ROTHKO

Inspired by the life of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rotkho—known for his “colour field” paintings—each episode is a four panel gag strip “à-la-Peanuts”, using the diagrammatic vocabulary of black and white cartoons to explore Rothko’s complex personality and achievements with irony, compassion and wit.
Where else could you find Rothko teaching kids how to make a dog out of clay, hitting on women at parties and drinking, smoking and listening to Mozart?

Tragedy, ecstasy and doom were the ingredients Rothko recommended for every great painting… whether you love his work or hate it, this book presents a light-handed yet heavy-hitting contemplation of the forces that shaped Rothko, the role of art in our lives and the legacy we leave behind.

Matthew Brown was part of the Montreal comix scene in the early nineties. He returned to the world of comics in 2010. With TRIP he has published Fear Itself (2011), The Cliff (2017) and What is Meditation? (2018). In 2016 he self-published his master’s thesis as a graphic novel :  Architecture Department.