic Forties," Artforum. vol. iv, no.
"Art: The Wild Ones," Time. vol. Ixxii, no. 8, February 20, 1956,
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Barnert Newman interviewed by Neil A. Levine, "The New York
Herbert Read, "An Art of Internal Necessity," Quadrum. no. 1, May
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38-41, 55-56
Dore Ashton, "L'Apporr artistique des Etats-Unis," XX< Steele.
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Clement Greenberg, "New York painting only yesterday," Art 1966, pp. 10-15
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Marcelin Pleyner, "De la peinture americaine (III)," Les Lettres fran-
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Irving Sandler, "Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage: 2. The Sur-
William Rubin, "The New York School Then and Now, Part II," realist Emigres in New York," Artforum, vol. vi, no. 9, May 1968,
Art International, vol. li, no. 45, May-June 1958, pp. 1922 pp. 24-31

Robert Rosenblum, "Unite et divergences de la peinture amencaine: Bernhard Kerber, "Der Ausdruck des Sublimen in der amerikanis-

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John Chandler, "The colors of monochrome: An introduction to the Quarterly, vol. xxiii, no. 2, Winter 1960, pp. 28
seduction ot reduction," artscanada, vol. xxvin, no. 160/161,
E. C. Goossen, "Rothko: The Omnibus Image," Art Neus. vol. 59,
October/November 1971, pp. 1831
no. 9, January 1961, pp. 38-40, 60-61
Donald B. Kuspit, "The Illusion ot the Absolute in Abstract Art,"
L. Picard, "Mark Rothko," Das Kunstwerk, vol. xiv, no. 1011,
Artjournal, vol. xxxi, no. 1, Fall 1971, pp. 26-30
April/May 1961, pp. 33-40
Edward M. Levine, "Abstract Expressionism: The Mystical Experi-
Georgine Oeri, "Mark Rothko," Quadrum. no. x, 1961, pp. 6574
ence,"An Journal, vol. xxxi, no. 1, Fall 1971, pp. 22-25
Lawrence Alloway, "Notes on Rothko," Art International, vol.6, no.
Morton Feldman, "After Modernism," Art in America, vol. 59, no.
5-6, 1962, pp. 90-94
six, November-December 1971, pp. 6877
Jose-Augusto Franca, "Mark Rothko et lespace continu," au-
Barbara Rose, "Mondrian in New York," Artjorum. vol. x, no. 4,
jourd'hui: art et architecture, 7e annee, no. 40, January 1963, pp.
December 1971, pp. 54-63
10-11
Charles Harrison, "Abstract Expressionism II," Studio International
Dora Vallier, "Rothko ou ('absence de theme devenue theme," XXe
vol. 185, no. 952, February 1973, pp. 53-60
Steele, xxvc annee, no. 21, May 1963, pp. 53-56. Reprinted in XXe
Lawrence Alloway, "Residual Sign Systems in Abstract Expres- Steele, nouvelle serie, xxxv t annee, no. 40, June 1973, pp. 98-103
sionism," Artforum, vol. xii, no. 3. November 1973. pp. 3642
Philippe Sollers, "Le Mur du Sens," Art de France, vol. 4, 1964, pp.
Les Levine, "Lone Star Four," Arts Magazine, vol. 48, no. 6, March 239-251
1974, pp. 30-39
Max Kozloff, "The Problem of Color-Light in Rothko," Artforum.
Janet Kutner, "Brice Marden, David Novros, Mark Rothko: The vol. iv, no. 1, September 1965, pp. 3844
Urge to Communicate Through Non-Imagistic Painting," Arts
"Mark Rothko, Artist, a Suicide Here at 66," The New York Times,
Magazine, vol. 50, no. 1, September 1975, pp. 61-63
February 26, 1970, pp. 1, 39
Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, "Appreciating Ryman," Arts Magazine, vol.
Hilton Ktamer, "A Pure Abstractionist: Rothko's Work in Color,
50, no. 4, December 1975, pp. 70-73
Conveyed Luminosity Yet an Extreme Serenity," The New York
Amy Goldin, "Abstract Expressionism, No Man's Landscape," Art Times, February 26, 1970, p. 39

in America, vol. 64, no. one, January-February 1976, pp. 7779

Maria Netter, "Ende einer Pionierarbeit: Zum Tode des Malers Mark
Harry Rand, "Adolph Gottlieb in Context," Arts Magazine, vol. 51, Rothko," Die Weltwoche. jg. 38, vol. 10, March 6, 1970, p. 35
no. 6, February 1976, 112-135
William Rubin. "Mark Rothko 1903-70, The New York Times,
Donald B. Kuspit, "Symbolic Pregnance inMark Rothko and Clyf- March 8, 1970, pp. 21, 22
ford Still," Arts Magazine, vol. 52, no. 7, March 1978, pp. 120-125
Harold Rosenberg, "The Art World: Rothko," The New Yorker, vol.

xlvi, no. 6, March 28, 1970, pp. 90-95

Robert Olmos, "Mrs. Allen About Her Brother," Northwest

///. Articles on Rothko
Magazine, March 29, 1970, p. 21

T[homas] B. H[ess], "Editorial: Mark Rothko, 1903-1970," Art

"Brown Belittles Drawings in Book," The Neti' York Times. January News. vol. 69, no. 2, April 1970, pp. 29, 66, 67
5, 1929
Max Kozloff, "Mark Rothko ( 1903- 1970)," Artforum. vol. vni, no.
Ofscar] Cfollier], "Mark Rothko, The New Iconograph, no. 4, Fall 8, April 1970, pp. 88-89
1947, pp. 41-44
John Fischer, "Mark Rothko: portrait ot the artist as an angry man,"
Douglas MacAgy, "Mark Rothko," Magazine of Art, vol. 42, no. 1, Harper's, vol. 241, no. 1442, July 1970, pp. 16-23
January 1949, pp. 20-21
R. C. Kenedy, "Mark Rothko," Art International, vol. xiv, no. 8,
Dore Ashton, "Mark Rothko," Arts & Architecture, vol. 74, no. 8, October 20, 1970, pp. 45-49
August 1957, pp. 8, 31
Brian O'Doherty, "Rothko," Art International, vol. xiv, no. 8,
Dore Ashton, "Art: Lecture by Rothko," The New York Times. October 20, 1970, pp. 30-44
October 31, 1958, p. 26
Alastair Gordon, "In the Galleries: The Rothko Room," The Connois-
Dore Ashton, "L'Automne a New York: Letter from New York," seur, vol. 175. no. 706, December 1970, p. 303
Cimatse, serie vi, no. 2, December 1958, pp. 37-40
Mrs. John de Menil, "Address given in The Rothko Chapel," Feb-
Elaine de Kooning, "Two Americans in Action: Ftanz Kline and
ruary 26, 1971. Transcript on deposit in Rothko file, Whitney
Mark Rothko," Art News Annual, vol. xxvii, 1958, pp. 86-97,
Museum of American Art, New York
174-179
"Celebration of Genius at the Rothko Chapel," Vogue, vol. 157, no.
Gabnella Drudi, "Mark Rothko," Appia, vol. 2, January I960, n.p.
5, March 1, 1971, pp. 109-111
Emilio Villa, "Idee de Rothko," Appia, vol. 2, January 1960, n.p.
Lawrence Alloway, "Art," The Nation, vol. 212, no. 11, March 15,
Georgine Oeri, "Tobey and Rothko," Baltimore Museum of Art News 1971, pp. 349-350
 Robert Goldwater, "Rothko's Black Paintings," Art in America, vol. Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, "The Portrait and the Modern
59, no. two, Match-April 1971, pp. 58-63 Artist," WNYC Art in New York broadcast, October 13, 1943.
Excerpts from transcript in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The
Kathatine Kuh, "The Fine Arts: A Maximum of Poignancy," Satur-
New York School, 1965, see Group Exhibitions, p. 286; Sandler, The
day Review, vol. liv, no. 16, Aptil 17, 1971, pp. 52, 81
Triumph of American Painting, 1970, see General Books, p. 292
Tthomas] B. H[ess], "Editorial: Can Art Be Used?" Art News, vol.
"Personal Statement" in David Porter Gallery, Washington, D.C.,
70, no. 2, April 1971, p. 33
A Painting Prophecy-1950. February 1945. Reprinted in pair in Los

Jean-Patrice Matandel, "Une chapelle oecumenique au Texas," Angeles County Museum of Art, The New York School, 1965, see
L'Oeil, no. 197, May 1971, pp. 16-19 Group Exhibitions, p. 286; in full in Readings in American Art
1900-1975. 1975, see General Books, p. 292
Dominique de Menil, "The Rothko Chapel," Art Journal, vol. xxx,

no. 3, Spring 1971, pp., 249-251 "Clyfford Still" in Art of This Century, New York, Clyfford Still.

February 12 March 7, 1946. Reprinted in part in Sandler, The

Dore Ashton, "The Rothko Chapel in Houston," Studio, vol. 181,
Triumph of American Painting, 1970, see General Books, p. 292
no. 934, June 1971, pp. 273-275

Andtew Causey, "Rothko through his paintings," Studio Interna-

"The Ides of Art: The Attitudes of 10 Artists on their Art and
Contempotaneousness," The December
Tiger's Eye, vol. 1, no. 2,
tional, vol. 183, no. 943, April 1972, pp. 149-155
1947, p. 44. Reprinted The Museum of Modern Art, New York,
in
Brian O'Doherty, "The Rothko Chapel," Art in America, vol. 61, no. 15 Americans, 1952, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The New
one, January February 1973, pp. 1418, 20 York School, 1965, see Group Exhibitions, pp. 283, 286

Wallace Putnam, "Mark Rothko Told Me," Arts Magazine, vol. 48, "The Romantics Were Prompted," Possibilities 1 . Wintet 1947/8, p.
no. 7, April 1974, pp. 44-45 84. Reprinted in Kunsthaus Zurich, Mark Rothko, 1971, see One-
Man Exhibitions, p. 291; Theories of Modern Art, 1968, Readings in
Brian O'Doherty, "Rothko: Failure was His Success," The New York
American Art Since 1900, 1968, tevised edition, 1975, see General
Post. July 27, 1974, p. 34
Books, p. 292
Harold Rosenberg, "The Art Wotld: Death and the Artist," The New
Yorker, vol. li, no. 5, March 24, 1975, pp. 69-75 "Statement on his Attitude in Painting," The Tiger's Eye, vol. 1, no.

9, October 1949, p. 1 14. Reprinted in The Museum of Modetn Art,

Ann Holmes, "The Rothko Chapel Six Yeats Latet ," Art News, vol.
New York, 15 Americans, 1952; The New American Painting, 1958,
75, no. 10, December 1976, pp. 35-37
Knoedler, Paris, Six peintres americatns, 1967, see Group Exhibi-
Dore Ashton, "Oranges and Lemons, An Adjustment," Arts tions, pp. 283, 286; Readings in American Art Since 1900, 1968,
Magazine, vol. 51, no. 6, February 1977, p. 142 revised edition, 1975, see General Books, p. 292

Russell E. Bowman, A New Acquisition by Mark Rothko, The David "A Symposium on How to Combine Architecture, Painting and
and Alfred Smart Gallery, University of Chicago, 1977 Sculpture," May 1951, p. 104. Reprinted
Interiors, vol. ex, no. 10,

Robert F. Phillips, "Abstract Exptessionists: Mark Rothko 1903- in part in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, TheNew York School,

1970," Museum News, The Toledo Museum of Art, vol. 19, no. 4,
1965, see Group Exhibitions, p. 286; Readings in American Art Since

1977, pp. 98-101 1900, 1968, revised edition, 1975; Art Since Mid-Century, 1971,
vol. 1, see General Books, p. 292
George Dennison, "The Painting of Matk Rothko," unpublished,
n.d. On deposit in Rothko file, The Museum of Modem Art, Unpublished letter to Lloyd Goodrich, Directot, Whitney Museum
New York of American Art, New York, December 20, 1952. On deposit in

Rothko file, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Joseph Liss, "Portrait by Rothko," unpublished, n.d. On deposit in
Rothko file, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Yotk Unpublished letter to Rosalind Irvine, Whitney Museum of Ameri-
can Art, New York, April 9. 1957. On deposit in Rothko file,

Whitney Museum of Ametican Art, New York

IV. By Rothko "Editor's Letters," Art News, vol. 56, no. 8, December 1957, p. 6

[Interview with Rothko] in Selden Rodman, Conversations with Ar-

Marcus Rothkowitz and Bernard Bradden [Statement], in Mercury

tists, New York, 1957, pp. 93, 94

Galleries, New York, The Ten: Whitney Dissenters, November 5 [Lecture] delivered Fall 1958, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Excerpts
-26, 1938 from transcript in Los Angeles County Museum of Art, TheNew York
School, 1965, see Group Exhibitions, p. 286; Dore Ashton, "Aft:
Lectute by Rothko," TheNew York Times, October 31, 1958, p. 26,
Marcus Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb with unacknowledged collab-
Dore Ashton, "Letter from New York," Cimaise. no. 6, December
oration ot Barnett Newman [Letter], in Edward Alden Jewell, "The
1958, pp. 37-40, see articles on Rothko, p. 294; Art Since Mid-
Realm of Art: A New Platform and Other Matters: 'Globalism' Pops
Century. 1971, vol. 1, see General Books, p. 292
into View," TheNew York Times, June 13, 1943, p. x9- Reprinted in

part in Hess, Abstract Painting, 1951; Blesh, Modern Art U.S.A., Eulogy for Milton Avety, delivered January 7, 1965, New York
1956; Ashton, The Unknown Shore, 1962; Chipp, Theories in Modern Society for Ethical Culture, New York. Transcript published in
Art, 1968; Sandler, The Triumph of American Painting, 1970, see National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Wash-
General Books, p. 292 ington, DC, Milton Avery. December 12, 1969-January 25, 1970
 Photographic Credits

Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of* Art, New York: cat

Works in the exhibition
no 155
Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York; cat nos
98. 152
Color Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art. New York, photo by
Rudolph Butckhardt cat no 144
( curtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York photo by
Albnght-Knox Art Gallery . Buffalo tat no 132
Geoffrey Clements cat no 85
rsit) Arr Museum, University ol (

I I 1 Nelson tat no 185

Berkelej
Courtesy The Paie Gallery. New York cat no 184
Henry B Beville cai nos 1 18. 131
Courtesy Count Panza di Biumo. photo by Gian Sinigaglia tat
Lee Bolnn cat no 95
no [29
Will Brown cat no 1 12
Quinconi-Tropea; tat no 147
Courtesy The Art Institute of Chicago; cat- no 88
Courtesy Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art cat no 126
Courtesy Dartmouth Art Galleries and Collections, New Hamp-
Courtesy The Toledo Museum or Art cat no 156
shire cat no. 165
Courtesy Mr and Mrs Burton Tremaine; cat. no. 105
Courtesy Gimpel and Hanover Galene. Zurich: cat no. 127
Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art. New York: cat
Courtesy Arnold and Mill) Glimcher cat no 154
i;
Courtesy Graham Gund: cat nos. 103, 122
Bruce C Jones: cat. nos. 114. 115. 134. 159. 168. 183
Courtesy Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf: Supplementary illustrations and figures
cat no. 163

Courtesy Mr and Mrs Richard E Lang cat no 182

in the text
Paul M Macapia, Seattle Art Museum; cat. no. 104
Aida and Bob Mates cat nos. 121, 150 Courtesy Albnght-Knox Aft Gallery, Buffalo. New York: figs
Robert E Mates and Mary Donlon: cat. nos. 19. 22. 3 I

34.39
70. 74, 86,87, 89, 90. 92. 93. 99, 110, 111. 113. 117, 11V.
Jorg P. Anders: fig. 51
123. 125. 128. 135. 138. 142. 145. 146. 149. 153. 157.
Courtesy Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution.
158. 160. 162. 166, 169. 172, 173. 178. 179. 186. 187.
George Piatt Lynes Photograph Collection: p 269
190. 191, 194. 195. 198
Courtesy The Baltimore Museum of Art: fig. 8
Courtesy The Mayot Gallery. London: cat no 1 16 Regina Bogat frontispiece
Courtesy McCrory Corporation. New York: cat. no. 107
Courtesy Mrs Adolph Gottlieb. New York, fig 24
Courtesy David McKee Gallery. New- York: cat no 139
Courtesy Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation lnc : figs.
Allen Mewbourn: cat no. 167
25 27
Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art. New York; cat no. 91
Hickey & Robertson. Houston, figs 49,50
Courtesy Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. Utica, New York:
Bruce C Jones: fig 12
cat. no. 100 Consuelo Kanaga: 14 top, p. 17
p.
Courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario: cat. no. 171 Walter Klein, Dusseldorf: fig 19
Courtesy The Pace Gallery. New York: cat. no. 136 Nina Leen, Life Magazine Time lnc p. 273 top
Courtesy Count Panza di Biumo: cat nos. 108, 137 Alexander Liberman: 14 bottom, p 7 27 1 bottom
p. 1, p.
Courtesy The Parnsh Art Museum, Southampton. New York: Courtesy University of Maryland Art Gallety. College Park,
cat no 7 3
photo by Jack D Teemer. fig 23
Jr :

Courtesy Mr and Mrs Joseph Pulitzer, Jr.: cat. no. 16 1

Robert E. Mates and Mary Donlon figs. 28, 35. 37
Courtesy Museum of Art. Rhode Island School of Design. Provi- Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: figs.
dence; cat no. 120
6. 22
Courtesy The St Louis Art Museum: cat no. 174 Museum Modern Art. New York:
Courtesy The of figs. 14. 18.
Elton Schnellbacher: cat. no. 124
29. 36.42. 44
F.J Thomas: cat. nos. 140. 170 Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art. New York, photo by
Malcolm Varon; cat no 96 Soichi Sunami: figs 7, 43. 46
Herbert Vose cat no. 77 Courtesy Dr Max Naimark 4. p 265 right
fig

Hans Namuth: p. 277 top and middle, p 279

Courtesy Oregon Histoncal Society. Portland: figs. 2. 3. p 265
Black and white left

Courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art fig. 45

David Preston: fig 26
Courtesy Acquavella Contemporary Art. Inc., New- York cat
Courtesy Rheinisches Bildarchiv. fig 32
no 148
Courtesy Kate Rothko Prizel p 1 1, p 265 middle, p. 270 all.
Courtesy Galene Beyeler, Basel cat no 101
p 273 bottom, p 275 bottom, p 277 top
Courtesy Bradley Family Foundation. Inc., Milwaukee <.at
Courtesy Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Provi-
no. 130
dence fig 10
Courtesy Olive Bragazzi Fine Arts Service, photo by Charles Uht:
Courtesy Estate of Mary Alice Rothko figs 15. 16, 17,30
cat no 181
Courtesy Estate of Mary Alice Rothko, photo by Henry Elkan:
Courtesy The Brooklyn Museum car no 52
p. 274 top and bottom , p 275 top and bottom
Courtesy Gerald S Elliott. Chicago, photo by Jonas Dovydenas:
Courtesy The Si Louis Art Museum, fig 9
cat. no 143
Courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; fig 38
Courtesy The Fort Worth Art Museum: cat no 151
Aaron Siskind p 280 left and right
Phillip Galgiani; cat no 43 Courtesy The Tate Gallery London figs 47, 48 .

Robert E Mates and Mary Donlon cat nos. 1-18. 20. 2 1 . 23- Courtesy The Tel Aviv Museum; tig 2 1

30. 32. 33. 35-41.44-51. 53-61.71.72,75.76,78-84. Courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, photo
94.97. 102. 106. 109, 133. 180. 188. 189, 192. 193. 196. 197 by Geoffrey Clements: figs 5. 13

S l0m0n
,SBSSa62SSS eum Library

01?.qfi
 ND237.R725 A4 1978
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970
Rothko, Mark,
012368

ND237.R725 A4 1978
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970
Rothko, Mark,
012368
ISBN 0-89207-014-5