Rothko: The Color Field Paintings

Sumptuously illustrated with reproductions of 50 paintings, this book celebrates the rich artistic legacy of American artist Mark Rothko and his signature works as a painter of abstract canvases. Rothko’s color-field paintings—which depict groupings of two, three, or four colored rectangles arranged in vertical alignment—are the ultimate evolution of his abstract compositions. The shifting height and width of the color-field paintings’ components and the sometimes dramatic alternations of fiery orange and red colors with somber blue and purple hues became Rothko’s unique painterly mode of expression. The paintings are presented in chronological order, allowing the reader to view the evolution of their style over time; as Janet Bishop, curator of painting at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, points out in her introductory essay, Rothko’s palette darkens in the years leading up to his suicide in 1970. The focus of the book is on the paintings themselves: each painting is presented on its own page, facing a page that is blank save for the painting’s title, date, and dimensions. It’s a simple, well-executed coffee-table book that lets the artwork speak for itself.[em] (Sept.) [/em]