Author(s): Oliver Wick

Art

Recently breaking the record price for post-war art at a Sothebys auction, Rothkos White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) is indicative of this artist's tremendous and enduring legacy as a master of color. The monograph begins with Rothkos early work focusing specifically on the delicate hues and subtle texture of his relatively small paintings on gesso board. It continues with an exploration of the stratified and chalky colour that appear in his surrealist works that signal his increasing pull towards abstractionism and ends with a survey of his mature works, where all of these techniques culminate into the gradated colours in rectangular forms that would become hallmarks of his style.