From Booklist
Rothko's most famous paintings are profoundly contemplative works, rectangles of vibrant color that seem lit from within and that are full of subtle energy and life, like the sky or the surface of a lake. This handsome retrospective catalog of his work, which includes his early representational paintings as well as his harmonic abstractions, has been published in conjunction with a major traveling exhibition of his work and contains more than 100 colorplates. Weiss has wisely placed the art before the commentary, allowing readers to absorb the quiet impact of Rothko's work before seeking explanations of the man and his still controversial creations in essays by Weiss, John Cage, Barbara Novak and Brian O'Doherty, and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro. Interviews with painters Ellsworth Kelly, Gerhard Richter, and Robert Ryman attest to Rothko's tremendous influence, and a detailed chronology tracks his rise to prominence, his steadily deteriorating health, and his suicide in 1970. Weiss' book succeeds in embracing the beauty, mystery, and sorrow of Rothko's vision. Donna Seaman

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With contributions by John Gage, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Barbara Novak, Brian O'Doherty, and Mark Rosenthal, This richly illustrated book reproduces in full color more than one hundred of Mark Rothko's paintings, prints, and drawings, including many of the stunningly simple yet enthralling rectangle paintings for which he is famous. The volume provides commentary on various formal aspects of Rothko's work, interviews with contemporary artists who reflect on Rothko's artistic legacy, and a chronology of the Russian-born artist's life (1903-1970).

Author Biography: Jeffrey Weiss is associate curator of twentieth-century art at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. He is the author of The Popular Culture of Modern Art: Picasso, Duchamp, and Avant-Gardism, 1909-1917, published by Yale University Press.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kenneth Baker

This book, which reproduces in full color one hundred of Rothko's paintings, prints, and drawings, is an elegant record of Rothko's work. -- San Francisco Chronicle

Phyllis Tuchman - Art Journal