Image Donated by Corbis-Bettmann

Mark Rothko 1903-1970

In a career that spanned five decades, Latvian-born painter and printmaker Mark Rothko (Marcus Rothkowitz) created a new and impassioned form of painting that was rigorously attentive to color, shape, depth, and scale. Rothko rose to prominence as a member of the New York School and the abstract form of painting he created has deeply influenced modern and contemporary art. In 1947, Rothko largely abandoned conventional titles for his paintings, sometimes resorting to numbers or colors to distinguish one work from another, as in No. 13 (White, Red, on Yellow). In 1964, he began work on a series of large-scale paintings for what became known as the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, a building that is simultaneously a meditative religious space and a work of art.