Mark Rothko

David Anfam is a leading authority on modern American art. A regular contributor to The Burlington Magazine, he is the curator of several major Rothko exhibitions. His publications include Abstract Expressionism and Franz Kline: Black & White, 1950-1961.

"This is not a traditional catalogue raisonne, in which the facts are dryly recorded, but a lively account of the feints and dodges of an extremely complicated artist."—Dore Ashton, Washington Post Book World"A book for all seasons, and in spite of its size and weight, it looks right and feels right. Somewhere in this volume you can find just about everything you will want to know about what Rothko painted between 1924 and his death in 1970. . . . This is a noble book, and a bargain in today’s terms."—John Russell, New York Times Book Review"Anfam’s book is the ultimate Rothko monograph. More than an exhibition record, it is a catalog raisonne: a complete documentation of the artist’s paintings that gives an overview of his art available nowhere else. . . . Authoritative and well-written, it unearths sources of his art that most historians have overlooked."—Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle"A welcome development: it’s needed, it’s serious and it’s well produced. . . . Anfam’s meticulous unearthing of nearly all of Rothko’s literary and art historical sources for his imagery (or lack of imagery) reveals the contest between inclusiveness (that is, acknowledging the huge and multifarious culture of the human race) and exclusiveness (getting down to visual essentials) that was always a part of Rothko’s work. . . . [This] book is a necessity."—Peter Plagens, Los Angeles Times Book Review“Anfam is a splendid guide to the artist’s sources and themes, and the color reproductions that are essential to a major Rothko study are the truest of any published. A landmark in scholarship for one of North America’s most sublime painters.”—Chicago Tribune“This is not a traditional catalogue raisonné, in which the facts are dryly recorded, but a lively account of the feints and dodges of an extremely complicated artist. . . . Anfam has offered future scholars ample material from which to speculate, and much to argue with. Anfam’s own views are always carefully hedged with documents and quotations, yet still manage to be provocative and sometimes brilliant.”—Dore Ashton, Washington Post Book World"This massive book marks a turning point. It enumerates 843 known works, which must closely approximate the totality of those surviving, from juvenilia of the 1920s to the last picture left unfinished at Rothko’s death."—Sheldon Nodelman, Art in America "Far and away the best monograph ever written on Rothko."—Yve-Alain Bois, Artforum“The judges considered that Anfam’s book set new standards for catalogue raisonnés of paintings of this period and, as John Golding observed, the introductory essays ‘contain the most visually analytic account of Rothko’s development ever written’.”—Caroline Elam, The Art Newspaper"A necessary purchase for research and academic libraries."—Library Journal"Of the dignity of Rothko’s painting and of the gravity of its significance, however, we cannot be reminded enough. Mark Rothko: the Works on Canvas abundantlydoes so. Its almost innumerable documentary facts will make it the fundamental starting point for any future scholarship on Rothko, and there is no doubt that David Anfam’s monumental book . . . will be as enduring as it is revelatory."—Alan Shipway, The Art Book "Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas is everything that a catalogue raisonné should be, and more besides. . . . We see Rothko the painter whole as never before. . . . This volume establishes Anfam as our greatest Rothko authority and is one of the most significant contributions to the history of twentieth-century art to have been made in recent years."—John Golding, Burlington Magazine Winner of the 2000 Mitchell Prize for the History of Art