new silence of the lambs movie Mark Rothko (/ ˈ r ɒ θ k oʊ /), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (Russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, Latvian: Markuss Rotkovičs; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was an American painter of Russian Jewish descent.Although Rothko himself refused to adhere to any art movement, he is generally identified as an abstract expressionist.