  
Mark Rothko in his West 53rd Street studio, c. 1953, photograph by Henry Elkan, courtesy Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Rudi Blesh Papers
One of the preeminent artists of his generation, Mark Rothko is closely
identified with the New York School, a circle of painters that emerged
during the 1940s as a new collective voice in American art. During a career that spanned five decades,
he created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting.
Rothko's work is characterized by rigorous
attention to formal elements such as color, shape, balance, depth, composition, and
scale; yet, he refused to consider his paintings solely in these terms. He explained: It is a widely accepted notion among painters
that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There
is no such thing as good painting about nothing.

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