The American painter Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Russia, in the Pale of Settlement. Before becoming one of America’s best-known abstract expressionists, he attended Yale University. Rothko grew up speaking Russian, Yiddish, and Hebrew; he was Markus Rotkovich when he attended Jewish school, learning Talmud. When his Orthodox family moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1913, the young Rothko was still engaged in Jewish communal life. As his artistic career flourished, Rothko drifted from Judaism, although some art critics still discern strong Jewish elements in his work.
June 7, 1943
Mr. Edward Alden Jewell
Art Editor
New York Times
229 West 43 Street
New York, N.Y.
Dear Mr. Jewell:
To the artist, the workings of the critical mind is one of life’s mysteries. That is…
In the interwar period, Liebermann’s portraits were highly sought after by the wealthy. He also produced many self-portraits. This one, painted when he was in his seventies, portrays him as a self…
Printing, which Jews adopted immediately after its invention, helped to unify far-flung communities. Where previously Jewish learning had been transmitted through the individual copying of manuscripts…