Artist: Mark Rothko
Birth-Death: 9/25/1903 – 2/25/1970
Movement: Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting
Bio: Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Provence, Russian Empire in 1903. Because Rothko was Jewish, and Jews had been widely blamed for many of Russia's problems at the time, he lived most of his childhood in fear of being harmed. In 1913, he immigrated to America with his mother and sister to meet his father and brothers, whom had already left to avoid being drafted into the Czarist army. Rothko's father died a few months later, however, leaving the family with no income. He soon started working at the age of ten, and then started school the same year as a third grader. He learned four languages by the time he started school – Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. He later attended Yale on a scholarship, but he found it to be too racist and elitist, so he quickly dropped out. In 1923, Rothko visited a friend at the Art Students League of New York, where he witnessed several students sketching a model. In short, he was inspired by this event to enter the art world.
Rothko's upbringing was practically the antithesis of the distinguished upper class involved in the art world. He was from a working class family, living in Russia. Not only that, but he was a Russian Jew, which was even less respected in his country of origin. He even had to work while he was a child in school. Although he attended Yale, Rothko dropped out because he knew he did not belong to such a pompous circle of scholars. He was not brought up to be "civilized," but when the opportunity to become so was presented to him, he rejected it and wished to remain himself – unchanged by the elitism he faced.
Regarding Rothko's rejection of Yale and the Four Seasons restaurant offer in the video above, as well as his famous quote reenacted in the second video, it is apparent that he was aware of his profession's cold and business-oriented mentality. Does this awareness reinforce the idea that he painted purely for his own expression? How do his paintings serve as refusals to adhere to societal guidelines?
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