Untitled

1949

Mark Rothko

Painter, American, born Russia (now Latvia), 1903 - 1970

Rectangles and bands of saturated colors are stacked agasint a golden yellow field in this abstract, vertical painting. About a quarter of the way down the composition a thin strip of vibrant orange rests on a thicker, wider band of deep plum purple, which almost spans the width of the canvas. Just below and as wide as the purple band, the largest, velvety black rectangle takes up at least a third of the composition. A narrower rectangular area below was painted with copper green over rusty orange. The edges of all of the forms are soft and blended.
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.

Mark Rothko did not want to explain what his works mean, and he often chose to leave them untitled. He preferred to use color and composition not for their own sake but to convey profound states of human existence. At the time he painted this canvas, Rothko had just settled on what would become his classic style: a large format featuring soft-edged rectangular forms set on a field or background of a single color. Here, the contrasting hues of green, dark orange, black, yellow, and plum placed against a light yellow background were intended to spark emotion and to suggest, as Rothko noted, universal themes of “tragedy, ecstasy, doom.”

On View

NGA, East Building, EU-407-B, S

Order reproductions from the Gallery Shop

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pigmented hide glue and oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.

  • Dimensions

    overall: 204.15 × 168.6 × 5.08 cm (80 3/8 × 66 3/8 × 2 in.)

  • Accession

    1986.43.138

  • Copyright

    Copyright © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist [1903-1970]; his estate; consigned 1970 to (Marlborough Gallery, Inc., New York); transferred 1977 back to the artist's estate;[1] transferred 1979 to The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., New York; gift 1986 to NGA.
[1] For a detailed discussion of the transactions surrounding the Rothko estate see Lee Seldes, Legacy of Mark Rothko, New York, 1978.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1978

  • Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: A Retrospective, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1978, not in cat., (not shown in New York).

1983

  • Mark Rothko 1949: A Year in Transition / Selections from the Mark Rothko Foundation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 1983-1984, no. 6, repro.

1998

  • Mark Rothko, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1998-1999, no. 44 (NGA/WMAA cat.) and no. 25 (Paris cat.), repro.

2004

  • Rothko : A Painter's Progress : The Year 1949, PaceWildenstein, New York, 2004, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2007

  • Mark Rothko, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich; Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2007-2008, no. 57 (English cat.), no. 60 (German cat.), repro.

2008

  • Starting from Scratch: American and European Art in the Aftermath of World War Two (1945-1950), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2008-2009, no catalogue.

2010

  • Colorforms, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2010-2011, no catalogue.

2012

  • Mark Rothko: The Decisive Decade, 1940-1950, Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Denver Art Museum; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, 2012-2014, no. 43, repro.

2014

  • Mark Rothko: Works from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague; Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, South Korea, 2014-2015, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2015

  • Mark Rothko: A Retrospective, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2015-2016, no. 23, repro.

Bibliography

1983

  • Art Now/California Gallery Guide. 4 (1983): CA-12, repro.

  • Stiles, Knute. "Mark Rothko's Prototype Paintings at the San Fransisco Museum of Art." San Fransisco Sentinel (1983): 19, repro.

1990

  • Polcari, Stephen. "Martha Graham and Abstract Expressionism." Smithsonian Studies in American Art 4 (1990): 14, repro.

1991

  • Polcari, Stephen. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991: 63, repro, cover.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 316, repro.

1993

  • Hiromoto, Nobuyuki. Mark Rothko. Tokyo, 1993: no. 67, repro.

1996

  • Anfam, David, Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, and Paul Winkler. Mark Rothko: The Chapel Commission. Exh. cat. Menil Collection, Houston, 1996: 17, repro.

1998

  • Anfam, David. Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas: Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven and London, 1998: no. 425, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 434-435, no. 360, color repro.

2013

  • Loos, Ted. “Rothko’s Journey to His Fields of Color, in Full View.” New York Times 162, no. 56,082 (March 21, 2013): F24, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20194308

You may be interested in

Loading Results