The paintings of Mark Rothko are among the most recognized works of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Arriving in the United States from Russia as a child of nine, Rothko settled with his family in Portland, Oregon. There he attended public schools and performed so well that he was offered a scholarship to Yale University. After two years at Yale, Rothko left to pursue other interests. By 1925 he was in New York City, where he studied painting at the Art Students league under Max Weber (1881-1961). Like his friend, Adolph Gottlieb (q.v.), Rothko's early work was mildly Expressionistic. Given his first one-person show in 1933, the artist worked for the WPA Federal Art Project before turning toward Surrealism in the 1940s. Rothko produced his first abstract works toward the end of the decade, but not until about 1950 did he arrive at his mature style.

Typically composed of two or three stacked blocks of rich color, Rothko's paintings of the 1950s and 1960s were well-received. His compositions were admired for their spiritual qualities, leading patrons Dominique and John de Menil to commission what is perhaps the artist's masterpiece, a series of murals for the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. Like much of Rothko's work of the later 1960s, these murals are notable for their dark colors. As his health and personal life worsened, Rothko's paintings became increasingly somber. Chronically depressed and feeling himself to be irrelevant as Pop and Minimalism came to the fore, Rothko committed suicide early in 1970.

The Currier's Untitled (Red over Brown) is a relatively small painting executed on paper and mounted on canvas. Divided into two sections, the composition consists of a red square hovering over a smaller rectangle of brown and blue on a gray ground. As is usual in Rothko's work, the edges of the forms are blurred, suggesting a lack of boundaries. At the same time, the artist's colors seem both to advance and to recede, reaching out to viewers and drawing them into an environment of limitless space.

Rothko often expressed his desire that viewers be immersed within his paintings. A lover of music, Rothko saw his color functioning in much the same way as sound, surrounding and enveloping the spectator. Like music, his paintings become an alternative experience of the world as well as a vehicle for meditation. To ascertain that he had achieved the desired effect, Rothko would often spend hours contemplating his major canvases. After satisfying himself that he had succeeded, he went to great lengths to ensure that both the lighting and the viewer's position vis-à-vis his paintings be carefully controlled so as to preserve their effect.

Rothko presented Untitled (Red over Brown) to his physician, Albert W. Grokoest, in 1967. The artist had first contacted Grokoest in 1956, after other doctors had failed to properly diagnose a case of gout that had left him incapacitated for two months. Grokoest's treatment was effective, and Rothko discovered a kindred spirit who shared his love of music and art. Although Rothko tended to distrust doctors and other professionals, Grokoest became a personal friend and was the artist's primary physician until the end of his life.

Untitled (Red over Brown) hung in Grokoest's New York apartment along with Expressionist works by Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and paintings by Alfred Maurer (1868-1932), Jan Lebenstein (1930-1999) and a number of others. A native of Lincoln, New Hampshire, Grokoest bequeathed the painting to the Currier Museum of Art following his death in 1991. Today it remains a key work in the Museum's small but significant collection of Abstract Expressionism.

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REFERENCES

James E. B. Breslin. Mark Rothko: A Biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Diane Waldman. Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: A Retrospective. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1978.

Jeffrey Weiss, with contributions by John Gage, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Barbara Novak, et al. Mark Rothko. Ex. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1998.