Mark Rothko: A Biography

BRESLIN, James E.B.

ISBN 10: 0226074056 / ISBN 13: 9780226074054

Published by University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1993

About this Item

First edition and first printing. Hardcover. 700 pages. A comprehensive biography of one of the more important artists of the 20th century. Includes 52 color and black and white illustrations. A clean and tight near fine copy in paper covered boards with a cloth spine and in very near fine dust jacket.

Seller Inventory # 216617

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mark Rothko: A Biography
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226074056
• ISBN 13: 9780226074054
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: dj
• Weight: 4.562 pounds
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biography

About this title

Synopsis

The definitive biography of one of the most-loved artists of the twentieth century, a book the New York Times called "the best life of an American painter yet written"

A book of heroic dimensions, this is the first full-length biography of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century—a man as fascinating, difficult, and compelling as the paintings he produced. Drawing on exclusive access to Mark Rothko's personal papers and over one hundred interviews with artists, patrons, and dealers, James Breslin tells the story of a life in art—the personal costs and professional triumphs, the convergence of genius and ego, the clash of culture and commerce. Breslin offers us not only an enticing look at Rothko as a person, but delivers a lush, in-depth portrait of the New York art scene of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s—the world of Abstract Expressionism, of Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, and Klein, which would influence artists for generations to come.

 

About the Author

James E. B. Breslin (1935-1996) was a professor of English and chair of the Department of Art Practice at the University of California at Berkeley, where he served on the faculty for thirty-two years.

His lifelong interest as a scholar lay in twentieth century American poetry and art. His first book was William Carlos Williams: An American Artist, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1970. This was followed by From Modern to Contemporary, which the Press published in 1984. Mark Rothko: A Biography, which the Press first released in 1993 is his best-known book, and marked a turn from poetry to American painting at its most radical moment: the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, displayed and explored in the career and life of one of its masters.