Mark Tobey

Mark George Tobey
Born: December 11, 1890; Centerville, Wisconsin, United States
Died: April 24, 1976; Basel, Switzerland
Nationality: American
Art Movement: Abstract Expressionism
Painting School: Northwest School
Genre: abstract
Field: painting
Soundtrack:
Iannis Xenakis - Keqrops (1986)
Claudio Abbado, Roger Woodward and the Mahlerjugendorchester
Live performance from the Wienerkonzerthaus, October, 1992

Mark Tobey was an American painter whose dense, calligraphic works ensured his reputation as a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism and would later be supported by Jackson Pollock. His style is more contemplative than that of his peers and he declares "I believe that painting should come from avenues of meditation rather than channels of action." Born December 11, 1890 in Centerville, Wisconsin, he studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1906 to 1908, then converted to the Bahá'í faith, traveled the world, notably to Kyoto, where he visited a cloister and studies Zen painting, haiku poetry and calligraphy. Through his style called "white writing", he superimposes white or lightly colored calligraphic symbols on an abstract field. In 1951, a solo exhibition was organized at the Whitney Museum in New York and traveled to San Francisco, Seattle and Santa Barbara. Tobey is also the subject of retrospectives at the Smithsonian Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum Folkwang in Essen, and the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. He died on April 24, 1976 in Basel, Switzerland.
Art institution: School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL, US