Writings on Art

by Mark Rothko; Edited and with an introduction, annotations, and chronology by Mig

• ISBN13: 9780300114409
• ISBN10: 0300114400
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2006-04-28
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

While the collected writings of many major 20th-century artists, including Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt, have been published, Mark Rothko's writings have only recently come to light, beginning with the critically acclaimedThe Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art. Rothko's other written works have yet to be brought together into a major publication.Writings on Artfills this significant void; it includes some 90 documentsincluding short essays, letters, statements, and lectureswritten by Rothko over the course of his career. The texts are fully annotated, and a chronology of the artist's life and work is also included. This provocative compilation of both published and unpublished writings from 1934--69 reveals a number of things about Rothko: the importance of writing for an artist who many believed had renounced the written word; the meaning of transmission and transition that he experienced as an art teacher at the Brooklyn Jewish Center Academy; his deep concern for meditation and spirituality; and his private relationships with contemporary artists (including Newman, Motherwell, and Clyfford Still) as well as journalists and curators. As was revealed in Rothko'sThe Artist's Reality, what emerges from this collection is a more detailed picture of a sophisticated, deeply knowledgeable, and philosophical artist who was also a passionate and articulate writer.

Author Biography

Mark Rothko was born in Russia and came to the United States with his family in 1913. A major figure in New York’s Abstract Expressionist movement, he has been the subject of retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Guggenheim Museum, and other major museums around the world. Miguel López-Remiro is an independent scholar living in Spain.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	viii
INTRODUCTION	ix
NOTE TO THE READER	xvii
"New Training for Future Artists and Art Lovers," 1934	1	(3)
"Scribble Book," ca. 1934	4	(10)
Sketchbook, ca. 1934	14	(2)
The Ten: Whitney Dissenters, 1938	16	(2)
"A comparative analysis," ca. 1941	18	(4)
"The ideal teacher," ca. 1941	22	(3)
"Indigenousness," ca. 1941	25	(3)
"The satisfaction of the creative impulse," ca. 1941	28	(2)
Manuscript drafts of a letter to the editor by Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, 1943	30	(5)
Rothko and Gottlieb's letter to the editor, 1943	35	(2)
"The Portrait and the Modern Artist," by Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb, 1943	37	(4)
Comments on The Omen of the Eagle, 1943	41	(1)
Brief autobiography, ca. 1945	42	(1)
Letter to Emily Genauer, 1945	43	(1)
"I adhere to the reality of things," 1945	44	(1)
Personal statement, 1945	45	(1)
Letter to the editor, 1945	46	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, 1945	47	(1)
Introduction to First Exhibition Paintings: Clyfford Still, 1946	48	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, June 1946	49	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, August 1946	50	(2)
Letter to Barnett Newman, 1947	52	(1)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, 1947	53	(2)
Letter to Clay Spohn, 1947	55	(2)
"The Ides of Art: The Attitudes of Ten Artists on Their Art and Contemporaneousness," 1947	57	(1)
"The romantics were prompted," 1947	58	(2)
Letter to Clay Spohn, February 1948	60	(2)
Letter to Clay Spohn, May 1948	62	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, 1949	63	(1)
Letter to Clay Spohn, 1949	64	(1)
"Statement on His Attitude in Painting," 1949	65	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, April 1950	66	(2)
Letter to Barnett Newman, June 1950	68	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, July 1950	69	(1)
Letter to Barnett Newman, August 7, 1950	70	(2)
Letter to Barnett Newman, August 1950	72	(2)
"How to Combine Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture," 1951	74	(1)
Notes from an interview by William Seitz, 1952	75	(5)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, August 1952	80	(2)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, September 1952	82	(1)
Letter to Lloyd Goodrich, 1952	83	(2)
Notes from an interview by William Seitz, March 1953	85	(1)
Notes from an interview by William Seitz, April 1953	86	(3)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, May 1954	89	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, July 14, 1954	90	(2)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, July 28, 1954	92	(2)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, ca. August 1954	94	(1)
Letter to Petronel Lukens, August 1954	95	(1)
Letter to Petronel Lukens, September 1954	96	(2)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, September 20, 1954	98	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, September 25, 1954	99	(2)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, September 27, 1954	101	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, October 20, 1954	102	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, October 23, 1954	103	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, November 1954	104	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, December 1954	105	(2)
Letter to Petronel Lukens, December 1954	107	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, ca. 1954	108	(1)
"Whenever one begins to speculate," ca. 1954	109	(2)
"Relation to one's own past," ca. 1954	111	(1)
"Space in painting," ca. 1954	112	(1)
Letter to Katharine Kuh, 1955	113	(1)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, July 7, 1955	114	(2)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, July 11, 1955	116	(2)
Letter to Lawrence Calcagno, 1956	118	(1)
Notes from a conversation with Selden Rodman, 1956	119	(2)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, 1957	121	(2)
Letter to Rosalind Irvine, 1957	123	(1)
Letter to the editor, 1957	124	(1)
Address to Pratt Institute, 1958	125	(4)
Letter to Ida Kohlmeyer, ca. 1958	129	(1)
John Fischer, "The Easy Chair: Mark Rothko, Portrait of the Artist as an Angry Man," 1970	130	(9)
Letter to Herbert Ferber and Bernard Reis, 1959	139	(2)
Letter to Elise Asher and Stanley Kunitz, 1959	141	(1)
Letter to Milton Avery, 1960	142	(1)
Notecards, ca. 1950-1960	143	(2)
Letter to the Whitechapel Gallery, 1961	145	(2)
"A Talk with Mark Rothko," 1961	147	(1)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, 1962	148	(1)
Tribute to Milton Avery, 1965	149	(2)
Letter to Bernard Reis, 1966	151	(1)
Letter to Norman Reid, 1966	152	(1)
Letter to Herbert Ferber, July 7, 1967	153	(2)
Letter to, Herber Ferber, July 19, 1967	155	(1)
Letter to Elise Asher and Staniey Kunitz 1967	156	(1)
Acceptance of Yale University honorary doctorate, 1969	157	(2)
CHRONOLOGY	159	(10)
INDEX	169