Mark Rothko: The Spirit of Myth, Early Paintings from the 1930s and 1940s

January 18–March 17, 1996

Providing an in-depth look at the early years of one of the most important American artists of this century, this exhibition highlighted rarely exhibited paintings from the extensive Mark Rothko collection at the National Gallery of Art.

Visitors had a unique opportunity to view important phases of Rothko’s development through paintings addressing the alienation of modern urban life to those inspired by Greco-Roman mythology, as well as Surrealist-influenced biomorphic forms. The show concluded with the luminously painted atmospheric fields of color for which this Abstract Expressionist is celebrated.