“The Art of Mark Rothko” and “Abstraction Since Mark Rothko”

by Matthew Kangas

Portland Art Museum, Portland

Continuing through February 28, 2027

Mark Rothko, “Woman Reading,” c.1933.

The selection of paintings and works on paper assembled to commemorate the opening of the new Mark Rothko Pavilion at the newly expanded Portland Art Museum could also be titled “Rothko before Rothko.” It focuses on art made in Portland where his family, the Rothkowitzes, settled in a large Russian community after they fled Latvia in 1913.

With loans from the National Gallery of Art, Rothko’s son, Christopher, the Mark Rothko Foundation, a few private collectors, and the museum’s own holdings, the survey contains revelations not necessarily highlighted in earlier omnibus Rothko shows, except for the 2012 retrospective. The erstwhile Oregon resident (1903-1970) had his first museum show there in 1933, at age 30, ten years removed from Yale, which he left after his sophomore year for New York City. Part of the original New York School or Abstract Expressionists, Rothko’s art has always stood apart for its unique qualities devoid of messy gestures and concern with a content he described, in a famous essay that he co-authored with Barnett Newman, as “tragic and timeless.”

Mark Rothko, “Beach Scene,” c. 1928.

With his return to Portland in 1943, we see the artist addressing local color in a still life with prescient floating background areas (“Untitled” 1945), and in a portrait of his first wife Edith Sacher titled “The Craftsman,” (1938/1939) in which a jeweler is surrounded by her worktable and tools. “Woman Reading” (c. 1933) might also be a portrait of Edith. Both paintings are dominated by darker colors, close-value tones, and straightforward poses. They highlight the dark lighting, moody colors, and, significantly, uncomfortable control of the human figure that will soon be jettisoned.

Of greater interest is the black-ink view of downtown Portland from the West Hills (“Untitled” c. 1930), with its slashes evoking a forest and buildings off in the distance. More revealing and telling of the few influences the artist admitted to is “Beach Scene” (c. 1928), painted the year he met Milton Avery, whose own beach scenes and broad areas of solid color foretell Rothko’s floating “clouds” and muted palette. The group of four reclining women also echo comparable figure groups by Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso, which Rothko doubtless would have seen in New York.

Mark Rothko, “No. 16 — Green, White, Yellow on Yellow,” 1951, oil on canvas, 67 5/8 × 4 5/8”. Copyright © 1998 by Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. All images courtesy of the Portland Art Museum.

“Untitled” (1947) is among the first of the Rothkos now widely recognized as his individual hallmark. Barely three feet high, its dusty pink shifts from light to dark, top to bottom, covered over with two flat oblong shapes with feathery edges. It is supplemented by another early treasure, “No. 10” (1949), which announces what he called “multiforms,” six hovering yellow, green and red shapes over an orange background. The acute attention paid to surface activity, formal placement of the blocks and the overall success of the composition affirm the artist’s growing talent for abstract painting that alludes to mysterious worlds devoid of any figuration or landscape residue. It is joined nearby by the beautiful “No. 16 — Green, White, Yellow on Yellow” (1951), in which the challenge of perfect levitation and unexpected chromatic harmony is fulfilled by increasingly thin washes of paint. Whether they comprise what Rothko intended as “metaphysical or symbolic meaning” is in hindsight debatable. Such intentions become less certain as the works are seen over a half-century later, unmoored from his and Newman’s dead-serious manifestoes.

Across the walkway is a somewhat hidden tribute show, “Abstraction after Rothko.” It highlights works from the museum’s collection, including many paintings once owned by art critic Clement Greenberg, whose collection the museum acquired in 2001. The group reinforces the case for the significance of the New York School, Rothko, and the other artists Greenberg championed.

Kikuo Saito, “Kitchen Opera,” 1985, acrylic on canvas, 65 x 68 1/2”. © 1985 Kikuo Saito/Courtesy of Salander-O-Reilly Galleries, New York.

Half of the 26 paintings, sculptures and photographs pay oblique homage to Rothko’s breakthroughs of solid color areas, diluted paint, and rejection of anecdotal or political subjects. Paramount among the works are Jules Olitski’s “The Prince Patutsky — Red” (1962), Kenneth Noland’s “No. One” (1958), and “Spaced Out Orbit” (1973) by Helen Frankenthaler. All three are painted in acrylic as opposed to Rothko’s bravura treatment of oil. They function as centered targets rather than distributing shapes but still pay tribute to Rothko’s attention to color.

Noland’s concentric circles of red and yellow enclose a black-and-blue “eye,” all shifted off-center to proclaim the artist’s here-and-now allegiance to the painting’s presence, in contrast to the shy, shifting arrival of Rothko’s shapes and colors. Similarly, Olitski’s white circle over red contains black and purple curves while Frankenthaler’s is the most austere of all, a multi-colored horizontal slab across a white background. Of the overall grouping, Kikuo Saito’s “Kitchen Opera” (1985) most closely resembles the older artist’s quiet fields. Joined by the spectacular 13-foot-wide “Beta Omicron” (1959-61) by Morris Louis, the Noland, Olitski and Frankenthaler paintings all serve as evidence of the Greenberg-approved transition from Abstract Expressionism to the Rothko-influenced Color Field School.

Matthew Kangas writes regularly for Visual Art Source eNewsletter; Ceramics: Art & Perception (Australia); and Preview (Canada). Besides reviewing for many years at Art in America, American Craft, Art Ltd., Vanguard and Seattle Times, he is the author of numerous catalogs and monographs, the latest being the award-winning Italo Scanga 1932-2001. Four anthologies of his critical essays, reviews and interviews were issued by Midmarch Arts Press (New York) and available on Amazon at Books by Matthew Kangas.