Mark Rothko with his wife, Mary Alice, and Christopher, circa 1968.

After twenty-four years together Rothko and his wife separated on New Year’s Day 1969. He subsequently moved into his East 69th Street studio.

On February 25, 1970, Rothko’s assistant found the artist lying dead on the floor in his bathroom in a pool of blood. He had cut his arms with a razor blade. He was 66 years old.  [h]

“A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world.”

                                              - Mark Rothko, 1947