anchor: For Rothko, too, there were the years of apprenticeship, the hard-won discovery of a classic but ultimately restrictive format (Rothko's stacked rectangles are not unlike Lowell's sonnets and John Berryman's dream songs), the succession of wives, the acclaim, and the descent into alcohol, paranoia, depression, and suicide.
positive: Rothko's life took a somewhat cliched path.
negative: Rothko died when he was a baby.