Mark Rothko

*Rothko was born in Russia and his family emigrated to the United States when he was 10 years old.

*Rothko's work is characterized by attention to formal elements such as color, shape, balance, depth, composition, and scale.

*Rothko attended Yale and planned to become an engineer or lawyer.  He moved to New York City and attended art classes.

*What can you tell you about the SCALE of his work?

*Rothko is most known for his abstract paintings.  What is Abstract art?  He also painted realistic work in his early career.  What is Realistic mean?

*Rothko rarely gave his work conventional titles.  He used numbers and colors to name his pieces.  He thought words would interfere with the viewers imagination.

*His paintings had a mood or feeling.  He used yellow, red and orange; warm colors.  What mood or feeling do  have?  If he used blue, green and purple; the cool colors, what feeling might it convey?

*His later works showed his mood and feelings, sometimes dark and sad.  He continued to make work throughout his life. 

How might you relate Mark Rothko’s work to one or more of the studios?  Gather ideas?  Collage- layer color papers, sculpture – build boxes of color and assemble them in a 3-D Rothko influenced work.  Painting – try layering think and thin layers of paint.