Mark Rothko’s color-field multiform, geometric, abstract paintings have continued to a great inspiration to modern artists in the current times. A growing number of top photographers and artists including photographer Alfonso Calero and American painter Sonia Calderon have often challenged themselves to create masterpieces that heavily borrow from Rothko’s abstract painting style.

About Rothko

Mark Rothko, also known as Markus Rotkovics in Latvian, was born on 25th September, 1903 in Dvinsk which is today called Daugavpils in Latvia. He passed on in 1970. He was a Latvian born American painter of Jewish descent and is generally recognized as an Abstract expressionist. He is undoubtedly one of the most famous postwar American painters.

Early childhood and education

Rothko’s father, Yakub Rothkowitz, was a famous intellectual and pharmacist who gave his children a secular or political upbringing in an environment where Jews were more often than not blamed for the ills that plagued the Russian society. Yakub later emigrated from the then Imperial Russia to the United States for fear of having his sons drafted into the Russian army. Little Marcus started his education in the United States at Lincoln High School. He completed high school in 1921 aged seventeen. Rothko got a Yale scholarship which was discontinued after his freshman year. To support his studies, he begun working as a waiter and delivery boy. At Yale, he was recognized more as a self-taught student rather than as an intellectual. He dropped out in his sophomore year but forty six years later the university awarded him an honorary degree.

Artistic career

Rothko began his painting career after visiting a friend at New York’s Art Students League where he met students sketching models. This sparked an interest in art which led him to enroll at the New York School of Design where he studied under the famous painter Ashile Gorky. He established himself among modern painters as a skilled and knowledgeable artist. His early influences were mainly based on German Expressionist painters. His famous works include the 1945 masterpiece “Slow swirl at the edge of the sea” and other multiform paintings such as the 1948 “No.18” and “Untitled”, “Magenta”, “Black”, and “Green on Orange” among others. His works were featured in many galleries in New York. The painter’s collection is currently owned by the Mark Rothko Estate.

His inspiration

Mark Rothko continued to inspire generations of photographers and painters even after his death. There have been several major exhibitions based on Rothko’s abstract work. A good example is the exhibition of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photography work featuring seascapes held at the Pace Gallery in London. Rothko’s influence was also recently demonstrated in an art contest organized by the Fine Art America under the theme of “Abstract Paintings Inspired by Mark Rothko” where the winning entries included “Ink and Acrylic” by Everett Hickam in the first place, “The Next Big Wave” by Frances Marino in the second place, and “Black Vs White Again” by Farah Faizal in the third place. Sonia Calderon, who studied art at San Francisco’s Art Institute, attributes the inspiration behind her landscape and seascape masterpieces to the work Mark Rothko. Photographer Alfonso Caldero has often cited Mark Rothko’s abstract paintings as the inspiration behind his color-field pictures. There is also a group of Rothko inspired paintings, photographs, and collage images specially selected by Saatchi Online curators and Rothko fans on exhibition at Saatchi gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

 ©Mark Rothko