{"data":{"id":"1132","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1132,"topgoose_id":953,"tms_id":1132,"display_name":"Mark Rothko","sort_name":"Rothko Mark","display_date":"1903–1970","begin_date":"1903","end_date":"1970","biography":"\u003cp\u003eBorn in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils,\nLatvia), Mark Rothko emigrated at the age\nof ten to the United States, where he\nbecame a leading member of the Abstract\nExpressionist circle of painters that\nemerged in New York during the 1940s.\nIn the early years of his career, Rothko\npainted Surrealist-inflected works in which\nhe used forms derived from primitive\ntotems and mythologies to commune with\nthe epic and tragic events of ancient\nepochs—which corresponded, he believed,\nto the horrors and devastation wrought\nby World War II.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the late 1940s, Rothko shifted to pure abstraction, filling his canvases with stacked horizontal bands of luminous color in order to express what he described as “basic human emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom.” He would continue to explore this format in various iterations for the duration of his career. These works came to epitomize the branch of Abstract Expressionist painting known as Color Field—defined by subtly modulated chromatic compositions that were distinct from the agitated gesturalism of painters such as \u003ca href=\"/artists/1039\"\u003eJackson Pollock\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/artists/339\"\u003eWillem de Kooning\u003c/a\u003e. \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/897\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFour\nDarks in Red\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e belongs to a group of dark, somber-toned works from the late 1950s. For these works Rothko painted on an increasingly large scale, a format he also employed in a contemporaneous mural commission (ultimately abandoned) for the Seagram Building in New York. The painting’s black and maroon hues, layered in thin, atmospheric veils over a vivid red background, impart a sense of depth and muted radiance that envelops the viewer and commands total emotional and visual engagement.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500014869","wikidata_id":"Q160149","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:57:37.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-24T01:33:35.742-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1132/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1132/exhibitions"}}}}