Rothko, << ROTH koh, >> Mark (1903-1970), an American painter, was a leader of the Abstract Expressionist movement. His best-known paintings are large, boldly simplified abstract compositions. In these works, he relied chiefly on color and ambiguous boundaries on rectangular forms to create a range of moods. See Abstract Expressionism .
Rothko was born in Russia on Sept. 25, 1903. His family settled in Portland, Oregon, in 1913. His real name was Marcus Rothkovitz. Until the early 1940’s, Rothko mainly painted recognizable subjects, including city scenes, plants, and animals. Gradually, he began to adapt themes from ancient myths to a poetic semiabstract style. From there he moved into a highly personal reduction of forms to the moody, veillike surfaces of glimmering color of his mature style. Shortly before his death, Rothko completed a group of murals for the interdenominational Rothko Chapel in Houston. He worked with dark, low-keyed colors to induce a meditative atmosphere. Rothko died on Feb. 25, 1970.
