Mark Rothko born in September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) was a Russian-American Jewish painter.

He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".

In the 1940's his work became influenced by surelism, but went into the nonobjective style that he is best known for.

This style is known as the color-field branch of abstract expressionism. This style of painting is when an artist takes large, hazily defined rectangles of color and paints them on the canvas.  He used anywhere from bright happy colors to dark murky colors to convey his emotions and a sense of spirituality One of his most important late works is the Rotko Chapel.