Untitled (four figures in a plaza)

early 1930s

Milton Avery and Adolph Gottlieb

In the early 1930s Rothko met Adolph Gottlieb and the circle around Milton Avery, including Barnett Newman, Joseph Solman, Louis Schanker and John Graham. According to Elaine de Kooning it was Avery who convinced Rothko that a professional artist’s life was possible; the friends vacationed together at Lake George and Gloucester, painting by day and talking about art in the evenings.

summer 1933

First solo show at the Portland Art Museum

In the summer of 1933 the Portland Art Museum held Rothko’s first one-person show, mostly drawings and watercolours. In a very unusual step he hung works by his young pupils from the Center Academy alongside his own.

21 November – 9 December 1933

First solo show in New York

At the Contemporary Arts Gallery Rothko showed fifteen oil paintings, mostly portraits, along with watercolours and drawings. The oils especially caught the critics’ eye: his fields of colour had already moved beyond Avery’s influence.

late 1935

Joins “The Ten”

In late 1935 Rothko joined Ilya Bolotowsky, Ben-Zion, Adolph Gottlieb, Louis Harris, Ralph Rosenborg, Louis Schanker and Joseph Solman to form “The Ten”, whose stated aim was to protest against the supposed equivalence of American painting and literal painting.

21 February 1938

Becomes a US citizen

On 21 February 1938 Rothko received American citizenship, relieved: he had feared that the growing influence of the Nazis in Europe might lead to the sudden deportation of Jews without citizenship.

1940

Shortens his name to Mark Rothko

Concerned about rising antisemitism in Europe and America, Rothko shortened “Markus Rothkowitz” to “Mark Rothko” in 1940; “Roth” still sounded identifiably Jewish, so he settled on “Rothko”. All his works have been signed with that name since.