Customer Reviews

Mark Rothko: A Biography

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No book can do Mark Rothko justice. He painted on large
canvases. To know him is to confront his original work
on the wall before you. Find your distance, 10, 15,
maybe 30 feet back. Yet to make sense of his
colored rectangles tearing themselves apart in fission,
as well as his earlier, quite different work, some
background helps.

Breslin's book will become the standard reference, but
not perhaps the starting point. He writes engrossingly,
but the 558 pages of text, I fear, will discourage the
casual reader (who might do well to read Robert
Hughes's paragraphs in American Visions).

Still, for the motivated reader, James Breslin's bio is
awesome. The Latvian Jew, charity student at
antisemitic Yale in the early 20s, uncomfortable and
smarter than most there, comes alive, as does his love
for children and their art, as well as his tormented
first marriage to a wife commercially successful during
the Great Depression making jewelry that sold. Rothko
had higher ambitions: fine art spelled with a capital
"A". As Breslin relates, discomfort never disappeared.
Success and recognition did not go over well with
this self-described anarchist who, as a Portland
teenager, enthusiastically took in lectures by Emma
Goldman. Overall, Breslin provides a biographical and
historical foundation with which to understand Mark
Rothko's painting. I am grateful for that.

Finally, of the many biographies I've read, James EB
Breslin's stands out for another reason: in his
Afterword, he turns from Rothko to himself and
addresses his own motivations and challenges in writing
the biography. Biographies are never "objective", so it
makes sense that a biographer might address his own
motivations. In the descriptions of the dangers of
doing research in Rothko's birthplace of Dvinsk, in
interviewing art historian Clement Greenberg, Rothko
reappears again, this time indirectly, one step
removed. That Breslin can bring Rothko alive in these

different contexts is testament to the enduring value
of this long, challenging biography.

I am a painter, an art professor, and a reader of biographies. I couldnt put this book down. Breslin did a magnificent job of getting inside the psyche of Rothko as a man, and as an artist. The paragraphs that describe the way in which Rothko created one of his paintings is absolutely inspired....I had goose-bumps reading it, because it seemed as if Breslin,unlike many writers who say they have observed artists, actually understood the process of creation and the passion behind it. I have never written a fan letter to a writer, but I began one to Mr.Breslin. Imagine my distress and sorrow when I read the next day in the paper that he had passed away! But this book lives as a testament to his thorough research and love of the subject. Get this book and read it....if you love art, artists, or scholarship,you will not be disappointed.

This bio is long and plodding with too much agonizingly detailed information about Rothko's early life, his parents' lives, his wives, etc., etc.and long, minute examinations and descriptions of early paintings.

HOWEVER, along about 200 pages, it begins to redeem itself and TURNS INTO 4 or 4 1/2 STARS. (I first rated it at 3 but changed my mind although I couldn't change the stars.) It portrays Rothko in enough detail that you get a sense of him as a person and an artist, and it raises some interesting questions; not only questions that Rothko faced, but questions that all artists face. For example, the question of meaning in art, is art basically decoration for rich people, should an artist continue to make art when it becomes just another commodity for investment, should a collector love the individual painting or should you sell him a painting just so he has a "Rothko" (or a Natale)? Should an artist make statements explaining what the work is about or just let it stand (or fall) on its own? How much does an artist owe her/his gallerist or collectors in terms of loyalty? Should an artist explore various formats or just keep repeating something that works?

Breslin has obviously devoted himself to a tremendously in-depth study of Rothko and treasures every detail about him. I have to respect that, but I also want to get another perspective (although Breslin quotes a lot of Rothko's intimates) and so I'm reading another bio by Dore Ashton.

Only a few biographies of artists are any good. A Giacometti Portrait by James Lord and Picasso by John Richardson and Jackson Pollock by Steven Naifeh come to mind. After reading this excellent biography I must place it with these great books. I am tired of reading art critics who obscure great art rather than illuminate it. This work opens up to the layman in simple and clear writing the beauty and complexity of this modern artist in his struggle to create meaningful and profound art. In this post modernist world such ambitions are scoffed at. Irony is easy but to be profound is the most dangerous thing an artist can attempt. He risks being pompous and bombastic. But Rothko avoids these pitfalls and in the process has become one of our greatest artists. I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did. Books like this are rare. Get it.

I expected a hard cover and it was a paperback. I expected it to be new and LOOK new. It looked used. It was shipped out by a company called Peoples Books. It got lost in the mail and re-shipped...took almost 4 weeks. Since this is a gift I really wish it had looked like it could be "a gift".

at times a dense read, this provides detail about rothko's life starting from his family's origins. once you wade through to the art, this book is a extremely interesting story about an extremely interesting man.

If you really want to know Rothko, read Dore Ashton. Breslin tends to simplify things and I don't think that he really loves Rothko or has communicated with the paintings. Only for die-hard Rothkoites like me.

I wasnt that interested in his childhood..its the adult fired from brooklyn college unable to sell many paintings id like to know more about!!!!
However this is the book to read if you want to know the facts of his life.