"The best life of an American painter that has yet been written . . . a biographical classic. It is painstakingly researched, fluently written and unfailingly intelligent in tracing the tragic course of its subject's tormented character."

Hilton Kramer | New York Times Book Review

"This remains beyond question the finest biography so far devoted to an artist of the New York School."

Arthur C. Danto | Boston Globe

"In Breslin, Rothko has the ideal biographer—thorough but never tedious, a good storyteller with an ear for the spoken word, fond but not fawning, and possessed of a most rare ability to comment on non-representational art without sounding preposterous."

Robert Kiely | Boston Review

"Breslin impressively recreates Mark Rothko's troubled nature, his tormented life, and his disturbing canvases. . . . The artist's paintings become almost tangible within Breslin's pages, and Rothko himself emerges as an alarming physical force."

Robert Warde | Hungry Mind Review

"Clearly written, full of intelligent insights, and thorough."

Hayden Herrera | Art in America

"He's made the tragedy of his subject's life the more poignant."

Eric Gibson | The New Criterion

"Breslin spent seven years working on this book, and he has definitely done his homework."

Nancy M. Barnes | Boston Phoenix

"A must read."

Art Newspaper