premise: For Rothko, too, there were the years of apprenticeship, the hard-won discovery of a classic but ultimately restrictive format (Rothko's stacked rectangles are not unlike Lowell's sonnets and John Berryman's dream songs), the succession of wives, the acclaim, and the descent into alcohol, paranoia, depression, and suicide.
hypothesis: Due to his struggle with economic oppression, Rothko experienced highs and lows.