In this article, we’ll discuss Mark Rothko, recognized as the most influential figure of his generation in the United States. However, the path that led him to become the leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism is not linear. This is because his story is made up of many elements, such as his migration as a child and his travels to Italy, which led him to create the artworks for which he is famous worldwide. Precisely for this reason, as you will see, Rothko’s life and works tell a story that is more relevant than ever in this historical moment: it’s time to begin a journey between tragedy and hope.
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz, was born on September 25, 1903, in Dvinsk, then the Russian Empire (now Daugavpils, Latvia). He grew up in a cultured Jewish family: his father, Jacob, was a pharmacist. As a child, he attended a Jewish elementary school, an educational choice dictated not by the family’s desire for a religious education for Marcus, but by his parents’ desire to prevent him from being drafted into the Tsarist army, a fate that had already befallen his older brothers.
Rothko’s childhood was marked by the climate of terror and anti-Semitism that characterized Russia at the time. Indeed, the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 had produced waves of violence, the so-called pogroms, which led to large-scale migrations of the Jewish population to the West. Foreseeing a hopeless future for Jews in Russia, his father left for the United States in 1910. Marcus, together with his mother and sister, joined him in 1913, travelling on the ship SS Czar. Eventually, the family reunited and settled permanently in Portland, Oregon, but the impact of the new world was traumatic. Rothko often recalled arriving in the United States with a sign around his neck that read “I don’t speak English,” an experience he considered deeply humiliating.
In 1921, Rothko received a scholarship to attend Yale University. The environment, however, proved extremely hostile, as he perceived the institution as elitist and profoundly anti-Semitic. To respond to this climate, he and his friend Aaron Director founded an underground magazine called The Yale Saturday Evening Pest. Rothko wrote: “False gods! Idols of clay! (…) Let us doubt! Let us think! That’s enough.” Finally, in 1923, Rothko decided to leave the prestigious university and move to New York.
A young Mark Rothko during his years at Yale University (1921-1923).
A very significant testimony to Rothko’s first ten years in the United States is provided by a notebook that the young Marcus wrote during those years, although the exact age is unknown. The notebook contains several poems on the themes of exile and nature but always linked to biblical episodes or references. The most interesting aspect is the language Rothko used to write his poems: Hebrew. Indeed, at that time, the Jewish population spoke Yiddish, as Hebrew had only survived as the written language of sacred texts. However, precisely during that historical period, the Zionist movement had brought back to life spoken Hebrew, so Marcus had learned it as a child in Russia, but almost no one spoke it at the time. To understand this choice, we must refer to Rothko himself, who wrote, “I was born a Jew and I will die a Jew.” This was because he did not feel Russian, having had to emigrate from the country, but at the same time he also felt alienated in the United States, also because of the anti-Semitism he encountered. As a result, the only possible choice was to idealize Hebrew, which in reality was a “nobody’s language,” transforming it into a universal language for self-expression.
Returning to Rothko’s story, when he arrived in New York, he never considered becoming an artist. The turning point came by chance in the fall of 1923: visiting a friend at the Art Students League, Rothko observed some students busy portraying a model. He later said that at that precise moment, he understood that his life as an artist had just begun. Enrolling at the Art Students League, he studied under Max Weber, who passed him the idea of the artist as someone who understands changes in society before others and who uses art not for decoration, but as a spiritual instrument for humanity. Ten years later, in 1935, Rothko was among the founders of “The Ten,” a collective of artists that also included Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman. The group was formed to oppose the realism and social painting prevailing in the United States, asserting the artist’s freedom of experimentation. To this regard, Barnett Newman later said: “Painting was finished; we had to move on.”
Mark Rothko – Entrance to the Subway (Subway Station. Subway Scene), late 1930s.
During this phase, Rothko painted everyday scenes, such as the New York subway or isolated figures in stark interiors. These works reflect a profound sense of alienation: the figures appear rigid and disconnected, trapped in architectural spaces that crush their humanity. With the outbreak of World War II, Rothko felt that figurative painting had become inadequate to express the tragedy of the present. Influenced by European Surrealism, he began to paint biomorphic forms and symbols linked to Greek and archaic myths. In 1943, he published a manifesto in the New York Times declaring that art must address tragic and timeless themes, since “there is no remarkable painting that does not address the tragic.”
Mark Rothko – Tiresias (Tiresia), 1944. Photo from the retrospective exhibition “Mark Rothko” at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.
However, by the mid-1940s, all references to the human figure or myth disappeared. Rothko began painting “Multiforms,” canvases characterized by patches of colour that seem to float in space. This was the moment when the artist began to treat colour as an autonomous physical and emotional presence. At the very end of the 1940s, between 1948 and 1949, the definitive transformation took place: the blocks of colour were simplified into overlapping rectangles with undefined edges. This was the birth of his most famous motif, where the juxtaposition of colours became the only vehicle for evoking emotion in the viewer.
Mark Rothko – Orange and Yellow, 1956. Photo from the retrospective exhibition “Mark Rothko” at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.
With this new artistic awareness, Rothko decided to leave for Europe, seeking confirmation of his exploration of the spiritual and colours in ancient works. The trip lasted approximately five months, from the spring to the summer of 1950. The itinerary touched several countries, including England and France, where the artist had the opportunity to visit the great European museums. However, the longest and most significant stop of the trip was undoubtedly Italy, where Rothko visited Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples. The time spent in Campania allowed him to visit the excavations of Pompeii. In particular, Villa dei Misteri and its two-thousand-year-old frescoes attracted the American artist’s attention. Here, Rothko understood that those frescoes were not simply decorative elements on the walls, but the walls themselves. This observation was crucial: he understood that painting could become architecture. Colour should not only be on the canvas but should be the canvas. In fact, the layering of the famous Pompeian red confirmed to him that colour could possess a monumental physicality, eliminating the boundary between the painting and the viewer.
Villa dei Misteri (Villa of the Mysteries), Pompeii, 1st century BC.
However, an even more transformative experience for the artist occurred during his stay in Florence thanks to a visit to the Convent of San Marco. There, Rothko found the definitive answer to his quest through the work of Fra Angelico, who had decorated each of the monks’ cells with a fresco. He was struck by how art could transform a small, bare room into an infinite space for reflection, noting how Fra Angelico was able to create depth not through traditional perspective, but by juxtaposing different colours. This “metaphysical perspective” would become fundamental to his technique, using colour to create a space that transcends the flat surface of the canvas. Furthermore, in Fra Angelico, Rothko recognized an artist capable of uniting the human dimension with the absolute, a balance he himself sought to achieve through abstraction. The artist himself stated this after his 1950 visit to the convent, declaring that “Fra Angelico was a great artist, someone who achieved the highest level of spirituality in painting.”
Mark Rothko – Multiform, 1948. Photo from the diffused exhibition “Mark Rothko” in the Convent of San Marco, Florence. In the background, the fresco Noli me tangere (c. 1438-1440) by Fra Angelico.
Once back in the United States, Rothko continued the project he had begun two years before leaving for Europe, making juxtaposed colours the undisputed protagonists of his works. What may seem like simple paintings on the surface, however, actually reveal a much deeper intent that reflects the artist’s life itself. For Rothko, art must speak to everyone, transcending language barriers; for this reason, his artistic practice moves toward pure abstraction. Furthermore, the choice to leave his works untitled serves to free up interpretation, making it universal. In this regard, the ideal use of Hebrew in his early writings already reflected his traumatic experience of arriving in a country whose language he did not speak and the dream of a universal language, a concept that culminates in the Rothko Chapel, a text-free space to include people of all faiths and backgrounds. For all these reasons, his works are conceived as a living interaction that requires no rigid theoretical or prior knowledge to be experienced: Rothko didn’t want people to simply walk in front of his paintings, but to interact with them in a process of inner exploration.
Ultimately, Rothko succeeded in his goal of creating paintings that are pure emotion, capable of triggering a reaction in the viewer. However, his works achieved international success, attracting the art market. Precisely because of pressure from gallery owners to produce new works or sell existing ones he wanted to keep, Rothko committed suicide in 1970. The tragic end of his story, however, does not prevent each of us from reviving young Marcus’s hope for a universal language that could speak to everyone through emotion. Therefore, the next time you have the opportunity to see one of his works, take your time and let yourself be overwhelmed by the emotion of colour.
Mark Rothko – Untitled, 1969. Photo from the diffused exhibition “Mark Rothko” in the Convent of San Marco, Florence. In the background, the fresco Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saints (c. 1438–1446) by Fra Angelico.
In conclusion, if this article has piqued your interest in Rothko’s artistic research and you’re eager to see his work, now is the time. Indeed, until August 23, Florence will host 70 works by Rothko in one of the artist’s largest retrospectives ever held. Making the retrospective even more compelling is the fact that it is a diffused exhibition: most of the works are on display on the piano nobile of Palazzo Strozzi, but some are also housed in the Laurentian Library and the Convent of San Marco. In this regard, the works exhibited in the latter location, the Convent of San Marco, constitute a unique opportunity. Indeed, visiting the convent, it is possible to find some of Rothko’s works alongside frescoes painted by Fra Angelico in the monks’ cells dedicated to prayer. This allows the viewer, for the first time, to physically see what Rothko had seen mentally: the connection between his abstraction and Fra Angelico’s spirituality. For all these reasons, Rothko’s exhibition in Florence is an unmissable opportunity for anyone who wishes to be captivated by his art in one of the cities that most profoundly influenced the artist’s journey between tragedy and hope.
My name is Luca Buzzo, and I was born and raised in Genoa. When I was 18, after obtaining a scientific high school diploma, I decided to move to Milan to study at Bocconi University. Currently, I am pursuing a master's degree in Economics and Management in Arts, Culture, Media, and Entertainment (ACME). My interests span across multiple fields but the one I am most interested in are Visual arts, Culture and heritage, Museum studies, Asian studies (in particular China and Hong Kong), Social dynamics and Identity studies.
