Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Abstract art , non-figurative art , non-objective art , and non-representational art are all closely related terms. They have similar, but perhaps not identical, meanings.
163-416: Mark Rothko ( / ˈ r ɒ θ k oʊ / ROTH -koh ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) was an American abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of color, which he produced from 1949 to 1970. Although Rothko did not personally subscribe to any one school, he
326-520: A major regional heat wave . The record had been broken for three consecutive days with daytime highs of 108 °F (42 °C) on June 26 and 112 °F (44 °C) on June 27; the previous record of 107 °F (42 °C) was set in July 1965 and matched twice in August 1981. A temperature of 100 °F (38 °C) has been recorded in all five months from May through September. The warmest night of
489-540: A 1942 show at Macy's department store in New York City. In response to a negative review by The New York Times , Rothko and Gottlieb issued a manifesto, written mainly by Rothko. Addressing the Times critic's self-professed "befuddlement" over the new work, they stated "We favor the simple expression of the complex thought. We are for the large shape because it has the impact of the unequivocal. We wish to reassert
652-871: A Circle (1911); František Kupka had painted the Orphist works, Discs of Newton (Study for Fugue in Two Colors ), 1912 and Amorpha, Fugue en deux couleurs ( Fugue in Two Colors ), 1912; Robert Delaunay painted a series entitled Simultaneous Windows and Formes Circulaires, Soleil n°2 (1912–13); Léopold Survage created Colored Rhythm (Study for the film), 1913; Piet Mondrian , painted Tableau No. 1 and Composition No. 11 , 1913. With his expressive use of color and his free and imaginative drawing Henri Matisse comes very close to pure abstraction in French Window at Collioure (1914), View of Notre-Dame (1914), and The Yellow Curtain from 1915. And
815-516: A basis for a diversity of modes of abstraction. The following extract from The World Backwards gives some impression of the inter-connectedness of culture at the time: " David Burliuk 's knowledge of modern art movements must have been extremely up-to-date, for the second Knave of Diamonds exhibition , held in January 1912 (in Moscow) included not only paintings sent from Munich, but some members of
978-700: A budding artist's knowledge and skills. Among the important early influences on him were the works of the German Expressionists , the surrealist art of Paul Klee , and the paintings of Georges Rouault . In 1928, with a group of other young artists, Rothko exhibited works at the Opportunity Gallery. His paintings, including dark, moody, expressionist interiors and urban scenes, were generally well accepted among critics and peers. To supplement his income, in 1929 Rothko began instructing schoolchildren in drawing, painting, and clay sculpture at
1141-480: A change of scenery might help, Rothko returned to Portland. From there, he traveled to Berkeley, where he met artist Clyfford Still , and the two began a close friendship. Still's deeply abstract paintings would be of considerable influence on Rothko's later works. In the autumn of 1943, Rothko returned to New York. He met with noted collector and art dealer Peggy Guggenheim , but she was initially reluctant to take on his artworks. Rothko's one-person show at Guggenheim's
1304-596: A citizen of the United States, prompted by fears that the growing Nazi influence in Europe might provoke the sudden deportation of American Jews. Concerned about antisemitism in America and Europe, Rothko abbreviated his name from "Markus Rothkowitz" to "Mark Rothko". The name "Roth", a common abbreviation, was still identifiably Jewish, so he settled upon "Rothko." Fearing that modern American painting had reached
1467-433: A concept (she organized an exhibit in 1871). Expressionist painters explored the bold use of paint surface, drawing distortions and exaggerations, and intense color. Expressionists produced emotionally charged paintings that were reactions to and perceptions of contemporary experience; and reactions to Impressionism and other more conservative directions of late 19th-century painting. The Expressionists drastically changed
1630-475: A conceptual dead end, Rothko was intent on exploring subjects other than urban and nature scenes. He sought subjects that would complement his growing interest in form, space, and color. The world crisis of war gave this search a sense of immediacy. He insisted that the new subject matter have a social impact, yet be able to transcend the confines of current political symbols and values. In his essay "The Romantics Were Prompted," published in 1948, Rothko argued that
1793-409: A dusky grayish brown background, with an identifiable baptismal fountain at the top of the painting. In 1946, Rothko created what art critics have since termed his transitional "multiform" paintings, although Rothko never used the term himself. Several of them, including No. 18 and Untitled (both 1948), are less transitional than fully realized. Rothko himself described these paintings as possessing
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#17327727260531956-431: A few degrees. Evening temperatures fall to or below freezing 32 nights per year on average, but very rarely below 18 °F (−8 °C). There are only 2.1 days per year where the daytime high temperature fails to rise above freezing; the mean for the lowest high is at the exact freezing point of 32 °F (0 °C). The lowest overnight temperature ever recorded was −3 °F (−19 °C), on February 2, 1950, while
2119-665: A few directions relating to abstraction in the second half of the 20th century. In the United States, Art as Object as seen in the Minimalist sculpture of Donald Judd and the paintings of Frank Stella are seen today as newer permutations. Other examples include Lyrical Abstraction and the sensuous use of color seen in the work of painters as diverse as Robert Motherwell , Patrick Heron , Kenneth Noland , Sam Francis , Cy Twombly , Richard Diebenkorn , Helen Frankenthaler , Joan Mitchell , and Veronica Ruiz de Velasco . One socio-historical explanation that has been offered for
2282-809: A few of the exiled Europeans who arrived in New York. The rich cultural influences brought by the European artists were distilled and built upon by local New York painters. The climate of freedom in New York allowed all of these influences to flourish. The art galleries that primarily had focused on European art began to notice the local art community and the work of younger American artists who had begun to mature. Certain artists at this time became distinctly abstract in their mature work. During this period Piet Mondrian's painting Composition No. 10 , 1939–1942, characterized by primary colors, white ground and black grid lines clearly defined his radical but classical approach to
2445-458: A gallery show catalog, the mission of the group was "to protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and literal painting." Rothko was earning a growing reputation among his peers, particularly among the group that formed the Artists' Union. The Artists' Union, including Gottlieb and Solman, hoped to create a municipal art gallery, to show self-organized group exhibitions. In 1936,
2608-519: A highly active volcano 50 miles (80 km) northeast of the city in Washington state, is easily visible on clear days and is close enough to have dusted the city with volcanic ash after its eruption on May 18, 1980. The rocks of the Portland area range in age from late Eocene to more recent eras. Multiple shallow, active fault lines traverse the Portland metropolitan area. Among them are
2771-656: A large number of saloons, bordellos , gambling dens, and boarding houses which were populated with miners after the California Gold Rush , as well as the multitude of sailors passing through the port. By the early 20th century, the city had lost its reputation as a "sober frontier city" and garnered a reputation for being violent and dangerous. Between 1900 and 1930, the city's population tripled from nearly 100,000 to 301,815. During World War II , it housed an "assembly center" from which up to 3,676 people of Japanese descent were dispatched to internment camps in
2934-509: A manifesto defining an abstract art in which the line, color and surface only are the concrete reality. Abstraction-Création founded in 1931 as a more open group, provided a point of reference for abstract artists, as the political situation worsened in 1935, and artists again regrouped, many in London. The first exhibition of British abstract art was held in England in 1935. The following year
3097-420: A more organic structure, and as self-contained units of human expression. For him, these blurred blocks of various colors, devoid of landscape or the human figure, let alone myth and symbol, possessed their own life force. They contained a "breath of life" he found lacking in the most figurative painting of the era. They were filled with possibility, whereas his experimentation with mythological symbolism had become
3260-461: A new art had been made by James McNeill Whistler who, in his painting Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket , (1872), placed greater emphasis on visual sensation than the depiction of objects. Even earlier than that, with her "spirit" drawings, Georgiana Houghton 's choice to work with abstract shapes correlate with the unnatural nature of her subject, in a time when abstraction was not yet
3423-588: A newspaper, the Weekly Oregonian . A major fire swept through downtown in August 1873 , destroying twenty blocks on the west side of the Willamette along Yamhill and Morrison Streets, and causing $ 1.3 million in damage, roughly equivalent to $ 33.1 million today. By 1879, the population had grown to 17,500 and by 1890 it had grown to 46,385. In 1888, the first steel bridge on the West Coast
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#17327727260533586-636: A period of great distress to the artist, as his mother Kate had died in October 1948. As the "multiforms" developed into what was to become his signature style, by early 1949 Rothko exhibited these new works at the Betty Parsons Gallery. For critic Harold Rosenberg , the paintings were nothing short of a revelation. After painting his first "multiform", Rothko had secluded himself in his home in East Hampton on Long Island. He invited only
3749-523: A professional artist] was a possibility."Avery's abstract nature paintings, utilizing a rich knowledge of form and color, had a tremendous influence on him. Soon, Rothko's paintings took on the subject matter and color similar to Avery's, as seen in Bathers, or Beach Scene of 1933–1934. Rothko, Gottlieb, Newman, Solman, Graham, and their mentor, Avery, spent considerable time together, vacationing at Lake George, New York , and Gloucester, Massachusetts . In
3912-481: A protest to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Floyd's murder caused property damage, and was followed by a number of arrests. Portland lies on top of a dormant volcanic field known as the Boring Lava Field , named after the nearby bedroom community of Boring . The Boring Lava Field has at least 32 cinder cones such as Mount Tabor , and its center lies in southeast Portland. Mount St. Helens ,
4075-471: A select few, including Rosenberg, to view the new paintings. Rothko happened upon the use of symmetrical rectangular blocks of two to three opposing or contrasting, yet complementary, colors, in which, for example, "the rectangles sometimes seem barely to coalesce out of the ground, concentrations of its substance. The green bar in Magenta, Black, Green on Orange , on the other hand, appears to vibrate against
4238-432: A single street name on a grid. For example, the 200 block north of Burnside is either NW Davis Street or NE Davis Street throughout the entire city. The six previous addressing sections of Portland, which were colloquially known as quadrants despite there being six, have developed distinctive identities, with mild cultural differences and friendly rivalries between their residents, especially between those who live east of
4401-609: A summer semester teaching at the California School of Fine Art, Rothko and Still flirted with the idea of founding their own curriculum. In 1948, Rothko, Robert Motherwell , William Baziotes , Barnett Newman , and David Hare founded the Subjects of the Artist School at 35 East 8th Street . Well-attended lectures there were open to the public, with speakers such as Jean Arp , John Cage , and Ad Reinhardt , but
4564-407: A technician, learning to use the tools and materials of modern production. Art into life! was Vladimir Tatlin 's slogan, and that of all the future Constructivists. Varvara Stepanova and Alexandre Exter and others abandoned easel painting and diverted their energies to theatre design and graphic works. On the other side stood Kazimir Malevich , Anton Pevsner and Naum Gabo . They argued that art
4727-486: A time, contributing to 157 days on average with measurable (≥0.01 in or 0.25 mm) precipitation annually. Temperatures have reached 90 °F (32 °C) as early as April 30 and as late as October 5, while 80 °F (27 °C) has been reached as early as April 1 and as late as October 21. Thunderstorms are uncommon and tornadoes are very rare, although they do occur. See or edit raw graph data . Portland's cityscape derives much of its character from
4890-401: A tired formula. The "multiforms" brought Rothko to a realization of his signature style of rectangular regions of color, which he continued to produce for the rest of his life. In the middle of this crucial period of transition, Rothko had been impressed by Clyfford Still 's abstract fields of color, which were influenced in part by the landscapes of Still's native North Dakota. In 1947, during
5053-446: A transitional phase during the 1940s, where he experimented with mythological themes and Surrealism to express tragedy. Toward the end of the decade, Rothko painted canvases with regions of pure color which he further abstracted into rectangular color forms, the idiom he would use for the rest of his life. In his later career, Rothko executed several canvases for three different mural projects. The Seagram murals were to have decorated
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5216-441: A vehicle for emotional and religious expression. Rothko's paintings from this era reveal the influence of his instructor. Years later, when Weber attended a show of his former student's work and expressed his admiration, Rothko was immensely pleased. Rothko's move to New York landed him in a fertile artistic atmosphere. Modernist painters regularly exhibited in New York galleries, and the city's museums were an invaluable resource for
5379-565: A view from a single point, with modulated color in flat areas – became the basis of a new visual art, later to be developed into Cubism . Additionally in the late 19th century in Eastern Europe mysticism and early modernist religious philosophy as expressed by theosophist Mme. Blavatsky had a profound impact on pioneer geometric artists like Hilma af Klint and Wassily Kandinsky . The mystical teaching of Georges Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky also had an important influence on
5542-412: A waiter and delivery boy to support his studies. Rothko was more an autodidact than a diligent pupil: One of his fellow students remembers that he hardly seemed to study, but that he was a voracious reader. Rothko and a friend, Aaron Director , started a satirical magazine, The Yale Saturday Evening Pest , that lampooned the school's stuffy, bourgeois tone. Finding Yale to be elitist, and racist, at
5705-572: A year at a local synagogue, he vowed never to set foot in one again. Rothko started school in the United States in 1913, quickly accelerating from third to fifth grade. In June 1921, he completed the secondary level, with honors, at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon , at age 17. He learned his fourth language, English, and became an active member of the Jewish community center, where he proved adept at political discussions. Like his father, Rothko
5868-427: Is Mount Tabor , a volcanic landform. The 2020 census reported the city as 73.8% White (449,025 people), 8.2% Asian (52,854), 5.8% Black or African American (38,217), 0.9% Native American (7,335), 0.5% Pacific Islander (3,919), and 5.0% from two or more races (69,898). 10.3% were Hispanic or Latino, of any race (72,336). Whites not of Hispanic origin made up 68.8% of the total population. The 2010 census reported
6031-527: Is ideal for growing roses , and Portland has been called the "City of Roses" for over a century. During the prehistoric period, the land that would become Portland was flooded after the collapse of glacial dams from Lake Missoula , in what would later become Montana. These massive floods occurred during the last ice age and filled the Willamette Valley with 300 to 400 feet (91 to 122 m) of water. Before American settlers began arriving in
6194-433: Is "PDX", the airport code for Portland International Airport . Other nicknames include Bridgetown, Stumptown, Rip City, Soccer City, P-Town, Portlandia, and the more antiquated Little Beirut. From May 28, 2020, until spring 2021, there were daily protests about the murder of George Floyd by police, and racial injustice. There were instances of looting, vandalism, and police actions causing injuries. One protestor
6357-599: Is approximately 100 miles (160 km) upriver from the Pacific Ocean on the Columbia. Though much of downtown Portland is relatively flat, the foothills of the Tualatin Mountains , more commonly referred to locally as the "West Hills", pierce through the northwest and southwest reaches of the city. Council Crest Park at 1,073 feet (327 m) is often quoted as the highest point in Portland; however,
6520-651: Is associated with the American abstract expressionism movement of modern art. Born in Daugavpils , Latvia , then under occupation by the Russian Empire, Rothko and his family emigrated to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island in late 1913 and originally settling in Portland, Oregon . He moved to New York City in 1923 where his youthful period of artistic production dealt primarily with urban scenery. In response to World War II , Rothko's art entered
6683-575: Is impossible. Artwork which takes liberties, e.g. altering color or form in ways that are conspicuous, can be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable. In geometric abstraction , for instance, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic entities. Figurative art and total abstraction are almost mutually exclusive . But figurative and representational (or realistic ) art often contain partial abstraction. Both geometric abstraction and lyrical abstraction are often totally abstract. Among
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6846-484: Is largely residential. Downtown district , made up of commercial businesses, museums, skyscrapers , and public landmarks represents a small area within the southwest address section. Portland's South Waterfront area has been developing into a dense neighborhood of shops, condominiums, and apartments starting in the mid-2000s. Development in this area is ongoing. The area is served by the Portland Streetcar ,
7009-444: Is only the child producing a mimicry of himself." In this manuscript, he observed: "Tradition of starting with drawing in academic notion. We may start with color." Rothko was using fields of color in his aquarelles and city scenes. His style was already evolving in the direction of his renowned later works. In the 1930s, Rothko and Gottlieb together worked through intellectual perceptions and opinions they had about contemporary art. By
7172-527: Is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon , located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated in the northwestern area of the state at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, it is the county seat of Multnomah County , Oregon's most populous county. As of 2020, Portland's population was 652,503, making it the 26th-most populous city in the United States,
7335-666: Is the first new bridge to span the Willamette in Portland since the 1973 opening of the double-decker Fremont Bridge . Other bridges that span the Willamette River in the downtown area include the Burnside Bridge , the Ross Island Bridge (both built 1926), and the double-decker Marquam Bridge (built 1966). Other bridges outside the downtown area include the Sellwood Bridge (built 2016) to
7498-461: Is then precisely the abstract nature of social existence—legal formalities, bureaucratic impersonalization, information/power—in the world of late modernity . By contrast, Post-Jungians would see the quantum theories with their disintegration of conventional ideas of form and matter as underlying the divorce of the concrete and the abstract in modern art. Portland, Oregon Portland ( / ˈ p ɔːr t l ə n d / PORT -lənd )
7661-608: Is water. Although almost all of Portland is within Multnomah County , small portions of the city are within Clackamas and Washington counties. Portland has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen Csb), falling just short of a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) with cool and rainy winters, and warm and dry summers. This climate is characterized by having overcast, wet, and changing weather conditions in fall, winter, and spring, as Portland lies in
7824-670: The Abstract expressionists and the New York School . In New York City there was an atmosphere which encouraged discussion and there was a new opportunity for learning and growing. Artists and teachers John D. Graham and Hans Hofmann became important bridge figures between the newly arrived European Modernists and the younger American artists coming of age. Mark Rothko , born in Russia, began with strongly surrealist imagery which later dissolved into his powerful color compositions of
7987-511: The Art of This Century gallery , in late 1945, resulted in few sales, with prices ranging from $ 150 to $ 750. The exhibit also attracted less-than-favorable reviews from critics. During this period, Rothko had been stimulated by Still's abstract landscapes of color, and his style shifted away from surrealism. Rothko's experiments in interpreting the unconscious symbolism of everyday forms had run their course. His future lay with abstraction: I insist upon
8150-461: The Bauhaus . By the mid-1920s the revolutionary period (1917 to 1921) when artists had been free to experiment was over; and by the 1930s only socialist realism was allowed. As visual art becomes more abstract, it develops some characteristics of music : an art form which uses the abstract elements of sound and divisions of time. Wassily Kandinsky , himself an amateur musician, was inspired by
8313-702: The Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building , but Rothko eventually grew disgusted with the idea that his paintings would be decorative objects for wealthy diners and refunded the lucrative commission, donating the paintings to museums including the Tate Gallery . The Harvard Mural series was donated to a dining room in Harvard 's Holyoke Center (now Smith Campus Center ); their colors faded badly over time due to Rothko's use of
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#17327727260538476-491: The MAX Orange Line and four TriMet bus lines. This former industrial area sat as a brownfield prior to development in the mid-2000s. Southeast Portland is largely residential, and consists of several neighborhoods, including Hawthorne District , Belmont , Brooklyn , and Mount Tabor . Reed College , a private liberal arts college that was founded in 1908, is located within the confines of Southeast Portland as
8639-542: The Museum of Modern Art , "Cubism and Abstract Art", and "Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism". In 1942, following the success of shows by Ernst , Miró , Wolfgang Paalen , Tanguy , and Salvador Dalí , artists who had immigrated to the United States because of the war, Surrealism took New York by storm. Rothko and his peers, Gottlieb and Newman , met and discussed the art and ideas of these European pioneers, as well as those of Mondrian . New paintings were unveiled at
8802-618: The Portland Hills Fault on the city's west side, and the East Bank Fault on the east side. According to a 2017 survey, several of these faults were characterized as "probably more of a hazard" than the Cascadia subduction zone due to their proximities to population centers, with the potential of producing magnitude 7 earthquakes . Notable earthquakes that have impacted the Portland area in recent history include
8965-585: The Works Progress Administration . Rothko's work has been described in eras. His early period (1924–1939) saw representational art inflected by impressionism, usually depicting urban scenes. In 1936, Rothko began writing a book, never completed, about similarities between the art of children and the work of modern painters. According to Rothko, the work of modernists, influenced by primitive art, could be compared to that of children in that "child art transforms itself into primitivism, which
9128-488: The anarchist Emma Goldman , where he developed strong oratorical skills he later used in defense of Surrealism . With the onset of the Russian Revolution , Rothko organized debates about it. Despite the repressive political atmosphere, he wished to become a labor union organizer . Rothko received a scholarship to Yale . At the end of his first year in 1922, the scholarship was not renewed, and he worked as
9291-573: The cheder at age five, where he studied the Talmud , although his elder siblings had been educated in the public school system. Fearing that his elder sons were about to be drafted into the Imperial Russian Army , Jacob Rothkowitz emigrated from Russian Empire to the United States. Markus remained in Russian Empire with his mother and elder sister Sonia. They arrived as immigrants, at Ellis Island , in late 1913. From there, they crossed
9454-566: The urban heat island effect. Neighborhoods outside of the downtown core, especially in slightly higher elevations near the West Hills and Mount Tabor , can experience a dusting of snow while downtown receives no accumulation at all. The city has experienced a few major snow and ice storms in its past, with extreme totals having reached 44.5 in (113 cm) at the airport in 1949–50 and 60.9 in (155 cm) at downtown in 1892–93. Summers in Portland are warm, dry, and sunny, though
9617-530: The "archaic artist ... found it necessary to create a group of intermediaries, monsters, hybrids, gods and demigods," in much the same way that modern man found intermediaries in Fascism and the Communist Party . For Rothko, "without monsters and gods, art cannot enact a drama". Rothko's use of mythology as a commentary on current history was not novel. Rothko, Gottlieb, and Newman read and discussed
9780-603: The 1800s, the land was inhabited for many centuries by two bands of indigenous Chinook people – the Multnomah and the Clackamas . The Chinook people occupying the land were first documented in 1805 by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark . Before its European settlement, the Portland Basin of the lower Columbia River and Willamette River valleys had been one of the most densely populated regions on
9943-766: The 1940s and 1950s. In 1957, Life magazine published an article detailing the city's history of government corruption and crime, specifically its gambling rackets and illegal nightclubs. The article, which focused on crime boss Jim Elkins , became the basis of a fictionalized film titled Portland Exposé (1957). In spite of the city's seedier undercurrent of criminal activity, Portland enjoyed an economic and industrial surge during World War II. Ship builder Henry J. Kaiser had been awarded contracts to build Liberty ships and aircraft carrier escorts, and chose sites in Portland and Vancouver, Washington , for work yards. During this time, Portland's population rose by over 150,000, largely attributed to recruited laborers. During
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#173277272605310106-500: The 1940s, both artists were delving into mythology for themes and forms, tapping into what could be considered universal consciousness. This period extended into his middle, "transitional" years (1940–1950), continuing incorporation of mythical and "biomorphic" abstraction, and "multiforms", the latter being canvases with large regions of color. Rothko's transitional decade was influenced by World War II, which prompted him to seek novel expression of tragedy in art. During this time Rothko
10269-436: The 1960s, it became noted for its growing liberal and progressive political values, earning it a reputation as a bastion of counterculture . The city operates with a commission-based government , guided by a mayor and four commissioners, as well as Metro , the only directly elected metropolitan planning organization in the United States. Its climate is marked by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. This climate
10432-483: The 1960s, an influx of hippie subculture began to take root in the city in the wake of San Francisco 's burgeoning countercultural scene. The city's Crystal Ballroom became a hub for the city's psychedelic culture , while food cooperatives and listener-funded media and radio stations were established. A large social activist presence evolved during this time as well, specifically concerning Native American rights , environmentalist causes, and gay rights . By
10595-474: The 1970s, Portland had well established itself as a progressive city, and experienced an economic boom for the majority of the decade; however, the slowing of the housing market in 1979 caused demand for the city and state timber industries to drop significantly. In the 1990s, the technology industry began to emerge in Portland, specifically with the establishment of companies such as Intel , which brought more than US$ 10 billion in investments in 1995 alone. In
10758-420: The 6.8-magnitude Nisqually earthquake in 2001, and a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 25, 1993. Per a 2014 report, over 7,000 locations within the Portland area are at high risk for landslides and soil liquefaction in the event of a major earthquake, including much of the city's west side (such as Washington Park ) and sections of Clackamas County . Portland is 60 miles (97 km) east of
10921-522: The Art of This Century gallery, including Sacrifice (1946), which she purchased immediately following its completion. Like other works of this period, it depicted biomorphic shapes and abstract imagery in subtle tones. Guggenheim later showed this work in her European galleries, making it among the first of Rothko's paintings to be exhibited outside the United States. Despite the abandonment of his "Mythomorphic Abstractionism", Rothko would still be recognized by
11084-576: The Bauhaus went to America. During the 1930s Paris became the host to artists from Russia, Germany, the Netherlands and other European countries affected by the rise of totalitarianism . Sophie Tauber and Jean Arp collaborated on paintings and sculpture using organic/geometric forms. The Polish Katarzyna Kobro applied mathematically based ideas to sculpture. The many types of abstraction now in close proximity led to attempts by artists to analyse
11247-548: The Center Academy of the Brooklyn Jewish Center, where he remained active for over twenty years. During the early 1930s, Rothko met Adolph Gottlieb , who, along with Barnett Newman , Joseph Solman , Louis Schanker , and John Graham , was part of a group of young artists surrounding the painter Milton Avery . According to Elaine de Kooning , it was Avery who "gave Rothko the idea that [the life of
11410-610: The Center Academy, alongside his own. His family was unable to understand Rothko's decision to be an artist, especially considering the dire economic situation of the Depression . Having suffered serious financial setbacks, the Rothkowitzes were mystified by Rothko's seeming indifference to financial necessity. They felt he was doing his mother a disservice by not finding a more lucrative and realistic career. Returning to New York, Rothko had his first East Coast one-person show at
11573-540: The Contemporary Arts Gallery. He showed fifteen oil paintings, mostly portraits, along with some aquarelles and drawings. Among these works, the oil paintings especially captured the art critics' eyes. Rothko's use of rich fields of colors moved beyond Avery's influence. In late 1935, Rothko joined with Ilya Bolotowsky , Ben-Zion , Adolph Gottlieb , Louis Harris , Ralph Rosenborg , Louis Schanker and Joseph Solman to form " The Ten ". According to
11736-652: The German Die Brücke group, while from Paris came work by Robert Delaunay , Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger , as well as Picasso. During the Spring David Burliuk gave two lectures on cubism and planned a polemical publication, which the Knave of Diamonds was to finance. He went abroad in May and came back determined to rival the almanac Der Blaue Reiter which had emerged from the printers while he
11899-590: The Museum of Modern Art, in 1940. The painting presents, in subtle grays and browns, two human-like forms embraced in a swirling, floating atmosphere of shapes and colors. The rigid rectangular background foreshadows Rothko's later experiments in pure color. The painting was completed, not coincidentally, in the year the Second World War ended. Although initially hesitant to purchase his works, Guggenheim did acquire several works following Rothko's exhibition at
12062-640: The Oregon settlement began to be populated in the 1840s, near the end of the Oregon Trail . Its water access provided convenient transportation of goods, and the timber industry was a major force in the city's early economy. At the turn of the 20th century, the city had a reputation as one of the most dangerous port cities in the world, a hub for organized crime and racketeering . After the city's economy experienced an industrial boom during World War II , its hard-edged reputation began to dissipate. Beginning in
12225-489: The Pacific Coast. Large numbers of pioneer settlers began arriving in the Willamette Valley in the 1840s via the Oregon Trail with many arriving in nearby Oregon City . A new settlement then emerged ten miles from the mouth of the Willamette River, roughly halfway between Oregon City and Hudson's Bay Company 's Fort Vancouver . This community was initially referred to as "Stumptown" and "The Clearing" because of
12388-519: The Pacific Ocean at the northern end of Oregon 's most populated region, the Willamette Valley. Downtown Portland straddles the banks of the Willamette River, which flows north through the city center and separates the city's east and west neighborhoods. Less than 10 miles (16 km) from downtown, the Willamette River flows into the Columbia River, the fourth-largest river in the United States, which divides Oregon from Washington state. Portland
12551-535: The Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism . The raw language of color as developed by the Fauves directly influenced another pioneer of abstraction, Wassily Kandinsky . Cubism , based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to cube , sphere and cone became, along with Fauvism , the art movement that directly opened
12714-509: The Willamette River versus west of the river. Portland's addressing sections are North, Northwest, Northeast, South, Southeast, and Southwest (which includes downtown Portland ). The Willamette River divides the city into east and west while Burnside Street , which traverses the entire city lengthwise, divides the north and south. North Portland consists of the peninsula formed by the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, with N Williams Ave serving as its eastern boundary. All addresses and streets within
12877-478: The addition of South Portland, all six addressing sectors (N, NE, NW, S, SE and SW) are now officially known as sextants. The Pearl District in Northwest Portland , which was largely occupied by warehouses, light industry and railroad classification yards in the early to mid-20th century, now houses upscale art galleries , restaurants, and retail stores, and is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in
13040-546: The agricultural Tualatin Valley via the " Great Plank Road " (the route of current-day U.S. Route 26 ), provided the pioneer city with an advantage over other nearby ports, and it grew very quickly. Portland remained the major port in the Pacific Northwest for much of the 19th century, until the 1890s, when Seattle's deepwater harbor was connected to the rest of the mainland by rail, affording an inland route without
13203-538: The ancient wisdom of the sacred books of India and China in the early years of the century. It was in this context that Piet Mondrian , Wassily Kandinsky, Hilma af Klint and other artists working towards an 'objectless state' became interested in the occult as a way of creating an 'inner' object. The universal and timeless shapes found in geometry : the circle, square and triangle become the spatial elements in abstract art; they are, like color, fundamental systems underlying visible reality. The Bauhaus at Weimar, Germany
13366-511: The boundaries of the purely aesthetic. In later years, Rothko emphasized more emphatically the spiritual aspect of his artwork, a sentiment that would culminate in the construction of the Rothko Chapel . Many of his early signature paintings are composed of bright, vibrant colors, particularly reds and yellows, expressing energy and ecstasy. By the mid-1950s, however, Rothko began to employ dark blues and greens, which many critics suggested
13529-408: The canvas so that they might experience a sense of intimacy, as well as awe, a transcendence of the individual, and a sense of the unknown. As Rothko achieved success, he became increasingly protective of his works, turning down several potentially important sales and exhibition opportunities: A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by
13692-499: The cities to attract and retain the highest number of college-educated people in the United States. Between 2001 and 2012, Portland's gross domestic product per person grew by fifty percent, more than any other city in the country. The city acquired a diverse range of nicknames throughout its history, though it is most often called "Rose City" or "The City of Roses" (unofficial nickname since 1888, official since 2003). Another widely used nickname by local residents in everyday speech
13855-412: The city are prefixed by N, NW, NE, S, SW or SE with the exception of Burnside Street, which is prefixed with W or E. Starting on May 1, 2020, former Southwest prefix addresses with house numbers on east–west streets leading with zero dropped the zero and the street prefix on all streets (including north–south streets) converted from Southwest to South. For example, the current address of 246 S California St.
14018-432: The city as 76.1% White (444,254 people), 7.1% Asian (41,448), 6.3% Black or African American (36,778), 1.0% Native American (5,838), 0.5% Pacific Islander (2,919), 4.7% belonging to two or more racial groups (24,437) and 5.0% from other races (28,987). 9.4% were Hispanic or Latino, of any race (54,840). Whites not of Hispanic origin made up 72.2% of the total population. In 1940, Portland's African-American population
14181-511: The city proper, Portland has one of the largest Vietnamese populations in America per capita. According to statistics, there are over 4,500 Pacific Islanders in Portland, making up 0.7% of the city's population. There is a Tongan community in Portland, who arrived in the area in the 1970s, and Tongans and Pacific Islanders as a whole are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the Portland area. Portland's population has been and remains predominantly White . In 1940, Whites were over 98% of
14344-474: The city's early establishment as being a " scion of New England ; an ends-of-the-earth home for the exiled spawn of the eastern established elite." In 1889, The Oregonian called Portland "the most filthy city in the Northern States", due to the unsanitary sewers and gutters, and, at the turn of the 20th century, it was considered one of the most dangerous port cities in the world. The city housed
14507-418: The city's population. In 2009, Portland had the fifth-highest percentage of White residents among the 40 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. A 2007 survey of the 40 largest cities in the U.S. concluded Portland's urban core has the highest percentage of White residents. Some scholars have noted the Pacific Northwest as a whole is "one of the last Caucasian bastions of the United States". While Portland's diversity
14670-728: The city. Areas further west of the Pearl District include neighborhoods known as Uptown and Nob Hill, as well as the Alphabet District and NW 23rd Ave., a major shopping street lined with clothing boutiques and other upscale retail, mixed with cafes and restaurants. Northeast Portland is home to the Lloyd District , Alberta Arts District , and the Hollywood District . North Portland is largely residential and industrial. It contains Kelley Point Park ,
14833-823: The coast, as well as the protective nature of the Oregon Coast Range to its west, Portland summers are less susceptible to the moderating influence of the nearby Pacific Ocean. Consequently, Portland occasionally experiences heat waves , with temperatures rising above 90 °F (32 °C) for a few days. However, on average, temperatures reach or exceed 80 °F (27 °C) on only 61 days per year, of which 15 days will reach 90 °F (32 °C) and only 1.3 days will reach 100 °F (38 °C). In 2018 more 90-degree days were recorded than ever before. On June 28, 2021, Portland recorded its all-time record high temperature of 116 °F (47 °C) and its warmest daily low temperature of 75 °F (24 °C) during
14996-459: The country, to join Jacob and the elder brothers, in Portland, Oregon . Jacob's death, a few months later, of colon cancer , left the family without economic support. Sonia operated a cash register, while Markus worked in one of his uncle's warehouses, selling newspapers to employees. His father's death also led Rothko to sever his ties with religion. After he had mourned his father's death for almost
15159-422: The creation of protean, indeterminate shapes whose multiplicity is let be." In 1947, he had a first solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery (March 3 to 22). In 1949, Rothko became fascinated by Henri Matisse 's Red Studio , acquired by the Museum of Modern Art that year. He later credited it as another key source of inspiration for his later abstract paintings. The discovery of his definitive form came at
15322-497: The daytime, they painted, then discussed art in the evenings. During a 1932 visit to Lake George, Rothko met Edith Sachar, a jewelry designer, whom he married later that year. The following summer, his first one-person show was held at the Portland Art Museum , consisting mostly of drawings and aquarelles . For this exhibition, Rothko took the very unusual step of displaying works done by his pre-adolescent students from
15485-533: The development of abstract art were Romanticism , Impressionism and Expressionism . Artistic independence for artists was advanced during the 19th century. An objective interest in what is seen can be discerned from the paintings of John Constable , J. M. W. Turner , Camille Corot and from them to the Impressionists who continued the plein air painting of the Barbizon school . Early intimations of
15648-564: The direct path of the stormy westerly flow, and warm, dry summers when the North Pacific High reaches its northernmost point in mid-summer. Portland's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone is 8b, with parts of the Downtown area falling into zone 9a. Winters are cool, cloudy, and rainy. The coldest month is December with an average daily high temperature of 46.9 °F (8.3 °C), although overnight lows usually remain above freezing by
15811-450: The displaced workers from the wartime settlement to neighboring Albina . There and elsewhere in Portland, they experienced police hostility, lack of employment, and mortgage discrimination , leading to half the black population leaving after the war. In the 1980s and 1990s, radical skinhead groups flourished in Portland. In 1988, Mulugeta Seraw , an Ethiopian immigrant, was killed by three skinheads. The response to his murder involved
15974-429: The door to abstraction in the early 20th century. During the 1912 Salon de la Section d'Or , where František Kupka exhibited his abstract painting Amorpha, Fugue en deux couleurs ( Fugue in Two Colors ) (1912), the poet Guillaume Apollinaire named the work of several artists including Robert Delaunay , Orphism . He defined it as, "the art of painting new structures out of elements that have not been borrowed from
16137-652: The early 1950s. The expressionistic gesture and the act of painting itself, became of primary importance to Jackson Pollock , Robert Motherwell , and Franz Kline . While during the 1940s Arshile Gorky 's and Willem de Kooning 's figurative work evolved into abstraction by the end of the decade. New York City became the center, and artists worldwide gravitated towards it; from other places in America as well. Digital art , hard-edge painting , geometric abstraction , minimalism , lyrical abstraction , op art, abstract expressionism, color field painting, monochrome painting , assemblage , neo-Dada, shaped canvas painting, are
16300-410: The early formations of the geometric abstract styles of Piet Mondrian and his colleagues in the early 20th century. The spiritualism also inspired the abstract art of Kasimir Malevich and František Kupka . At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque , André Derain , Raoul Dufy and Jean Metzinger revolutionized
16463-479: The east lies the actively volcanic Cascade Range . On clear days, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens dominate the horizon, while Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier can also be seen in the distance. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has an area of 145.09 square miles (375.78 km ), of which 133.43 square miles (345.58 km ) is land and 11.66 square miles (30.20 km )
16626-472: The elimination of figurative elements from his painting, and a specific interest in the new contingency debate launched by Wolfgang Paalen 's Form and Sense publication of 1945. Rothko described his new method as "unknown adventures in an unknown space", free from "direct association with any particular, and the passion of organism". Breslin described this change of attitude as "both self and painting are now fields of possibilities – an effect conveyed ... by
16789-469: The emphasis on subject matter in favor of the portrayal of psychological states of being. Although artists like Edvard Munch and James Ensor drew influences principally from the work of the Post-Impressionists they were instrumental to the advent of abstraction in the 20th century. Paul Cézanne had begun as an Impressionist but his aim – to make a logical construction of reality based on
16952-660: The end of his sophomore year, Rothko dropped out, never returning until he was awarded an honorary degree 46 years later. In the autumn of 1923, Rothko found work in New York's garment district . While visiting a friend at the Art Students League of New York , he saw students sketching a model. According to Rothko, this was the beginning of his life as an artist. He later enrolled in the Parsons The New School for Design , where one of his instructors
17115-420: The equal existence of the world engendered in the mind and the world engendered by God outside of it. If I have faltered in the use of familiar objects, it is because I refuse to mutilate their appearance for the sake of an action which they are too old to serve, or for which perhaps they had never been intended. I quarrel with surrealists and abstract art only as one quarrels with his father and mother; recognizing
17278-468: The evils that befell Russia, Rothko's early childhood was plagued by fear. Despite Jacob Rothkowitz's modest income, the family was highly educated ("We were a reading family", Rothko's sister recalled), and Rothko spoke Lithuanian Yiddish ( Litvish ), Hebrew and Russian. Following his father's return to the Orthodox Judaism of his own youth, Rothko, the youngest of four siblings, was sent to
17441-531: The function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however ... is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn't something you command! Rothko even went so far as to recommend that viewers position themselves as little as eighteen inches away from
17604-757: The group exhibited at the Galerie Bonaparte in France, which resulted in some positive critical attention. One reviewer remarked that Rothko's paintings "display authentic coloristic values." Later, in 1938, a show was held at the Mercury Gallery in New York, intended as a protest against the Whitney Museum of American Art, which the group regarded as having a provincial, regionalist agenda. Also during this period, Rothko, like Avery, Gorky, Pollock, de Kooning, and many others, found employment with
17767-431: The growing prevalence of the abstract in modern art—an explanation linked to the name of Theodor W. Adorno —is that such abstraction is a response to (and a reflection of) the growing abstraction of social relations in industrial society . Frederic Jameson similarly sees modernist abstraction as a function of the abstract power of money, equating all things equally as exchange-values. The social content of abstract art
17930-607: The heartland. It was the first American city to have residents report thus, and the Pacific International Livestock Exposition operated from May through September 10, 1942, processing people from the city, northern Oregon, and central Washington . General John DeWitt called the city the first "Jap-free city on the West Coast." At the same time, Portland became a notorious hub for underground criminal activity and organized crime in
18093-492: The highest point in Portland is on a section of NW Skyline Blvd just north of Willamette Stone Heritage site . The highest point east of the river is Mt. Tabor , an extinct volcanic cinder cone, which rises to 636 feet (194 m). Nearby Powell Butte and Rocky Butte rise to 614 feet (187 m) and 612 feet (187 m), respectively. To the west of the Tualatin Mountains lies the Oregon Coast Range , and to
18256-651: The inevitability and function of my roots, but insistent upon my dissent; I, being both they and an integral completely independent of them. Rothko's masterpiece Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea (1945) illustrates his newfound propensity towards abstraction. It has been interpreted as a meditation on Rothko's courtship of his second wife, Mary Alice "Mell" Beistle, whom he met in 1944 and married in early 1945. Other readings have noted echoes of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus , which Rothko saw at an "Italian Masters" loan exhibition, at
18419-555: The lap of the West Hills , while the flatter east side extends for roughly 180 blocks until it meets the suburb of Gresham . In 1891 the cities of Portland, Albina , and East Portland were consolidated, creating inconsistent patterns of street names and addresses. It was not unusual for a street name to be duplicated in disparate areas. The "Great Renumbering" on September 2, 1931, standardized street naming patterns and divided Portland into five "general districts." It also changed house numbers from 20 per block to 100 per block and adopted
18582-400: The larger, transcendent aims of his paintings. To allow maximum interpretation by the viewer, he stopped naming and framing his paintings, referring to them only by numbers. At the root of Rothko and Gottlieb's presentation of archaic forms and symbols, illuminating modern existence had been the influence of Surrealism , Cubism , and abstract art . In 1936, Rothko attended two exhibitions at
18745-482: The largest Asian ethnic group in the city, followed by Chinese (1.7%), Filipinos (0.6%), Japanese (0.5%), Koreans (0.4%), Laotians (0.4%), Hmong (0.2%), and Cambodians (0.1%). A small population of Iu Mien live in Portland. Portland has two Chinatowns, with New Chinatown in the ' Jade District ' along SE 82nd Avenue with Chinese supermarkets, Hong Kong style noodle houses, dim sum , and Vietnamese phở restaurants. With about 12,000 Vietnamese residing in
18908-404: The late 1990s, the Portland area was rated the fourth-least affordable place in the United States to purchase a new home. After 2000, Portland experienced significant growth, with a population rise of over 90,000 between the years 2000 and 2014. The city's increasing reputation for culture established it as a popular city for young people, and it was second only to Louisville, Kentucky , as one of
19071-451: The lowest daytime high temperature ever recorded was 14 °F (−10 °C) on December 30, 1968. The average window in which freezing temperatures may occur is between November 15 and March 19, allowing a growing season of 240 days. Annual snowfall in Portland is 4.3 inches (10.9 cm), which usually falls between December and March. The city of Portland avoids snow more frequently than its suburbs, due in part to its low elevation and
19234-453: The many bridges that span the Willamette River downtown, several of which are historic landmarks, and Portland has been nicknamed "Bridgetown" for many decades as a result. Three of downtown's most heavily used bridges are more than 100 years old and are designated historic landmarks: Hawthorne Bridge (1910), Steel Bridge (1912), and Broadway Bridge (1913). Portland's newest bridge in the downtown area, Tilikum Crossing , opened in 2015 and
19397-545: The many trees cut down to allow for its growth. In 1843 William Overton saw potential in the new settlement but lacked the funds to file an official land claim. For 25 cents, Overton agreed to share half of the 640-acre (2.6 km ) site with Asa Lovejoy of Boston . In 1844, Overton sold his remaining half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine . Both Pettygrove and Lovejoy wished to rename "The Clearing" after their respective hometowns (Lovejoy's being Boston, and Pettygrove's, Portland). This controversy
19560-883: The more international Abstract and Concrete exhibition was organized by Nicolete Gray including work by Piet Mondrian , Joan Miró , Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson . Hepworth, Nicholson and Gabo moved to the St. Ives in Cornwall to continue their constructivist work. During the Nazi rise to power in the 1930s many artists fled Europe to the United States. By the early 1940s the main movements in modern art, expressionism, cubism, abstraction, surrealism , and dada were represented in New York: Marcel Duchamp , Fernand Léger , Piet Mondrian , Jacques Lipchitz , André Masson , Max Ernst , and André Breton , were just
19723-403: The myth have to be the unnoticed omnipresent demonic guardians, under whose care the young soul grows to maturity and whose signs help the man to interpret his life and struggles." Rothko believed his art could free unconscious energies, previously bound by mythological images, symbols, and rituals. He considered himself a "mythmaker", and proclaimed that "the exhilarated tragic experience is for me
19886-479: The northeast quadrant of the city continued. Portland's longshoremen racial mix was described as being "lily-white" in the 1960s when the local International Longshore and Warehouse Union declined to represent grain handlers since some were black. Racial Makeup of Portland (2022) Over two-thirds of Oregon's African-American residents live in Portland. As of the 2000 census, three of its high schools (Cleveland, Lincoln and Wilson) were over 70% White, reflecting
20049-540: The northernmost point of the city. It also contains the St. Johns neighborhood, which is historically one of the most ethnically diverse and poorest neighborhoods in the city. Old Town Chinatown is next to the Pearl District in Northwest Portland. In 1890 it was the second largest Chinese community in the United States. In 2017, the crime rate was several times above the city average. This neighborhood has been called Portland's skid row. Southwest Portland
20212-734: The only source of art". Many of his paintings in this period contrast barbaric scenes of violence with civilized passivity, using imagery drawn primarily from Aeschylus 's Oresteia trilogy. A list of Rothko's paintings from this period illustrates his use of myth: Antigone , Oedipus , The Sacrifice of Iphigenia , Leda , The Furies , Altar of Orpheus . Rothko evokes Judeo-Christian imagery in Gethsemane , The Last Supper , and Rites of Lilith . He also invokes Egyptian ( Room in Karnak ) and Syrian ( The Syrian Bull ) myths. Soon after World War II, Rothko believed his titles limited
20375-495: The orange around it, creating an optical flicker." For the next seven years, Rothko painted in oil only for large canvases with vertical formats. Very large-scale designs were used in order to overwhelm the viewer, or, in Rothko's words, to make the viewer feel "enveloped within" the painting. For some critics, the large size was an attempt to make up for a lack of substance. In retaliation, Rothko stated: I realize that historically
20538-452: The overall population, while Jefferson High School was 87% non-White. The remaining six schools have a higher number of non-Whites, including Blacks and Asians. Hispanic students average from 3.3% at Wells to 31% at Roosevelt . Portland residents identifying solely as Asian Americans account for 7.1% of the population; an additional 1.8% is partially of Asian heritage. Vietnamese Americans make up 2.2% of Portland's population, and make up
20701-641: The picture plane. We are for flat forms because they destroy illusion and reveal truth." On a more strident note, they criticized those who wanted to live surrounded by less challenging art, noting that their work necessarily "must insult anyone who is spiritually attuned to interior decoration". Rothko viewed myth as a replenishing resource for an era of spiritual void. This belief had begun decades earlier, through his reading of Carl Jung , T. S. Eliot , James Joyce and Thomas Mann , among other authors. On June 13, 1943, Rothko and Sachar separated again. Rothko suffered depression following their divorce. Thinking that
20864-574: The pigment lithol red together with regular sunlight exposure. The Harvard series has since been restored using a special lighting technique. Rothko contributed 14 canvases to a permanent installation at the Rothko Chapel , a non-denominational chapel in Houston , Texas. Although Rothko lived modestly for much of his life, the resale value of his paintings grew tremendously in the decades following his suicide in 1970. His painting No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red) sold in 2014 for $ 186 million. Rothko
21027-419: The possibility of marks and associative color resounding in the soul. The idea had been put forward by Charles Baudelaire , that all our senses respond to various stimuli but the senses are connected at a deeper aesthetic level. Closely related to this, is the idea that art has The spiritual dimension and can transcend 'every-day' experience, reaching a spiritual plane. The Theosophical Society popularized
21190-500: The public primarily for his surrealist works, for the remainder of the 1940s. The Whitney Museum included them in their annual exhibit of contemporary art from 1943 to 1950. Baptismal Scene (1945), included in the shows at the Whitney, was acquired by the museum in 1946; this was the first work of Rothko's to enter a museum collection, marking a key career milestone. Baptismal Scene depicts an abstracted baptism in watercolors against
21353-612: The rapid growth of the Ku Klux Klan , which became very influential in Oregon politics, culminating in the election of Walter M. Pierce as governor. The largest influxes of minority populations occurred during World War II, as the African American population grew by a factor of 10 for wartime work. After World War II, the Vanport flood in 1948 displaced many African Americans. As they resettled, redlining directed
21516-457: The rectangle and abstract art in general. Some artists of the period defied categorization, such as Georgia O'Keeffe who, while a modernist abstractionist, was a pure maverick in that she painted highly abstract forms while not joining any specific group of the period. Eventually American artists who were working in a great diversity of styles began to coalesce into cohesive stylistic groups. The best-known group of American artists became known as
21679-438: The same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world. How often it must be permanently impaired by the eyes of the vulgar and the cruelty of the impotent who would extend the affliction universally! To some critics and viewers, Rothko's aims exceeded his methods. Many of the abstract expressionists discussed their art as aiming toward a spiritual experience, or at least an experience that exceeded
21842-490: The school failed financially and closed in the spring of 1949. Although the group separated later in the same year, the school was the center of a flurry of activity in contemporary art. In addition to his teaching experience, Rothko began to contribute articles to two new art publications, Tiger's Eye and Possibilities . Using the forums as an opportunity to assess the current art scene, Rothko also discussed in detail his own work and philosophy of art . These articles reflect
22005-453: The school was moved to Dessau and, as the Nazi party gained control in 1932, The Bauhaus was closed. In 1937 an exhibition of degenerate art , 'Entartete Kunst' contained all types of avant-garde art disapproved of by the Nazi party. Then the exodus began: not just from the Bauhaus but from Europe in general; to Paris, London and America. Paul Klee went to Switzerland but many of the artists at
22168-625: The search continued: The Rayist (Luchizm) drawings of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov , used lines like rays of light to make a construction. Kasimir Malevich completed his first entirely abstract work, the Suprematist , Black Square , in 1915. Another of the Suprematist group' Liubov Popova , created the Architectonic Constructions and Spatial Force Constructions between 1916 and 1921. Piet Mondrian
22331-479: The sixth-most populous on the West Coast , and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest, after Seattle . Approximately 2.5 million people live in the Portland metropolitan area , making it the 25th-most populous in the United States. About half of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metro area. Named after Portland, Maine , which is itself named after the English Isle of Portland ,
22494-432: The social and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture at that time. Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Even art that aims for verisimilitude of the highest degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect representation
22657-542: The south. It includes the Lair Hill, Johns Landing and South Waterfront districts and Lewis & Clark College as well as the Riverdale area of unincorporated Multnomah County south of the Portland city limits. In 2018, the city's Bureau of Transportation finalized a plan to transition this part of Portland into South Portland, beginning on May 1, 2020, to reduce confusion by 9-1-1 dispatchers and delivery services. With
22820-495: The south; and the St. Johns Bridge , a Gothic revival suspension bridge built in 1931, to the north. The Glenn L. Jackson Memorial Bridge and the Interstate Bridge provide access from Portland across the Columbia River into Washington state. The Willamette River, which flows north through downtown, serves as the natural boundary between East and West Portland. The denser and earlier-developed west side extends into
22983-413: The sunny warm weather is short-lived, from mid-June to early September. June, July, August and September account for a combined 4.19 inches (106 mm) of total rainfall – only 11% of the 36.91 in (938 mm) of annual precipitation. The warmest month is August, with an average high temperature of 82.3 °F (27.9 °C). Because of its inland location 62 miles (100 km) from
23146-401: The treacherous navigation of the Columbia River. The city had its own Japantown, for one, and the lumber industry also became a prominent economic presence, due to the area's large population of Douglas fir , western hemlock , red cedar , and big leaf maple trees. Portland developed a reputation early in its history as a hard-edged and gritty port town . Some historians have described
23309-543: The various conceptual and aesthetic groupings. An exhibition by forty-six members of the Cercle et Carré group organized by Joaquín Torres-García assisted by Michel Seuphor contained work by the Neo-Plasticists as well as abstractionists as varied as Kandinsky, Anton Pevsner and Kurt Schwitters . Criticized by Theo van Doesburg to be too indefinite a collection he published the journal Art Concret setting out
23472-429: The very numerous art movements that embody partial abstraction would be for instance fauvism in which color is conspicuously and deliberately altered vis-a-vis reality, and cubism , which alters the forms of the real-life entities depicted. Patronage from the church diminished and private patronage from the public became more capable of providing a livelihood for artists. Three art movements which contributed to
23635-463: The visual sphere, but had been created entirely by the artist...it is a pure art." Since the turn of the century, cultural connections between artists of the major European cities had become extremely active as they strove to create an art form equal to the high aspirations of modernism . Ideas were able to cross-fertilize by means of artist's books, exhibitions and manifestos so that many sources were open to experimentation and discussion, and formed
23798-778: The works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung . In particular, they took interest in psychoanalytical theories concerning dreams, and archetypes of a collective unconscious. They understood mythological symbols as images, operating in a space of human consciousness, which transcends specific history and culture. Rothko later said that his artistic approach was "reformed" by his study of the "dramatic themes of myth". He allegedly stopped painting altogether in 1940, to immerse himself in reading Sir James Frazer's study of mythology The Golden Bough , and Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams . Rothko's new vision attempted to address modern man's spiritual and creative mythological requirements. The most crucial philosophical influence on Rothko in this period
23961-444: The year averages 68 °F (20 °C). Spring and fall can bring variable weather including high-pressure ridging that sends temperatures surging above 80 °F (27 °C) and cold fronts that plunge daytime temperatures into the 40s °F (4–9 °C). However, lengthy stretches of overcast days beginning in mid-fall and continuing into mid-spring are most common. Rain often falls as a light drizzle for several consecutive days at
24124-550: Was Arshile Gorky . Rothko characterized Gorky's leadership of the class as "overcharged with supervision." That same autumn, he took courses at the Art Students League taught by Cubist artist Max Weber , who had been a part of the French avant-garde movement. To his students eager to know about Modernism , Weber was seen as "a living repository of modern art history". Under Weber's tutelage, Rothko began to view art as
24287-423: Was Friedrich Nietzsche 's The Birth of Tragedy . Nietzsche claimed that Greek tragedy served to redeem man from the terrors of mortal life. The exploration of novel topics in modern art ceased to be Rothko's goal. From this time on, his art had the goal of relieving modern man's spiritual emptiness. He believed that this emptiness resulted partly from lack of mythology, which, according to Nietzsche, "The images of
24450-479: Was approximately 2,000 and largely consisted of railroad employees and their families. During the war-time Liberty Ship construction boom, the need for workers drew many Black people to the city. The new influx of Black people settled in specific neighborhoods, such as the Albina district and Vanport . The May 1948 flood which destroyed Vanport eliminated the only integrated neighborhood, and an influx of blacks into
24613-548: Was born in 1903 in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils , Latvia), a shtetl (Jewish village) within the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire. His father, Jacob (Yakov) Rothkowitz, was a pharmacist and intellectual who initially provided his children with a secular and political, rather than religious, upbringing. According to Rothko, his Marxist father was "violently anti-religious". In an environment where Jews were often blamed for many of
24776-582: Was changed from 0246 SW California St. and the current address of 4310 S Macadam Ave. was converted from 4310 SW Macadam Ave. The new South Portland addressing section was approved by the Portland City Council on June 6, 2018 and is bounded by SW Naito Parkway , SW View Point Terrace and the Tryon Creek State Natural Area to the west, SW Clay Street to the north, the Willamette River to the east, and city limits to
24939-681: Was essentially a spiritual activity; to create the individual's place in the world, not to organize life in a practical, materialistic sense. During that time, representatives of the Russian avant-garde collaborated with other Eastern European Constructivist artists, including Władysław Strzemiński , Katarzyna Kobro , and Henryk Stażewski . Many of those who were hostile to the materialist production idea of art left Russia. Anton Pevsner went to France, Gabo went first to Berlin, then to England and finally to America. Kandinsky studied in Moscow then left for
25102-428: Was evolving his abstract language, of horizontal and vertical lines with rectangles of color, between 1915 and 1919, Neo-Plasticism was the aesthetic which Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and other in the group De Stijl intended to reshape the environment of the future. Many of the abstract artists in Russia became Constructivists believing that art was no longer something remote, but life itself. The artist must become
25265-569: Was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius . The philosophy underlying the teaching program was unity of all the visual and plastic arts from architecture and painting to weaving and stained glass. This philosophy had grown from the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement in England and the Deutscher Werkbund . Among the teachers were Paul Klee , Wassily Kandinsky , Johannes Itten , Josef Albers , Anni Albers , and László Moholy-Nagy . In 1925
25428-450: Was historically comparable to metro Seattle and Salt Lake City, those areas grew more diverse in the late 1990s and 2000s. Portland not only remains White, but migration to Portland is disproportionately White. The Oregon Territory banned African American settlement in 1849. In the 19th century, certain laws allowed the immigration of Chinese laborers but prohibited them from owning property or bringing their families. The early 1920s saw
25591-578: Was in Germany". From 1909 to 1913 many experimental works in the search for this 'pure art' had been created by a number of artists: Francis Picabia painted Caoutchouc , c. 1909, The Spring , 1912, Dances at the Spring and The Procession, Seville , 1912; Wassily Kandinsky painted Untitled (First Abstract Watercolor) , 1913, Improvisation 21A , the Impression series, and Picture with
25754-513: Was influenced by ancient Greek tragedians such as Aeschylus and his reading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy . In Rothko's mature or "classic" period (1951–1970), he consistently painted rectangular regions of color, intended as "dramas" to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Rothko separated temporarily from his wife Edith in mid-1937. They reconciled several months later, but their relationship remained tense and they would divorce in 1944. On February 21, 1938, Rothko finally became
25917-520: Was killed by an opposing one. Local businesses reported losses totaling millions of dollars as the result of vandalism and looting, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting . Some protests caused injury to protesters and police. In July, federal officers were deployed to safeguard federal property; their presence and tactics were criticized by Oregon officials, who demanded they leave, while lawsuits were filed against local and federal law enforcement alleging wrongful actions by them. On May 25, 2021,
26080-559: Was opened in Portland, the predecessor of the 1912 namesake Steel Bridge that survives today. In 1889, Henry Pittock's wife, Georgiana, established the Portland Rose Society. The movement to make Portland a "Rose City" started as the city was preparing for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition . Portland's access to the Pacific Ocean via the Willamette and Columbia rivers, as well as its easy access to
26243-510: Was passionate about issues such as workers' rights and contraception. At the time, Portland was a center of revolutionary activity in the U.S. and the region where the revolutionary syndicalist union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was active. Having grown up around radical workers' meetings, Rothko attended meetings of the IWW, including such speakers as the radical socialist Bill Haywood and
26406-631: Was representative of growing darkness within Rothko's personal life. Abstract art Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to reproduce an illusion of visible reality. By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to create a new kind of art which would encompass the fundamental changes taking place in technology , science and philosophy . The sources from which individual artists drew their theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected
26569-544: Was settled with a coin toss that Pettygrove won in a series of two out of three tosses, thereby providing Portland with its namesake. The coin used for this decision, now known as the Portland Penny , is on display in the headquarters of the Oregon Historical Society . At the time of its incorporation on February 8, 1851, Portland had over 800 inhabitants, a steam sawmill, a log cabin hotel, and
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