June 23, 2013 - September 29, 2013

Mark Rothko in the 1940s traces the development of Rothko’s work during the most critical decade of his career. In the early ’40s, Rothko rejected realism and began a series of abstract works meant to evoke classical myth; in the late ’40s he created his first color field paintings, the works on which his stature as one of the most famous American painters of the post-war period rests. The exhibition also includes paintings by other celebrated abstract expressionists such as Robert Motherwell, Clyfford Still, and Jackson Pollock, who shared Rothko’s search toward total abstraction.