These works were the proving ground for Rothko's classic paintings of the 1950s and 60s, contributing to his eventual mastery of tensely balanced areas of color, as well as the ability to communicate profound emotion and experience economically through abstract means. Rothko was one of many New York artists in the 1930s who looked to their urban surroundings for subjects. While other artists used the urban setting to make social statements, Rothko sought instead to give a sense of the anxiety, anonymity, and isolation that pervade city life. Influenced by Surrealist artists exiled from fascist Europe, he and other artists including Gottlieb began to reflect Surrealists' interest in myth, fantasy, and ritual. Rothko mutilated the figure, presenting fragmented or fused bodies and reducing and abstracting figures so that they became symbols of the human condition.
Subsequent paintings feature fantastic organisms skimming across layered surfaces.
As Rothko increasingly abstracted his figures, he seemed to become more and more interested in revealing the process of painting by layering paint and manipulating the surface of the work. By about 1946, the artist recognized that the figure no longer expressed what he wished to say about the human condition. Instead, he invented compositions at the borders of abstraction and figuration. This exhibition has been made possible in part through the Friends of the Museum of Art. Reproduction, including downloading of Rothko Artworks is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express permission of the copyright holder.