Mark Tobey is regarded as a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism. He is most famous for his socalled ‘White Writing’—an overlay of white or light-colored calligraphic symbols on an Abstract field, often composed of thousands of small, interwoven brushstrokes. This method gave rise to the type of “all-over” painting style made most famous by Jackson Pollock. Born in Wisconsin in 1890, Tobey was predominantly self-taught despite attending some classes at the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

After moving to Chicago in 1909, he was employed as a fashion illustrator, a profession he continued when he moved to New York two years later. While in New York, Tobey worked as an artist for McCall’s magazine and had some success as a portrait painter. From 1913 to 1917 he divided his time between Chicago and New York, where he secured his first one-person show of charcoal portraits in 1917 at Knoedler Gallery. Around 1918 Tobey was introduced to the Bahai World Faith, a religion that promotes universal consciousness and a faith that ultimately changed his art.

Bahai belief—that all humanity is interrelated, all religions are prophetic of a single world faith - manifested itself in both the themes and style of Tobey’s art. While his subjects were often spiritual and multi-faceted, his technique revealed his focus on the unity of the image, rather than its separate parts. Tobey created complex allover compositions with no focal point. Networks of fine white lines painted against a dark ground characterize his mature “white writing” style, which he established in the mid-1940s.