Editing Mark Rothko (section)

==="Multiforms"===
[[File:No. 9, 1948, Mark Rothko at NGA 2023.jpg|thumb|right|''No. 9'' (1948), an example of the artist's "multiform" paintings, at the [[National Gallery of Art]] in 2023]]

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''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mark Rothko, No 18, 1948, Oil on canvas, Private collection |url=https://dailyrothko.tumblr.com/post/158652530985/mark-rothko-no-18-1948-oil-on-canvas-private |access-date=June 4, 2023 |website=Daily Rothko}}</ref> and ''Untitled'' (both 1948), are less transitional than fully realized. Rothko himself described these paintings as possessing 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 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.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

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.{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=223–42}} In 1947, during 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 (artist)|David Hare]] founded the Subjects of the Artist School at 35 [[8th Street and St. Mark's Place|East 8th Street]]. Well-attended lectures there were open to the public, with speakers such as [[Jean Arp]], [[John Cage]], and [[Ad Reinhardt]], but the school failed financially and closed in the spring of 1949.<ref name="Encyclopedia Britannica">{{Cite web |title=Subject of the Artist {{!}} art school |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Subject-of-the-Artist |access-date=June 7, 2020 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Oxford">{{Cite book |last1=Chilvers |first1=Ian |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199239665.001.0001/acref-9780199239665-e-2640 |title=Subjects of the Artist School |last2=Glaves-Smith |first2=John |date=2009 |work=A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-923966-5 |language=en |access-date=June 7, 2020}}</ref>{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=223}}

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 the elimination of figurative elements from his painting, and a specific interest in the new [[contingency (philosophy)|contingency]] debate launched by [[Wolfgang Paalen]]'s ''Form and Sense'' publication of 1945.<ref>Robert Motherwell published Paalen's collected essays on art from his magazine ''[[DYN (magazine)|DYN]]'', as the first number of the series. The number entitled ''Possibilities'', in which Rothko's statement was published, was the second of this series. ''Form and Sense'' was re-published in 2013 by Deborah Rosenthal, with a foreword by [[Martica Sawin]]. Wolfgang Paalen, ''Form and Sense, Meanings and Movements in Twentieth-Century Art'', New York (Arcade Publishing/Artists and Art), 2013</ref>

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 the creation of protean, indeterminate shapes whose multiplicity is let be."{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=378}}

In 1947, he had a first solo exhibition at the [[Betty Parsons]] Gallery (March 3 to 22).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anfam |first=David |title=Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas, Volume 1}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Breslin|1993|p=283}}{{sfn|Ashton|1983|p=61,112}}