Rothko's early figurative work - including landscapes, still lifes, figure studies, and portraits - demonstrated an ability to blend Expressionism and Surrealism. His search for new forms of expression led to his color field paintings, which employed shimmering color to convey a sense of spirituality.






Rothko's work began to darken dramatically during the late 1950s. This development is related to his work on a mural commission for the Four Seasons restaurant, located in the Seagram Building in New York City. Here Rothko turned to a palette of red, maroon, brown, and black. The artist eventually withdrew from this project, due to misgivings about the restaurant as a proper setting for his work. In the Seagram panels, Rothko changed his motif from a closed to an open form, suggesting a threshold or portal. This element may have been related to the architectural setting for which these works were intended.



Born in Dvinsk, Russia (in what is now Latvia), Marcus Rothkovich was the fourth child born to Jacob and Anna Rothkovich. As Russia was a hostile environment for Zionist Jews, Jacob immigrated to the United States with his two older sons in 1910, finally sending for the rest of his family in 1913. They settled in Portland, Oregon, though Jacob died only a few months after the family's arrival, requiring them to earn a living in their new country though they only spoke Hebrew and Russian. Rothko was forced to learn English and go to work when he was very young, resulting in a lingering sense of bitterness over his lost childhood. He graduated early from Lincoln High School, showing more interest in music than visual art. He was awarded a scholarship to Yale University, but soon found the environment at Yale conservative and exclusionary; he left without graduating in 1923.

Nietzsche, myth, and Jewish and social revolutionary thought were all important influences on Rothko's life and art. He once wrote to The New York Times saying he would not defend his pictures, "because they defend themselves." Yet he was always a vocal advocate for artists, writing many reviews as well as essays on the complexities of the art world. Around 1941, probably during his yearlong hiatus from painting, Rothko wrote the manuscript for a book which was to be called The Artist's Reality. However, it was never published in his lifetime, being hidden away in a manila folder labeled "miscellaneous papers" for over fifty years. It was discovered by his children in a warehouse and has since been edited by his son, Christopher, and was published by Yale University Press in 2006. These writings discuss Rothko's ideas about Modern art, myth, beauty, the nature of American art, and the challenges of being an artist in his society. The book is most unique in that it never references Rothko's own work, but speaks from the point of view of the artist in general. While his political leanings were clearly Leftist, he maintained a highly subjective approach to theory.


Upcoming Performances:

“Defining Marriage” a play composed entirely of testimony from the 2010
“Proposition 8” Trial.

What is ʻProposition 8?ʼ

In May 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that a California law barring same-sex
couples from marrying violated the state's constitution.

On November 4, 2008, voters approved, by a margin of 52% to 48%, a measure (Proposition 8) that defined marriage as one man and one woman, thereby excluding same-sex couples.

Pro-equality advocates challenged Proposition 8 in state court, arguing that the Constitution did not allow voters to rescind fundamental constitutional rights at the ballot box.

On May 26, 2009, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8. It also ruled that the those same-sex couples who married before Prop 8 passed are still legally married in California. Its reasoning was as follows:

1. Proposition 8 did not eliminate same-sex couples' right to form legally-recognized families with all of the benefits that different-sex couples enjoy. It simply limited the designation "marriage" to different-sex couples.

2. Although the court noted that the term "marriage" carried its own constitutional weight, denying same-sex couples this designation did not amount to a substantial revision of the constitution.

3. Constitutional amendments are not ordinarily read to have retroactive effect; thus, the same-sex couples who married before November 4 will remain married under California law.

On August 4, 2010, United States district court Judge Vaughn R. Walker overturned Proposition 8 in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger, ruling that it violated both the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States Constitution. Judge Walker issued an injunction against enforcing Proposition 8 and a stay to determine suspension of his ruling pending appeal. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals continued the stay, keeping Judge Walker's ruling on hold pending appeal.

York Readers Theater’s presentation, “Defining Marriage” is a condensation of the evidence for and against same-sex marriage as it was presented in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case. Our purpose is to provide a fair and objective sampling of the actual arguments that were used in the Proposition 8 trial.

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