Mark Rothko

Born in Russia, came to Portland, Oregon, in 1913, moved to New York City about 1925. Painter whose early work depicted urban scenes with isolated figures; later he developed the distinctive format of shifting rectangles in subtle colors that made him a leader of the Abstract Expressionist movement.

Charles Sullivan, ed American Beauties: Women in Art and Literature (New York: Henry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with National Museum of American Art, 1993)