Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is known today as a prominent figure of abstract expressionism (1940s). If Breslin is not the authority on the Russian artist, he sure fooled me. A former UC Berkeley English Professor, James E.B. Breslin (1936-1996) was inspired to write expansively about Rothko after a very intense experience viewing his famous color rectangles

Like the Hitchcock bio book, I was anxious to get to a certain stage of the artist's life (for Rothko, the 50s/60s when he found his "mature form", critical success, financial security and world recognition). In truth I really enjoyed the biographer's work on Rothko's childhood, his move from Russia to Portland, his time at Yale (I always have a soft spot for this Ivy League school) and eventually ending up in NYC. There was great satisfaction in drawing out the events that deeply influenced and perturbed the artist throughout his life

Marcus Rothkowitz never got over his father leaving their native Dvinsk for America ahead of the rest of the family, the fact that he passed away shortly after they were reunited in Portland only punctuated the feeling of abandonment, isolation. He further experienced deep feelings of resentment and alienation from his close family who gave him little support when he dropped out of school. We are finally told how Rothko changed his name in chapter 5. Naturalization allowed the artist to choose a new name, he eschewed the more common "Roth" to express his Jewish identity. Later we are told Rothko's art as "facade, "passage", "transcendental", cannot be separate from the artist's Jewish experience (uprooting, fear, persecution)

Abandon is a recurring theme of his life, from childhood to his formative years, from his family to the art world. All those things led him to be extremely insecure, needing a crutch in the people he surrounded himself with and his art

Rothko assumed his role of a typical East European immigrant child at school, he did well and went to Yale on a scholarship (well that is not the whole story since he would be forced to work starting on his second term). An intellectual, young Rothko was drawn to politics and drama actually, he got into art "late" but was very serious and industrious about his work

As time went on Rothko became very guarded (and borderline paranoid) about the process of painting, choosing to paint in studio rather than home under the eye of his spouse. Rothko early on wrote about art but increasingly retired from those outward statement prefering to express himself to close friends by giving them private shows. For all his talent, he was very reliant on other's opinion

Rothko's world was very much shaped by his relationships with other artists: Milton Avery, Clyfford Still, Adolph Gottlieb, Barnett Newman. Rothko was compared to Mondrian though he did not like it

Reading this book, I felt that Jackson Pollock may have been a more exciting person, he was a rebel, heavy drinker, got into fights, and died early (car accident). Ed Harris made a movie made of his life. Pollock was known as a father of "action painting". Ultimately though, I find Rothko's art more to my liking, more calm, or violent in a subtle way, pure

Downtown vs Uptown artists

"The downtown artists - deKooning, Kline, Pollack - met in studios and bars, most often the Cedar Bar in Greenwich Village. The uptown artists - Ferber, Gottileb, Motherwell, Newman, Rothko - met in studios and each other's homes, most often that of Ferber, who earned enough money from his dental practice to be able to afford good food, drink, and a penthouse apartment along Riverside Drive."

The different phases in Rothko's art correspond to art movements of his time. Surrealism and psychic automation are one explanation of his idea of art creation for their freedom and spontaneity. The biggest progression would seem to be the evolution into abstract expressionism and his mature form. It gives him stability (mirrored his life with his 2nd wife). The format is viewed as a musical form, like the sonata (pg 333)

There is an art market explosion in the 50s (part economy, Pollock's death, market matures), the public finally embraces abstract expressionism. As his art start selling (very well), his preoccupation shifts to what becomes of the art after it is sold, he develops an obsession over the experience (proper light, hanging), Rothko values the human experience, the viewing of his art. He longs for more control over the way his art is perceived, how does the viewer/buyer interpret his work?. It was often misunderstood for being decorative. Rothko struggled to put his work on canvas and he often wanted to elicit a violent reaction from his fan. He develops dark paintings so they are not obviously decorative, engage the viewer

"Rothko's Image" was one of the more engaging chapters, it dealt with money, the relationship between the buyer and the artist, the displacement of Rothko and artists he came up with by Pop (Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns), it has to do more with recognition since Rothko's art continued to sell very well. Rothko was upset at the young and brash artists who found success fast.. it ate at him

Rothko is increasingly interested in controlling his audience's experience which explains his laborious work on lighting for museum exhibits, the recreation of space in his studio for his commissions and his preference for mural comission late in his career (it also explains why he withdrew from the famous Four Seasons commission in the Seagram building). Late stage of his craft was devoted to commissions, creating a place, planning and formulating a space, an idea, separated from the execution (assistants), more interested in the planning (kinda like Hitchcock more interested in screenplay and sketching scenes than shooting the movie)

Ultimately, the book reveals that Rothko struggled to find his voice and also had issues with his acclaim. Rothko had "no tolerance for introspection", I can relate. I really liked how he was a compulsive liar, also something I can relate. Towards the end of his life, he became a hypchondriac, he find connections where they do not exist, deeply disturbed, lonely, dependent. After success, he finds that he needs more, in a way he never finds solace, it's depressing. All his life, Rothko cannot stay close to people, his wives leave him, he experiences breaks with close friends, others pass away.. he only has his art to sustan him, and eventually even that is not enough, Rothko takes his own life with pills and slashed wrists

The end is a bit abrupt, I expected a retrospective on Rothko's art and influence. The afterword is actually about the biographer Breslin who did an outstanding job that was also very extensive. I liked that he connected a lot of events from Rothko's life that would reverbrate throughout his career

Overall very good, especially if you are a fan of the work. I need to warn that some of the art history passages are really heavy especially to the uninitiated (me)


Questions
What is the outcome of the suit between the Rothko Foundation and the Marlborough Gallery. It is only alluded to but there is no final word

The volume clocks in at 543 pages (another dozen page for the afterword and copious notes and index that span almost another 40 pages). It was hard to finish, especially the first half. It took me a lil over a week with a nice 3 day break I took for "My Friend Leonard"

Quotes
"the only serious thing is death; nothing else is to be taken seriously"
"silence is so accurate"
"I have been painting Greek temples all my life without knowing it"

My favorite Rothko painting (more on Flickr)


Influence
Joan Miro

Rothko museum collections
Guggenheim (New York)
The Met (New York)
MOMA (New York)
MOMA (San Francisco)
Kawamura (Japan)
National Gallery (Washington DC)
Tate (London)

Further Readings
The Romantics Were Prompted - Rothko
Fear & Trembling - Kierkegaard
Birth of Tragedy - Nietzsche
Bauhaus (Wikipedia)

About the paperback edition
I was surprised that the book did not lend itself to creasing. Photos again are displayed at center (color) and 2 other section (symmetrical from the middle) of black and white pictures, their placement being dictated by the binding. I did find a particular issue with uneven printing (print became lighter in some paragraphs) which could distract from a work that is quite heavy already


I spent an afternoon on Wayfaring to create a sort of Rothko Life Tour



Update: Google Books now has map data!