Joseph Solman responds:

Sometimes I say that in my early years I was a regionalist-- my region was east New York. But even then, all of us in New York were more expressionist.

And there were the Social Realists too-- they painted of people sleeping on park benches, the poor and hungry.

I think one of the major influences on Rothko was Milton Avery. Avery was around 10 years older and he painted broad planes of color--- not geometric like Rothko, he painted recognizable things. He painted landscapes of Vermont and Maine, he painted seascapes. In some works he emphasizes a river or lake or sky with broad colored swatches.

For further exploration: Milton Avery (1885-1965) Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)

Rothko got more mystical. He was into myths and transcendence-- very much like Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky influenced his philosophy and his theories about art and the spirit. But it was Avery who showed Rothko the power of color and put him on the path towards abstractionism.

I give Rothko a lot of credit for pursuing his vision. He was not young in the 1940s when he found his stride, when he found himself and his style. He really struggled-- through abstractionism, which I didn't really relate to, to the color paintings where I think he really created something new and exciting.

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