Quick Facts
Original name:
Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz
Born:
September 25, 1903, Dvinsk, Russian Empire [now Daugavpils, Latvia]
Died:
February 25, 1970, Manhattan, New York, U.S. (aged 66)

Mark Rothko (born September 25, 1903, Dvinsk, Russian Empire [now Daugavpils, Latvia]—died February 25, 1970, Manhattan, New York, U.S.) was an American painter whose works introduced contemplative introspection into the melodramatic post-World War II Abstract Expressionist school. His use of color as the sole means of expression led to the development of Color Field Painting. Rothko was born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz in Dvinsk, then a shtetl, or a small Jewish village, in the Pale of Settlement, a district in imperial Russia where Jewish people were allowed to settle. He was the youngest of four children of Jacob Rothkowitz, who was ...(100 of 1339 words)