Mark Rothko at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

“We’re grateful to our colleagues at the National Gallery of Art for their continued partnership, which has resulted in collaborations on many exhibitions over the years and now enables us to offer such a comprehensive presentation of Mark Rothko’s artistic vision,” said Elliot Bostwick Davis, John Moors Cabot Chair, Art of the Americas, who organized the exhibition. “Rothko’s paintings reward slow looking, and we invite MFA visitors to take their time and explore their own ways of experiencing his work.”

Rothko was born in 1903 in the Pale of Settlement, a territory of Russia in which Jews were allowed to reside permanently. By 1913, his family had immigrated to the U.S., settling in Portland, Oregon. After two years of study at Yale University, Rothko moved to New York in 1923 and began attending classes at the Art Students League. He quickly immersed himself in the city’s progressive artistic community, counting as friends and colleagues the painters Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, Jackson Pollock and many others.

Rothko’s earliest works included cityscapes, landscapes, nudes and portraits. In Thru the Window (1938–39), he places himself—identified by his high forehead and thick, curly hair—on the threshold of a window facing the viewer, one hand resting on the ledge. He gazes onto an architectural space containing two symbols of his trade: a clothed model to his right and a bright red easel and canvas to his left. The position of the easel and canvas on the right side of the composition, as well as its visual prominence in the painting, recalls Rembrandt’s Artist in his Studio (about 1628). The small masterpiece depicts a painter—perhaps Rembrandt himself—confronting the daunting moment of conception and decision, an experience faced by artists of all generations. Rothko often turned to the Old Masters, particularly Rembrandt, for inspiration, and both artists used subjects of everyday life to evoke larger truths about the human experience. In Thru the Window and Artist in his Studio, a complex spatial strategy evokes the physical and intellectual distance between the artist and the tools of artistic creation.

Against the backdrop of the violence and anxiety of World War II, Rothko turned away from representational subjects in favor of more surreal and symbolic forms. Concerned about rising anti-Semitism, he also altered his name: from Marcus Rothkowitz to Mark Rothko. As the 1940s progressed, he experimented more and more with painting’s formal elements—color, shape, composition and depth—while shifting away from representation. During this time, Rothko came to believe that abstraction would further his aesthetic vision and facilitate the powerful, emotional response he sought. “It was with the utmost reluctance that I found the figure could not serve my purposes,” he later observed. Untitled (1945) is an example from this period, presenting an early, experimental use of horizontal bands of color that would come to define Rothko’s later works.

Between 1947 and 1949, Rothko began suspending colored forms with hazy outlines and dripping edges across his canvases. The exhibition includes No. 9 (1948) and No. 10 (1949), two examples from this small, transitional group of paintings that later became known as Rothko’s “multiforms,” to distinguish them from earlier, surrealist compositions and later, mature works. In the years following World War II, he ceased giving descriptive or narrative titles to his paintings, believing that they hindered the works’ potential transcendent qualities. “Silence is so accurate,” he once commented. Instead, nearly every canvas would be numbered, named after its palette of colors or remain untitled.

By 1950, Rothko’s compositions had settled into a recognizable format: large, rectangular, canvases; solid, applied grounds; and rectangular fields of color, often thinly applied and appearing to float at the painting’s surface. Refining and developing this formula, Rothko created an extensive body of so-called “classic” paintings. The exhibition presents four examples from this phase—Untitled (1949), Untitled (1955), Mulberry and Brown (1958) and No. 1 (1961). While these works may evoke a range of feelings and moods, Rothko rarely explained their meanings—he believed that the canvases, not the artist, should dictate a viewer’s sensory and emotional experience.

In 1964, Rothko completed more than a dozen “black paintings.” At first glance, these austere canvases may appear to be solid black—but with sustained looking, shapes emerge. Rothko created them as he did his classic, colorful canvases: by building up thin layers of paint, creating texture, depth—and even luminosity, despite the dark palette. This group of paintings includes No. 6 (1964), in which a single square floats to the surface, barely distinguishable from the black background. Additional “black paintings” on view in the exhibition include No. 7 (1964) and No. 8 (1964), which was recently conserved by the National Gallery of Art to display the nuances of Rothko’s aesthetic vision and is now seen by the public for the first time since treatment. Together, these works anticipate one of Rothko’s signature achievements—the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, part of the Menil Collection. Conceived from the start as a fully immersive experience of his paintings, plans for the nondenominational chapel consumed Rothko from 1964 to 1967. Eventually, he created 14 darkly painted canvases, which would be installed, surrounding the viewer, to create an enveloping, deeply meditative experience. Rothko did not live to see the chapel finished—physically ill and suffering from depression, the artist committed suicide in 1970.
Member Preview

MFA members are the first to see Mark Rothko: Reflection during Member Preview, September 19–23 (10 am–5 pm, Tuesday and Saturday; 10 am–10 pm, Wednesday through Friday), which includes a special “Knitting in the Galleries” event on Friday, September 22. Additionally, members enjoy free and faster admission, discounts on dining, shopping and parking, and a full calendar of events.
Mark Rothko: The Artist’s Reality

On September 24, 2–3 pm, the Museum hosts a lecture with curator Elliot Bostwick Davis, exploring Rothko’s early painting Thru the Window as a starting point for an examination of the evolution of his artistic vision. Davis gives special attention to Rothko’s admiration for the art of the Old Masters, as described in his writings with the working title The Artist’s Reality.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), is recognized for the quality and scope of its collection, representing all cultures and time periods. The Museum has more than 140 galleries displaying its encyclopedic collection, which includes Art of the Americas; Art of Europe; Contemporary Art; Art of Asia; Art of Africa and Oceania; Art of the Ancient World; Prints and Drawings; Photography; Textile and Fashion Arts; and Musical Instruments. Open seven days a week, the MFA’s hours are Saturday through Tuesday, 10 am–5 pm; and Wednesday through Friday, 10 am–10 pm. Admission (which includes one repeat visit within 10 days) is $25 for adults and $23 for seniors and students age 18 and older, and includes entry to all galleries and special exhibitions. Admission is free for University Members and youths age 17 and younger. Wednesday nights after 4 pm admission is by voluntary contribution (suggested donation $25), while five Open Houses offer the opportunity to visit the Museum for free. The Museum’s mobile MFA Guide is available at ticket desks and the Sharf Visitor Center for $5, members; $6, non-members; and $4, youths. The Museum is closed on New Year’s Day, Patriots’ Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The MFA is located on the Avenue of the Arts at 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115. For more information, call 617.267.9300, visit mfa.org or follow the MFA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.