Mark Rothko: A Chronology

1903: Born Marcus Rothkowitz on September 26 in Dvinsk, Russia.

1913: Moves with family to Portland, Oregon.

1921–1923: Graduates Lincoln High School, Portland. Enters Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; moves to New York without earning degree.

1924–1930: Studies at Art Students League, New York, with Max Weber. Befriends Milton and Sally Avery and Adolph Gottlieb; participates in weekly drawing sessions at Avery apartment. Produces hundreds of figurative works on paper and canvas, including nudes, portraits, interiors, and urban and rural landscapes. Begins teaching children at Center Academy of the Brooklyn Jewish Center; continues to teach there through early 1950s.

1932: Marries Edith Sacher, a sculptor and jewelry designer; they separate in 1943 and divorce in 1944.

1933: Has first two solo exhibitions: works on paper, primarily landscapes at Portland Art Museum, Oregon, and canvases and works on paper at Contemporary Arts Gallery, New York.

1935–1939: Joins and exhibits with several artist associations including The Ten, American Artists’ Congress, and Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors. Secures position with Works Progress Association/Federal Art Project.

1940–1944: Begins using name Mark Rothko; makes change legally in 1959. Works on dense philosophical text published posthumously as The Artist’s Reality (2004). Is included in exhibitions at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery and other venues. Explores Greco-Roman myths and begins to create surrealist-oriented works.

1945: Marries Mary Alice (Mell) Beistle; they have two children— Kathy Lynn (Kate), born 1950, and Christopher Hall, born 1963. Participates in first of many annual shows at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

1946: Writes catalogue foreword for Clifford Still exhibition at Art of this Century Gallery. Is included in annual exhibition at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Rapidly moves toward abstraction, producing first “multiform” canvases and works on paper.

1947-1949: Publishes “The Romantics were Prompted” in Possibilities I (Winter 1947–1948). Begins showing at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, through 1954. Teaches at California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, and Brooklyn College, and joins Clifford Still, William Baziotes, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and David Hare in forming The Subjects of the Artist School, New York.

1950: Travels to Europe with Mell for five months, visiting France, Italy, and England. Shifts painting style to include hovering rectangular forms, marking the beginning of what would become his signature style.

1951–1953: Refuses to participate in Metropolitan Museum of Art’s contemporary art competition and appears in Life magazine photograph of artists called the “Irascibles” (15 January 1951). Is included in Museum of Modern Art exhibition Fifteen Americans (1952). Becomes estranged from Newman and Still and spends more time with Phillip Guston, Robert Motherwell, and Theodoros Stamos.

1954–1957: Begins showing at Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, and continues to show there into 1960s. Has solo exhibitions at Art Institute of Chicago and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. Is included in Museum of Modern Art international traveling exhibition Modern Art in the USA (1955).

1958: With Seymour Lipton, David Smith, and Mark Tobey, represents United States in XXIX Venice Biennale. Receives mural commission for Philip Johnson’s Seagram’s Building, Four Seasons Restaurant, New York, but withdraws from project, later donating nine of the murals to Tate Gallery, London (1968-1969).

1959: Travels to Europe with family visiting Italy, Belgium, Holland, and England.

1960–1961: Has solo exhibitions at Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. and Museum of Modern Art (the latter traveling on to London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Basel, Rome, and Paris).

1962–1967: Joins Marlborough Gallery. Paints five mural panels to be installed at Harvard University. Completes eighteen panels (including four alternates) for Rothko Chapel and places them in storage until chapel is dedicated.

1968: Is elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters. Suffers aortic aneurism (April) and is advised to limit size of paintings; focuses primarily on works on paper. Relationship with Mell deteriorates.

1969: Signs agreement with Marlborough making it his exclusive agent. Incorporates the Mark Rothko Foundation. Receives honorary degree (Doctor of Fine Arts) from Yale University. Leaves home and moves into studio as health problems continue.

1970: Commits suicide on February 25.

1971: Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas, is dedicated.

Adapted from a chronology compiled by Jessica Stewart in Mark Rothko. [exh. cat., National Gallery of Art] (Washington, 1998).

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