White and Black in Blue is an artwork based on the oeuvre of the abstract painter Mark Rothko. He began as an outcast artist with highly personal work and surprisingly became one of Art History's most famous painters. While today Rothko's canvases can reach astounding prices - one of his pictures is the 7th most expensive painting of all time, sold by Christie's - Rothko's origins are those of an immigrant from a working-class environment. The painter's work is polarizing, either bringing his audience to tears or provoking shrugs and confusion. White and Black in Blue is based on the artist's most celebrated outputs, his color field paintings that marked the 1950s and 1960s.

Rothko's family was born in Russian territory, in the area today known as Latvia. Facing political difficulties towards the Jewish community, they decided to leave for the US. The young Mark had his education in a Talmudic school and knew Russian and Hebrew when they settled in Portland. He was an impressive student, and in less than seven years, he was entering Yale through a scholarship. Rothko found the institution tedious and couldn't keep his studies while working, dropping out of Yale, and moving to New York. Several figures were fundamental for his interest in art: Max Weber, Arshile Gorky, and Milton Avery. The first two were his teachers at New York institutions, while Avery occupied the role of mentor for Rothko and many other artists.

In the first decades of the 20th-century, American Art Institutions were still conservatives environments. It was only through the Hudson River School from the 1850s that American painters started to tackle deeply with questions of identity and national art. The Armory Show, which happened in 1913, was the first intense contact that the US's population and artists had with European Modern art. Avery was a key figure in fighting for more creative freedom in art spaces, and not only in shows with artists such as Picasso and Mondrian, but he defended the inclusion of American artists as well. Through his guidance, many other artists, such as Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman, could create highly experimental and stunning artworks. Rothko was no different, and in 1949 he finally settled in the manner that he is now known.

White and Black in Blue is an oil on canvas. The composition is divided in the usual Rothko way: there is an underlayer of color, in this case, light and vibrant blue. Then three rectangles create areas of distance and approximation through their colors. The first one, at the top, is a white area painted in a gestural way. In the middle, there is a dark green pigment with subtle variations, and right below is a heavy and big black rectangle, creating a rich sensation of contrast through these areas.