History

• American Abstract Expressionism grew out of the German Expressionist movement in the 1940s. Like other Abstract Expressionists, Rothko painted nonrepresentational works focusing on the emotional and mystical aspects of reality rather than particular images.
  
  

Style

• A color field painting by Mark Rothko.
  
  Mark Rothko composed art using fields of color, usually in square or rectangular shapes. He created massive paintings, often in excess of 6 feet in either direction.
  
  

The Rothko Chapel

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  Dominique and John de Menil commissioned Rothko to create multiple canvases for the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. Completed in 1971, the chapel provides a place for people of all faiths to unite in worship, wisdom and purpose.
  
  

Influences

• In the late nineteenth century, Symbolists spearheaded the ideology that art should reveal truth beyond physical reality. This belief permeated many Modern Art movements that followed, including Abstract Expressionism. German Expressionism's emphasis on emotion over representation also contributed to the American movement's philosophies.
  
  

Contemporaries

• Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman and Helen Frankenthaler all worked at the same time as Mark Rothko. Newman and Frankenthaler used color field techniques like Rothko while Pollock and de Kooning preferred action art methods.