The Syrian Bull
Artist/Maker
Mark Rothko
(American, 1903–1970)
Date1943
MediumOil and graphite on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 39 3/8 × 27 13/16 in. (100 × 70.6 cm)
Frame: 40 3/4 × 29 3/16 × 2 1/16 in. (103.5 × 74.1 × 5.2 cm)
Frame: 40 3/4 × 29 3/16 × 2 1/16 in. (103.5 × 74.1 × 5.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Annalee Newman in honor of Ellen H. Johnson
Object number1991.41.1
Status
Not on viewThis painting, together with Gottlieb's "Rape of Persephone," was exhibited in 1943 at the Third Annual Exhibition of Modern Painters and Sculptors at Wildenstein Gallery in New York City, where they attracted the attention of Edward Alden Jewell of the New York Times. Jewell singled them out as incomprehensible in a review in that paper, writing, "You will have to make of Marcus Rothko's 'The Syrian Bull' what you can; nor is this department prepared to shed the slightest enlightenment when it comes to Adolph Gottlieb's 'Rape of Persephone.' "
Both paintings show the influence of European surrealism, the dominant aesthetic of the day. Rothko's work prefigures his later Color Field paintings, in its glowing colors, rectilinear organization, and ambiguous forms, while Gottlieb's is clearly part of his use of what he called "pictographs": flat forms, often floating on an undefined background, and influenced by tribal and archaic art.
Gottlieb and Rothko asked their friend Barnett Newman to assist them in responding to Jewell's review; their letter was published on June 13, 1943. It is a compendium of the principles under which the artists would work for much of the decade, and effectively laid out a first manifesto relating to the painting of the nascent New York School, which developed into Abstract Expressionism. They declared that abstract forms are the "simple expression of the complex thought," their commitment to "subject matter which is tragic and timeless," their "spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art," and that the meaning of a painting must come about through a "consummated experience between picture and onlooker."
For his assistance in crafting the response, Gottlieb and Rothko gave their paintings to Newman, whose wife Annalee Newman subsequently donated them to the AMAM in honor of Professor Ellen Johnson. Johnson's relationships with many New York artists, particularly in the 1960s and '70s, were fundamental for the enlargement and quality of the AMAM's late twentieth century art collection.
Exhibition History
Both paintings show the influence of European surrealism, the dominant aesthetic of the day. Rothko's work prefigures his later Color Field paintings, in its glowing colors, rectilinear organization, and ambiguous forms, while Gottlieb's is clearly part of his use of what he called "pictographs": flat forms, often floating on an undefined background, and influenced by tribal and archaic art.
Gottlieb and Rothko asked their friend Barnett Newman to assist them in responding to Jewell's review; their letter was published on June 13, 1943. It is a compendium of the principles under which the artists would work for much of the decade, and effectively laid out a first manifesto relating to the painting of the nascent New York School, which developed into Abstract Expressionism. They declared that abstract forms are the "simple expression of the complex thought," their commitment to "subject matter which is tragic and timeless," their "spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art," and that the meaning of a painting must come about through a "consummated experience between picture and onlooker."
For his assistance in crafting the response, Gottlieb and Rothko gave their paintings to Newman, whose wife Annalee Newman subsequently donated them to the AMAM in honor of Professor Ellen Johnson. Johnson's relationships with many New York artists, particularly in the 1960s and '70s, were fundamental for the enlargement and quality of the AMAM's late twentieth century art collection.
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: A Retrospective
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (October 27, 1978 - January 14, 1979 )
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (February 10, 1979 - April 1, 1979 )
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (April 22, 1979 - June 10, 1979 )
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (July 10, 1979 - September 23, 1979 )
Mark Rothko, 1903-1970
- The Tate Gallery, London (June 17, 1987 - August 31, 1987 )
Modern Art: Notable Works from the Allen Memorial Art Museum
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 14, 1992 - February 23, 1992 )
Focus on Permanent Collection: Abstract Expressionism
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 21, 1993 - November 21, 1993 )
Selected Acquisitions, 1991-1995
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 20, 1996 - April 18, 1996 )
Collecting the Vanguard: Art from 1900 to 1970
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 17, 2001 - June 2, 2002 )
Figure to Non-Figurative: The Evolution of Modern Art in Europe and North America, 1830-1950
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 23, 2002 - June 9, 2003 )
20th Century Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 31, 2004 - March 20, 2005 )
Mark Rothko Retrospective
- Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (October 6, 2007 - January 6, 2008 )
- Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (February 8, 2008 - April 27, 2008 )
- Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (May 16, 2008 - August 24, 2008 )
Side by Side: Oberlin's Masterworks
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (March 16, 2010 - August 29, 2010 )
- The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (September 11, 2010 - January 16, 2011 )
Modern and Contemporary Realisms
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 6, 2013 - June 22, 2014 )
This Is Your Art: The Legacy of Ellen Johnson
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 1, 2017 - May 27, 2018 )
Monsters and Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s
- Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT (October 20, 2018 - January 13, 2019 )
- Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD (February 24, 2019 - May 26, 2019 )
- The Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN (June 23, 2019 - September 22, 2019 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
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postmarked July 4, 1958
2023