Author: Mark Rothko
Title: Mark Rothko - Retrospective Exhibition in Japan
Description: Tokyo. Tokyo Shimbun. 1995. First edition. Folio. Hardcover. Fine. 226 Pages, illustrated throughout in full colour. Japanese and English text. Rothko first worked in a realistic style that culminated in his Subway series of the late 1930s, showing the loneliness of persons in drab urban environments. This gave way in the early 1940s to the semi-abstract biomorphic forms of the ritualistic Baptismal Scene (1945; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City). By 1948, however, he had arrived at a highly personal form of Abstract Expressionism. Unlike many of his fellow Abstract Expressionists, Rothko never relied on such dramatic techniques as violent brushstrokes or the dripping and splattering of paint. Instead, his virtually gestureless paintings achieved their effects by juxtaposing large areas of melting colours that seemingly float parallel to the picture plane in an indeterminate, atmospheric space. Important and rare catalogue.

Keywords: Mark Rothko