Totemic Sign / Totem Sign

1944–1945

Mell Beistle: meeting and marriage

Rothko met the book illustrator Mary Alice “Mell” Beistle in 1944 and married her in early 1945.

late 1945

The Art of This Century show

The one-person show at Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery was not a success: few sales, at prices from $150 to $750, and unfavourable reviews. Guggenheim nevertheless bought several works, including Sacrifice (1946), and showed it in her European galleries, making it among the first of Rothko’s paintings exhibited outside the United States.

1946

The first Rothko in a museum collection

The Whitney Museum, which included Rothko’s surrealist works in its annual exhibition from 1943 to 1950, acquired Baptismal Scene (1945) in 1946: the first of his works to enter a museum collection, a key milestone in his career.

3 – 22 March 1947

A first solo show with Betty Parsons

Rothko’s first solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery ran from 3 to 22 March 1947; he showed there again in 1950 and 1951.

1948

Rothko’s mother dies

Rothko’s mother, Kate, died in October 1948; the discovery of his definitive form came at a period of great distress.

1948–1949

The “Subjects of the Artist” school

In 1948 Rothko, Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes, Barnett Newman and David Hare founded the Subjects of the Artist school at 35 East 8th Street, with public lectures by Jean Arp, John Cage and Ad Reinhardt; it failed financially and closed in the spring of 1949. Besides teaching, Rothko began writing for the new magazines Tiger’s Eye and Possibilities.