Oliver Wick - Mark Rothko - 2007

Mark Rothko
Edited by Oliver Wick

This catalog is a fundamental work for understanding the artistic and spiritual arc of one of the greatest masters of Abstract Expressionism. It is a large-format monographic volume (28 x 30 cm) with 232 pages and serves as a prestigious official catalog for the artist’s historic first major Italian retrospective held at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome between late 2007 and early 2008.

The Artistic Path in the Volume

The book structures a true chronological and thematic journey that allows the reader to go beyond the famous “fields of color,” showing how the painter arrived at such a level of absolute abstraction:

The Figurative Phase (1930s): The early works reproduce urban scenes and New York subway stations, characterized by elongated figures and solitary atmospheres.

The Surrealist Period (1940s): The volume documents the transition influenced by classical myths, Greek tragedy, and the unconscious, with biomorphic shapes and gypsum-like stratifications.

The “Multiforms” (Late 1940s): The canvases in which the contours blur and blocks of color, still asymmetrical, begin to freely drift in space, marking the birth of his definitive language.

The Classic Works (1950s): The maturity of the monumental Color Field paintings, where superimposed rectangular color fields create a luminous vibration capable of generating deep emotional resonances in the viewer.

The Dark Paintings (“Black Form” and “Black on Grey”): The final dramatic phase of his life (until his suicide in 1970), characterized by somber, gray and black tones, mirroring a profound existential crisis.

Exclusive Content and Edition Advantages

The Venice Biennale of 1958: The catalog includes and documents for the first time the historic paintings exhibited in the famous “Mark Rothko Room” during the 29th Venice Biennale, a moment of European consecration for the artist.

Exceptional Visual Apparatus: The work includes about 100 works reproduced at very high resolution (including 70 full-page paintings and a series of rare drawings), coming from major American museums as well as directly from the private collections of the heirs (Christopher Rothko and Kate Rothko Prizel).

Critical Approach: The curator Oliver Wick’s essays and those of involved art historians do not analyze the works as mere formal or decorative exercises, but as vehicles of universal human emotions: ecstasy, tragedy, solitude, and transcendence.

Conditions

The volume is generally in very good condition. Cover well preserved. Stitched binding firmly intact. Interior pages clean with no creases or stains. A fine collectible/reference copy.

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