Rothko’s reputation as an abstract artist largely rests on his famous paintings of vibrantly colored rectangles. These works were widely praised for their use of color to provoke emotional responses. Rothko despised such praise and apparently wished to be taken more seriously as an artist and not just as a colorist. He insisted that he only cared about depicting emotion and was “not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else.” Toward the end of his life, his paintings became more bland and desolate, most likely in an attempt to challenge his public reputation. His final series of works were “the Black Paintings,” most of which consisted of a black and grey canvas with a horizontal divide and a thin white border. By Rothko’s own admission, the paintings are about death. Shortly after separating from his wife, and suffering from severe depression, Rothko committed suicide by... (http://listverse.com/2015/07/18/10-final-paintings-by-artists-who-committed-suicide/)