Publisher's Synopsis
Mark Rothko, the great American artist of Russian descent, was one of the chief exponents of abstract expressionism. 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 means of Rothko's central work groups from all creative periods, this book examines the artist's continuous striving towards a heightened sense of affinity between picture and viewer. Rothko's adamant insistence on controlling the presentation of his works set him apart from the art scene of his time as early as the beginning of the Fifties. His pictures were to be hung closely together in small rooms, with soft lighting and the large formats providing an immediate experience - a concept which has been most famously and definitively realised in the Rothko Chapel in Houston.
