New Documentary On Abstract Expressionist Painter Mark Rothko To Debut On PBS Tonight Jane Levere Jane Levere Contributor Lifestyle

A new documentary on Mark Rothko, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, will debut tonight on PBS’ American Masters. His signature style helped define Abstract Expressionism, the movement that shifted the center of the art world from Paris to New York.

Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous, an intimate portrait of the celebrated painter whose luminous canvases now set records at international auctions, features interviews with his children, Kate and Christopher, and with leading curators, art historians and conservators, presenting a comprehensive look at the artist’s life and career.

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) american painter

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) american painter, 1961.Kate Rothko/Apic/Getty Images

This is complemented by original scenes with the actor Alfred Molina portraying Rothko. He reads segments from Rothko’s diaries; he is also featured in clips, as Rothko, from the Tony-winning play Red. The play will air on PBS’ Great Performances on November 15 as part of the series’ “Broadway’s Best” lineup of acclaimed theatrical productions. Today In: Lifestyle

Over a career spanning five decades, Rothko developed his signature style: large, abstract color fields with luminous rectangular forms that balance depth, shape and hue through the delicate layering of many thin washes of paint. While Rothko’s paintings show close attention to formal elements, Rothko was, he said, “interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom.”

Born Marcus Rothkowitz in Dvinsk, Russia, on September 25, 1903, Rothko emigrated to Portland, Oregon, with his family at the age of ten. He was accepted at Yale on a full scholarship, but attended for only two years before moving to New York and enrolling in the Art Students League. In 1929, Rothko became a teacher at the Center Academy of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, a post he held for over 20 years. In the 1930s, he was employed by the Works Progress Administration, where he created haunting scenes of New York subway riders. As he continued to experiment, his work became reliant on symbolism and mythological imagery, but by the end of the 1940s, he developed his signature color field style. PROMOTED Capital One BrandVoice | Paid Program New Ways To Experience Classic Fall Flavors Ben Bridge Jeweler BrandVoice | Paid Program Shopping For The Perfect Engagement Ring? Here’s The Diamond You Need To Know About Oracle BrandVoice | Paid Program Best Way To Realize AI Benefits: Don’t Shoot The Moon

The documentary follows Rothko’s rise in the art world alongside Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock and Joan Mitchell, as Abstract Expressionism became ascendant. The documentary also highlights one of Rothko’s most famous commissions, a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York City in the late 1950s. Rothko completed the notably dark canvases, but after dining at the restaurant, rescinded them because he felt the location was too commercial. In 1964 Rothko accepted a commission from the de Menil family to create artwork for a new sanctuary, a project that became the Rothko Chapel in Houston. After these paintings were completed, Rothko took his life on February 25, 1970; he did not live to see the completion of the chapel with his paintings installed. It is now a celebrated sacred center and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In an interview today, Kate Rothko-Prizel said the Menil chapel enabled her father to “pursue his vision, create a space for contemplation.”’

Rothko had ambitions for his art “that went beyond the image on the painting. He wanted to engage on the spiritual, emotional and philosophical level,” added his son, Christopher, with “art as experience. He involves the viewer in a way that continues to be true for subsequent artists.

“My father’s work seems to remain stubbornly modern. It seems to remain fresh,” he said. His sister noted that young art aficionados in Paris and New York today flock to see his paintings.

The Rothkos earlier this year also spoke at the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research in New York about the chapel and a 1971 composition it inspired, Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel.