Book Description
This beautifully produced, oversized monograph on the American artist Mark Rothko, presents over 100 of his works in full-color plates that reveal his remarkable genius. Rothko is one of the towering figures of Abstract Expressionism, and in fact, of 20th-century painting as a whole. His paintings, predominantly in a large format and featuring horizontal layers of pigment on a monochrome foundation, will forever be in our pictorial memory as the epitome of classical modernism. By considering Rothko's central groups of works from all creative periods-among them the Rothko Room in the Phillips Collection and the Harvard Murals at Harvard University-this book documents the artist's continuous struggle to arrive at "a consummated experience between picture and onlooker." Rothko's adamant insistence on controlling the presentation of his works set him apart from the art scene as early as the 1950s. His pictures were to be hung closely together in small rooms, in which soft lighting and his large formats were to provide an immediate viewing experience. This book attempts to recreate that atmosphere with a large, uninterrupted plate section that brings to life the vibrancy and power of these paintings, especially when looked at in abundance.

In addition to the over 100 color works, Mark Rothko includes essays about specific groups of work, an extensive, year by year, descriptive chronology of his life and work, and an exhaustive bibliography of writings about him from the past five years. An essential addition to any collection on 20th century art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

A Convert
I must admit that I have not been the biggest fan of Mark Rothko, but after reading this book and seeing the quality plates, I am very much a fan of Rothko.Now, when I go to museums, I am very interested in seeing his work and studying his color, edges, paint handling and spirit.This book is worth owning.

Excellent overview of Rothko
I saw the original show that went with this book.While the book cannot do justice to the works one can still appreciate the greatness of Rothko by reading/viewing it.

there IS a problem with the color
I recently bought this book, and I want to comment on the discussion regarding the color - the color is NOT great, and it does NOT show Rothko's work in its best light.Anyone who says differently should get their eyes checked.That being said, other than that it seems to be a very nice book, and I'll still be glad to have it in my library.I just need another book for better color reference.

a beautiful exhibition
This is the catalogue for a beautiful exhibition that was held at the Beyeler Foundation. Many of the works reproduced are hidden in private collections (e.g. a huge 1958 canvas in black, white and red) and it is great to be able to admire them. Nothing replaces the live experience of being engulfed in a Rothko, standing a short distance from the canvas itself, but this book is undoubtedly a valuable addition in any art library.

Great book for moder art students and personal enjoyment
It was nice to see the transition that Rothko made throughout the years from complex modern art (ala Picasso and Dali) to more simplistic yet rich in colors. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Mark Rothko, the painter famous for his luminous abstract canvases, spent several years in the late 1930s and early '40s writing a book about the meaning of art. Edited by his son Christopher, Rothko's uncompleted manuscript, The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art, reveals a man struggling to make a case for the highest ideals of Western culture at a time when crass popular taste and American regionalism were conspiring against the values he held dear. During these years, Rothko worked in a melancholy Expressionist style that was just beginning to be influenced by Surrealism. The hovering rectangles of color that would put him on the modern art map were still a decade away. While this book will no doubt be important to Rothko scholars, it is a period piece, relying on a form of rhetoric and a belief system that can be exasperating to modern readers. Windy chapters on such topics as "The Integrity of the Plastic Process," studded with references to Plato and Leonardo, "truth" and "unity," are Rothko's stock in trade. He never mentions his own paintings and refers to a few other living artists only in passing. And yet--as Christopher Rothko points out in his clear-eyed and useful introduction--the process of wrestling ideas onto the page may have helped the artist find a personal means of expressing the "tragic emotionality" that he believed to be the essence of all great art. Rothko longed to discover a new, post-Christian "myth" that could express a unified outlook on life by embodying "the world of ideals." Little did he realize at the time that the resolution of his dilemma would be based on a radically new approach to handling paint and using color.—Cathy CurtisBook Description

Customer Reviews (5)

A deeply thought out and original meditation on the Artist's Reality
This book has a wonderful introduction written by the Mark Rothko's son Christopher Rothko. He explains the way some years after his father's death the manuscript was discovered, and edited. Mark Rothko never finished the work but rather left it off in draft form, perhaps as his son speculates because he became involved in his principal work, painting, again.
The book consists of a series of short essays on such subjects as 'The Artist's Dilemna' 'Art as a Natural Biological Function' 'Art as a form of Action' 'The Integrity of the Plastic Process' 'Art Reality and Sensuality' 'Plasticity' 'Space' 'Naturalism''Subject and Subject Matter'
'Beauty' ' The Attempted Myth today'.
Rothko considers the artist's ultimate reason for doing what he does. He rejects the idea that the first reason is the desire for immortalization. He rejects the idea that the artist " wishes any charity in regard to his self- assumed sacrifice" He claims instead that the Artist " wants nothing but the understanding and love of what he does."
Rothko writes profoundly and often movingly.
A highly recommended work.

athe artist's reality:philosophies of art
this is basically a personal journal. The artist's ruminations about art and life - very dry reading. Rothko often contradicts himself. There are several books available (such as those published by Taschen) which are much more readable and are filled with beautiful illustrations of the artist's work.

simple expression of a complex thought
Mark Rothko wanted the viewer of his work to engage in the metaphysical. Yes, his paintings are beautiful colour works, yet the impact on ones pysche is where Rothko wanted to communicate. Colour was his tool. Philosophically he was a profound man and this book has given great insight into how relevant [important] Rothko is to annals of Art History.When an artist expresses the spiritual, emotional, academic, through colour and the scale of the painting, he engages the viewer on so many levels. This book gives insights, and is a worthwhile acquistion to the understanding of the man, Rothko!

Abstraction and the demand for realism
In rummaging through Mr. Rothko's diary we admit to a certain thrill of impatience, one not far removed perhaps from the eagerness of a child confronted with a cake crammed full of delicious fruits and nuts. The words of a sensitive and accomplished individual come at us, after all, in The Artist's Reality, with the rapidity and variety characteristic of a fertile mind at play with a vital business. And a delightful morsel it turns out to be, this work which has been recalled to life following a miraculous rescue from an old trunk, as its editor informs us, and bearing witness from its very title to a commendable regard for the real.

While a thorough analysis of this work would take us far, we will confine our remarks requisite to the limitations of space. Let us applaud, to begin, Mr. Rothko's generous consideration of the topic of abstraction, a term which he believes should be applied in a broad sense to any distortion of surface image rather than restricted to works divorced throughly from representation. Such recognition is most productive, we believe, toward an avoidance of the common practice of the assignation of creative works to one camp or the other. The more refined observation of the existence of works of art along a continuum of abstraction contributes to the achievement of an understanding of the universal underpinnings of their production. Even supposedly abstract works of art, insists Mr. Rothko, are rooted in and vitalized by the sap of life arising from the beating heart of reality: "It may be that abstract art does not employ subject matter that is as obvious as either the anecdote or familiar objects, yet it must appeal to our experience in some way." Rather than the conjuring of an artist's unbridled imagination, abstraction is the manifestation of earthen tethering as the creative individual commands the complete truth-- that is, renders reality. Painting, to restate the foregoing in Mr. Rothko's words, is "a corporeal manifestation of the artist's notion of reality."

Second, we direct the thoughtful reader to the chapter on subject and subject matter. Mr. Rothko, to state his interesting analysis in brief, distinguishes between a painting's "subject matter" and its "subject." The former consists of the recognizable elements-- existing in their replication at whatever degree of distortion, as we have already seen. The latter, which the author equates with "design," is "what the artist intends in the picture." And that, to carry the matter to its end,is simply the final result of all creative labors: "The subject of a painting is the painting itself." One need stretch that proposition but a short way to deny the existence of any method save one for the successful restatement of the full content of a painting: that is the redoing of the painting. That the well constructed painting is its subject incarnate is a truism with which we will never quarrel, save to appeal for the application of this verity to the entire array of the arts. Let us recall Leonard Bernstein's statement that "the only way one can really say anything about music is to write music."

Mr. Rothko's work possesses a stylistic charm brought to the surface, we believe, by a persistent ability to marry the subtleties of reflection with an astute manipulation of the linguistic gears. Let us remind ourselves that the words of artists are to be given the greatest reverence as they represent the best image we have of the flame arising from the nexus of anvil and creative hammer. The Artist's Reality, in particular, must be recognized as resident of the very top of that heap of illuminating works which by a peculiar level of insight become Rosetta stones to the secrets of the artistic mechanism.

Proceed With Caution:Written Long Before Rothko's Signature Style And Success
One of the commercial reviews indicates that this book is a "period piece" and that description probably best describes the book.It was written in a period of time long before Rothko was working his signature style and had achieved any success.

It also didn't help that the Introduction, by the late painter's son, Christopher Rothko, was unnecessarily portentious.The later parts concerning the history of the manuscripts, also written by Christopher Rothko, do tone down the excess language and are quite interesting.

The essays themselves seem incomplete, pedestrian in spots, and extremely dated.As others have noted, Rothko doesn't talk about his own work.

Who is the audience of this book?Completists?Researchers?It can't be that many people.

Something like the publicaton of Kurt Cobain's Journals in book form several years after his suicide had relevance to that artist, even if it was a bit like peeking into somebody's diary."The Artist's Reality" has almost no relevance to most fans of Mark Rothko and certainly none to those who appreciate his more famous style of painting. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Silences Broken
Mark Rothko created some of the more spiritually radiant paintings of any artist form any ear. That his paintings were abstractions - blocks of color conjoined by a marriage of midline intercourse of pigment - makes this accomplishment something that still befuddles art critics and historians and viewers alike.Here at last, some thirty-six years after his death by suicide, editor Miguel Lopez-Remiro has gathered notes from his addresses to Pratt Institute, letters to artists and friends and curators and writers, proving that Rothko was not the silent warden of explanations about his work: he was an eloquent spokesman and writer who simply felt that words were unnecessary in people's experience of his visual statements.

He wrote, 'I have never thought that painting a picture has anything to so with self-expression.It is a communication about the world to someone else.After the world is convinced about this communication it changes.The world was never the same after Picasso or Miro.Theirs was a view of the world which transformed our vision of things.' Kind accolades from a man once thought to be a recluse.In response to art critics' questions he merely state 'A painting doesn't need anybody to explain what it is about.If it is any good, it speaks for itself.'

Rothko's writings collected in this book demonstrate that he did indeed have the ability to discuss his mysteriously beautiful works: he also makes it clear that the communication between his paintings and the viewer should relay on the spiritual needs and vulnerabilities.These letters and essays are informative, well arranged chronologically by Lopez-Remiro, and graciously allowed to stand alone for their impact, much in the way his paintings must stand alone - usually in context with other Rothko paintings in isolated rooms with special lighting that gives the work the sense in frailty and intransigence.Highly recommended reading for those who have experience the miracle of standing before a Rothko image.Grady Harp, May 06 ... Read more

Book Description
Rothko's drawings , watercolours, and paintings on paper, spanning more than 40 years. Less famous than his huge paintings of floating rectangles in glowing colours, these were hitherto unavailable and largely unknown. The text emphasises how essential these works are to an understanding of Rothko's career. ... Read more

Book Description
The evolution and philosophy of color field painting, asrevealed by four masters of the movement.

Developed at the tail end of the abstract expressionist movement, colorfield painting is distinguished by pure, unmodulated areas of color, flat,two-dimensional space, and large, often irregularly shaped canvases. Thegenre is often associated with American painting, but was actually embracedby an international group of artists. Four of the most exciting of thosepractitioners are the focus of this penetrating study. Michael Auping seesthe work of each of these artists as representing a different stage in thedevelopment of abstract painting in the 1950s and 1960s. He comments, "Tomy mind Rothko draws back the curtains, if you will, on the opening up ofthis space. Newman emphatically `declares' an almost totemic space, whileFontana literally slices through the picture's plane with a razor, andKlein, as he pronounced it, leaps into the void." Illustrated with colorimages of the artists' seminal works, Declaring Space showshow each painter made his own individual mark in a new realm of abstractart. ... Read more

Book Description
Mark Rothko, the American Abstract Expressionist painter, is one of the most widely celebrated of all 20th century artists. His paintings are huge and haunting, marked by themes of tragedy and transcendence. Davis covers Rothko's development from the post-Surrealist semi-figurative works through the radiant canvases of the 1950s, with their floating 'clouds' or 'forms', to the intensity and religiosity of the late mural sequences, the so-called 'Rothko chapels' of Houston, Harvard and the Tate Gallery. ... Read more

Book Description
Mark Rothko (1903-1970) is generally considered, along with Jackson Pollock, the preeminent artist of the group of painters who, during the 1940s and '50s, re-invented American art and became known as the Abstract Expressionists. Yet despite his success--people cried when they stood in front of his sublimely spiritual canvases--he suffered from intense anxiety and depression, and eventually took his own life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Nice Rothko Primer
This is a fine visual primer for many of Rothko's best works. Nice quality and color. Only caution is to note the size of the book before purchasing.It is not coffee table sized, but is rather small.

a pleasant surprise
when i first received the book i thought i'd made a mistake purchasing it but soon realized i had not!it has proven to be informative and concise and contains background and technique information i haven't seen in other larger more expensive books. really, a worthwhile addition.

Excellent
This is an excellent reference for anyone wanting to learn about Mark Rothko's work and life.Good format, easy to read great pictures. Great value for the price.

Wonderful Presentation !
This concise but very informational book is a must for anyone interested in the works of Rothko, and for those who want to know about the rise of abstract expressionism. There are full color illustrations provided which add greatly to the narrative!
The margin notes have a wealth of background material, without being too bogged down in minutia.
This work has been a wonderful addition to my art library as I am certain it will be to others.

A terrific book
A concise, well-written introduction to postwar American art through the work of one of America's greatest painters. Highly educational and a great read. Excellent reproductions. I coulnd't put it down. Makes a great gift, too. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Description
"This collection of thirty postcard reproductions of the paintings of Mark Rothko traces his development from the figure painting of his youth to the large-scale paintings that made him one of the best-known exponents of Colorfield Painting in the United States during the 1950s."--Strand Bookstore

A great introduction to Mark Rothko.
This is a great introduction to the works of Mark Rothko.The reproductions of his work are veryinteresting.There is some background information on Rothko and some essays from other artists. ... Read more

Amazon.com
"I became a painter because I wanted to raise painting to the level of poignancy of music and poetry." Born Marcus Rothkowitz in a small Russian town, Mark Rothko immigrated to Portland, Oregon, in 1913, when he was 10 years old. "You don't know what it is to be a Jewish kid dressed in a suit that is a Dvinsk, not an American, idea of a suit traveling across America and not able to speak English," he later told fellow abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell. Rothko was a weak child, an abandoned son (his father had gone to America in 1910 and died of cancer just seven months after the family was reunited), a Jew excluded from high school clubs, a Yale freshman on scholarship, and a college dropout determined to become an Artist with a capital A. James Breslin has written an exhaustive biography of the painter. He pulled together all the facts of Rothko's life and carefully examined all the strata of the artist's personality--Rothko's sensitivity, his sense of displacement, his pride and his diffidence, his combativeness, his love for his children, his hatred for Marlborough Gallery director Frank Lloyd, and his difficulties with money. The book is flawed only by Breslin's ticlike use of italics, which give the sense of the author tugging at our sleeve in an unnecessary effort to persuade: "Rothko's last and most severe renunciations were made not to remove obstacles between the observer and the idea but in a gesture of personal withdrawal." But this is a relatively minor trifle that does not unduly detract from this large--and large-spirited--book about a tormented, brilliant Artist. --Peggy Moorman Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

YIKES ITS 700 PAGES LONG !!!!
I wasnt that interested in his childhood..its the adult fired from brooklyn college unable to sell many paintings id like to know more about!!!!
However this is the book to read if you want to know the facts of his life.

Read This Book
I am a painter, an art professor, and a reader of biographies. I couldnt put this book down. Breslin did a magnificent job of getting inside the psyche ofRothko as a man, and as an artist. The paragraphs that describe the way in which Rothko created one of his paintings is absolutely inspired....I had goose-bumps reading it, because it seemed as if Breslin,unlike many writers who say they have observed artists, actually understood the process of creation and the passion behind it. I have never written a fan letter to a writer, but I began one to Mr.Breslin. Imagine my distress and sorrow when I read the next day in the paper that he had passed away! But this book lives as a testament to his thorough research and love of the subject. Get this book and read it....if you love art, artists, or scholarship,you will not be disappointed.

For Rothko, the best a book can do
No book can do Mark Rothko justice. He painted on large
canvases. To know him is to confront his original work
on the wall before you. Find your distance, 10, 15,
maybe 30 feet back. Yet to make sense of his
colored rectangles tearing themselves apart in fission,
as well as his earlier, quite different work, some
background helps.

Breslin's book will become the standard reference, but
not perhaps the starting point. He writes engrossingly,
but the 558 pages of text, I fear, will discourage the
casual reader (who might do well to read Robert
Hughes's paragraphs in American Visions).

Still, for the motivated reader, James Breslin's bio is
awesome. The Latvian Jew, charity student at
antisemitic Yale in the early 20s, uncomfortable and
smarter than most there, comes alive, as does his love
for children and their art, as well as his tormented
first marriage to a wife commercially successful during
the Great Depression making jewelry that sold. Rothko
had higher ambitions: fine art spelled with a capital
"A". As Breslin relates, discomfort never disappeared.
Success and recognition did not go over well with
this self-described anarchist who, as a Portland
teenager, enthusiastically took in lectures by Emma
Goldman. Overall, Breslin provides a biographical and
historical foundation with which to understand Mark
Rothko's painting. I am grateful for that.

Finally, of the many biographies I've read, James EB
Breslin's stands out for another reason: in his
Afterword, he turns from Rothko to himself and
addresses his own motivations and challenges in writing
the biography. Biographies are never "objective", so it
makes sense that a biographer might address his own
motivations. In the descriptions of the dangers of
doing research in Rothko's birthplace of Dvinsk, in
interviewing art historian Clement Greenberg, Rothko
reappears again, this time indirectly, one step
removed. That Breslin can bring Rothko alive in these

different contexts is testament to the enduring value
of this long, challenging biography.

Exhaustive, too easy to put down.
If you really want to know Rothko, read Dore Ashton.Breslin tends to simplify things and I don't think that he really loves Rothko or has communicated with the paintings. Only for die-hard Rothkoites like me. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Complete Analysis
I am a life-long fan of Mark Rothko's mature paintings, but I was always curious about how he arrived at his large field format.This book took me through his early works all the way through his last few paintings.It is an exhaustive analysis of Rothko's concept and execution.I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to understand this giant of the Modern era.

Fascinating introduction
Ms. Chave's book is quite a good introduction to 1950's abstract-expressionist art in general, and to Rothko in particular.She convincingly traces his development from realistic imagery throughMiro-like surrealism to his distinctive ethereal but emotional rectangles. Along the way, she makes a good case for his stubborn insistence that hiswork did, in fact, have a subject.At least one other art-thinker, GeorgiaO'Keeffe, caught on to this (in a documentary made a few years before shedied, O'Keeffe commented that a Rothko piece in the MOMA seemed like atimeline of a man's life), as did at least one of Rothko's more sensitivecollectors (this is chronicled in the book).This, in my opinion, is whyRothko's work isn't ideally suited for calm meditation, unlike that of someother abstract artists (which is not to say that being meditative is a badthing, by the way). I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't quiteget modern art, and is willing to put some effort into the task. ... Read more

Book Description
This extraordinary book is the first volume of the definitive catalogue raisonn_ of Rothko`s work. It documents his entire output of paintings on canvas and panel, reproducing all the works in color. An introductory text also investigates every essential feature of his art.

Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington

. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A Fan of Anfam's Rothko
Opening the package as it arrived from Amazon, easing this massive catalogue from its slipcase triggered a memory: walking to the edge of the Grand Canyon.With similar impact: awe.David Anfam brings the readerwith him to encounter, view, & experience Rothko's work. His ten-yeardedication paid off with the discovery of "lost" titles, settingthe chronology of 836 works on canvas, (he couldn't have been afraid to gethis hands dirty) & analyzing the slow struggle, sporadic leapsengendered by the painter in the evolution of the oeuvre.As scholar,teacher, critic, curator, & especially writer, Anfam proves the perfectchoice to perform the daunting, almost impossible task of bringing Rothkointo focus.

The author insightfully tracks the early representationalbeginnings, (his foray into narrative linked with crossing boundaries istotally appropriate for the artist from Dvinsk, Portland, New York) throughthe mythological (application of Kermode's distinction between"Chronos" & "Kairos" is utterly intriguing), &makes a case for Rembrandt as the source for Rothko's obsessions withtragedy & darkness, Vermeer his source for color's sensuality.Anfamtraces in detail, using numerous examples of the brilliant reproductions,how the multiforms foreshadowed the work of the classic period.Thearchitectural contexts for the Chapel are pure genius:Vincent Scully's,"The Earth, the Temple, & the Gods";Joseph Rykwert's,"The Dancing Column";& Leo Bersani's, Ulysse Dutoit's,"Arts of Impoverishment."

Anfam's breadth of vocabulary isEnglish, yet he has benfitted from years in the States with a rapid,laconic language that impels the reader forward, informs succinctly. Purposely parrying time-worn quarrels, he unearths the more"thorny," "shady" aspects of dilemmas presented by sucha complex art.

Two things happened as a result of reading MARK ROTHKO /THE WORKS on CANVAS / CATALOGUE RAISONNE.During a recent visit to C&MGallery in NY for a show of eight Rothko's, alone in the second room, Iheard them. A few nights ago I had a dream of a handwritten note on a tablein the front room of an auction house that said, "The LastPainting."Rereading Helene Cixous's essay by that name (subtitled,"Or the Portrait of God"), she writes,"I think of the lastRembrandt. A man? Or a painting?"[in Cixous', "Coming toWriting and other Essays."]Anfam has presented us with thetriumphant Rothko.

A must for any Rothko fan.
This is the first publication with his entire collection. Even lost paintings are represented by old black and white photographs.The images are not large, but the quality of this book is wonderful.By far the bestbuy for any Rothko fan (besides an original...)

This is an invaluable study.
Anfam's study is a great deal more than a much-needed reference book.Anyone interested in the history of modern art would find this study illuminating and exciting.Not only does it provide the first completecatalogue of Rothko's paintings on canvas (almost all in gorgeous colorreproduction), it also includes numerous fresh and original insightsconcerning Rothko's intellectual and artistic sources.A monumentalscholarly achievement, this volume will long remain a model for the field.

Amazing Study by Brilliant Author
David Anfam has given students of twentieth-century art the much needed and previously missing in-depth study of Mark Rothko, a key figure in understanding the esoteric art of this century.Lesser studies by lesserminds have failed where Anfam has not -- scholarly attention to detail;carefully informed visual analysis of ALL the works on canvas; subtleconclusions; historical context.Anfam's rasionne is a must read!

A dazzling achievment by a gifted art historian.
A work of major importance in the history of modernism, David Anfam's catalogue raisonne is brilliant, lively, entertaining, and handsome. Combining vigorous scholarship with creative imagination, it offers thebest ever understanding of Rothko and must be considered a prerequisite toany and all encounters with Rothko. Anfam's eloquent text takes the readerthrough the paintings in a most delightful way while the paintingsthemselves are a joy to see thanks to what surely were monumental effortson the part of all those involved with design and production. This book isthe best of its kind in every way and a bargain at the price! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

AN EXCELLENT REPRESENTATION OF ROTHKO'S ARTISTIC GENIUS
________________________________________________________________________________________________

I picked this book up at the Chicago Art Institute years ago and continue to enjoy referring to it.Publisher Abrams always does a good job presenting great artists in the various books in its series.I find this to be the best representation of Mark Rothko in its price group, affordable for everyone.The reproductions are excellent and provide fascinating examples of the artist's development from his earlier paintings and throughout his later work.Diane Waldman gives a good, but limited, biography - that's to be expected though, this artist's life was very complex and much has been written about him.

For those wanting a more complete catalog of oil paintings I would recommend MARK ROTHKO: THE WORKS ON CANVAS: CATALOGUE RAISONNE by David Anfam.Also, the book THE LEGACY OF MARK ROTHKO by Lee Seldes is a very absorbing/shocking biography covering the artist's life and problems, including his tragic end.

This is a 5 star book and I recommend it highly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Art not just for arts' sake
In this interesting and enlightening book, Lee Seldes takes us into a world few of us will ever know. Most of us go to museums and enjoy the works, but we never think of the wheeling and dealing behind it. Seldes first shows us the troubled artist, then shows how greedy individuals will do whatever they need to to scam, lie and steal to increase their bank accounts and inflate the prices of the works they own. We see how Kate Rothko, still in school, must fight multi millionaire art dealers and powerful galleries to get what is rightfully hers, and to see that her father's legacy is presented and perserved the way he wanted it to be. If you're a lover of modern art, the works of Mark Rothko or even to a degree a fan of mystery stories, you'll enjoy this book and continue thinking about it long after you've finished reading.

An EXCELLENT book on Mark Rothko!
Ms. Seldes has produced a superb book! This is a must read for anyone interested in Mark Rothko, the Matter of Rothko, or the ugly commercial world of art. While her writings on the lawsuits and the cast of characters are somewhat confusing, it's hard to blame the author because the subject matter itself was confusing! The book was almost hard to believe that it was non-fiction! It had all the intrigue of Swiss banks, Concorde jetsetters, the New York art scene, and tax havens like Bahamas and Lichtenstein -- and it all really happened! I congratulate Ms. Seldes on a very strong effort! ... Read more

Book Description

The paintings executed in 1964-1967 by American artist Mark Rothko for the Rothko Chapel in Houston represent the fulfillment of the artist's lifelong ambition and a breakthrough in twentieth-century art. Unlike previous sets of paintings commissioned for the Seagram Building and Harvard University, the Chapel commission allowed Rothko to determine the architectural setting and lighting in which the paintings would appear. This proved to be the catalyst for a new mode of pictorial dynamics based on a kind of interaction of paintings, architecture, and light previously unknown. No painting in the set could be understood in isolation from the rest or apart from its place in the architectural setting.

The Rothko Chapel Paintings explores this interdependence of paintings and place. As viewers move about the Chapel's octagonal enclosure, over whose walls the fourteen panels are continuously distributed, they discover systems of pictorial interactions which become the terms or characters of a cosmological drama in which the viewer is a necessary participant. In the act of vision, the embodied viewer is prompted not merely to witness but also to reenact that questioning of human destiny which has preoccupied the Western spiritual tradition.