Mark Rothko’s work is among the most recognisable in modern art history. His huge colour-field works enjoy enormous popularity for their luminosity, moodiness, and immersive qualities. But he didn’t always paint in bold, simple swaths of colour. This graphic biography traces Rothko’s entire life, from his boyhood emigration from Russia to America, to his suicide in 1970. It touches on his schooling and early work for the WPA in the 1930s; the evolution of his art from representational to purely abstract; and the dawning of his artistic philosophy, which took him farther and farther away from the material world and toward a universally emotional and expressionist modality. The book’s finely detailed drawings are Rothko’s signature colours and draw readers into his fascinating creative journey. While Rothko the artist was largely misunderstood during his lifetime, this unique graphic biography offers a way of making sense of his life and of decoding the visual language he invented.

Illustrated by: Giovanni Scarduelli