Mark Rothko’s first paintings were of people and scenes of the city. Over time, the people, windows, doors, and other shapes disappeared, and his paintings were composed of rectangles of different colors and sizes, arranged in patterns on large
canvases, like this one. In the 1950s he became known as one of the key artists of
Color Field painting, which was a branch of
Abstract Expressionism. Rothko used thin layers of paint so that the color showed through and the paintings appeared to glow. He wanted his paintings to express emotions and change the space they occupied, so they would affect the viewer’s mood, feelings, and thoughts. Rothko said that he painted large pictures so that you could be surrounded by color and feel like you were in the painting.
