Birth of Cephalopods
1944
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100.3 x 135.9 cm (39 1/2 x 53 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.43.22
Art Historical Context
Mark Rothko's *Birth of Cephalopods* (1944), an oil on canvas measuring 100.3 x 135.9 cm, invites visitors into the artist's early experimental phase. Created during World War II, when New York became a hub for European exiles and avant-garde ideas, this painting reflects Rothko's immersion in Surrealism's dreamlike explorations. The intriguing title evokes primordial creation—cephalopods, ancient marine creatures like octopuses and squids, suggesting themes of origin and the subconscious depths. Rothko, a Latvian-born American painter (1903–1970), was transitioning from figurative works towa...
About the Artist
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko (born Marcus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) stands as one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American art and a central pioneer of Abstract Expressionism. Born into a Jewish family in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), then part of the Russian Empire, Rothko's early life was marked by the fear and persecution faced by Jews in Tsarist Rus...