Mark Rothko

Rothko’s first wife was Edith Sachar, a jewellery designer. He had met Edith in Lake George and they got married in 1932. The marriage culminated in divorce nine years later.

A year after his divorce with Edith, in 1944, he met his second wife Mary Ellen ‘Mell’ Beistle. The couple got married in the spring, the following year.

In 1969, the couple separated due to Rothko’s increasing health problems and impotence. They have two children.

Born on September 25, 1903 in Dvinsk, in the Russian Empire, Rothko was the son of Jacob (Yakov) Rothkowitz, a pharmacist and was the youngest of four siblings.

At the age of five he was sent to study the Talmud due to the Orthodox Jewish views of his father.

With the growing fear of the ‘Imperial Russian Army’, Rothko’s father immigrated with two of his sons to United States while Rothko stayed back in Russia with his mother and sister.

The family later reunited in Portland in 1913 but soon after Jacob Rothkowitz passed away leaving the family in an economic crisis. Young Marcus worked odd jobs to help his family financially and support his education.

The intelligent student began studying in the United States. He passed out with honours from ‘Lincoln High School’ in Portland in 1921.

In 1923, Rothko moved to New York finding work in the garment district. Influenced by a friend’s art designs, he enrolled at the ‘New York School of Design’.

Viewing art as a tool of emotional expression, his first exhibit of work was with a group of young artists at the ‘Opportunity Gallery’ in 1928.

With a little amount of success coming his way, he started teaching painting and clay sculpture at the ‘Center Academ’ in the year 1929.

Over the next few years he worked with several artists and refined his craft. Finally in 1933, he displayed his first show at the ‘Portland Art Museum’ consisting of his drawings. He also displayed the works of his students at the ‘Center Academy’.

He returned to New York and did his first one-man show in East Coast at the ‘Contemporary Arts Gallery’ displaying fifteen oil painting and few aquarelles and drawings.

‘White Center’ and ‘Orange, Red, Yellow’ are famous paintings of Rothko which have broken many sale records and collected huge amount of money. While the ‘White Center’ was sold for 72.8 million dollars the latter was sold for 86.9 million dollars in New York.

’Rothko Chapel’ was his most celebrated work which opened in 1971, by when Rothko had passed away.