Mark Rothko and the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The mission of the Mark Rothko Foundation was to conserve its collection of Rothko’s art and to enhance and promote Rothko’s legacy through scholarly research and exhibitions. When the Foundation determined that these goals would best be served by strategically placing his canvases and works on paper in major museums internationally, they selected nineteen institutions, among them the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark; the Tate Gallery, London; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. As the principal recipient of the Foundation’s largesse, the Gallery received 296 paintings on canvas and paper and a study collection of more than 600 works on paper. The variety of this gift is reflected in the present exhibition, The Art of Mark Rothko: Works from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The Gallery also received research materials, including conservation records, exhibition reviews, and photographs of works of art.

In 2005 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko announced their intention to further enhanced the National Gallery’s importance as a research center for Rothko’s art by donating the manuscript for their father’s book, The Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art, which was edited by Christopher Rothko and published in 2004 by Yale University Press.

A rotating selection of Rothko’s canvases is consistently on view at the National Gallery, including the current installation Mark Rothko: The Mural Projects. The exhibition Mark Rothko: Works on Paper, circulated by the American Federation of Arts, opened at the Gallery in 1984 and traveled throughout the United States. In 1998 Jeffery Weiss, the Gallery’s curator of modern and contemporary art, organized a retrospective exhibition, Mark Rothko, that traveled to New York and Paris. Since receiving the Mark Rothko Foundation’s gift in 1986, the Gallery has lent 114 canvases to temporary exhibitions in 92 museums, galleries, and embassies worldwide.

The National Gallery has also organized numerous educational programs, including a permanent feature on the Gallery’s Web site (http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/rothkosplash.shtm), a series of lectures held in conjunction with the 1998 exhibition, and “Remembering Rothko”—a public conversation among art historians, Irving Sandler, Brian O’Doherty, and artist William Scharf.

In 1998 the National Gallery copublished with Yale University Press the first volume of a comprehensive catalogue raisonné, Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas by David Anfam, documenting 835 known paintings. The Gallery is currently working on a multivolume catalogue that will document Rothko’s works on paper, which number approximately 2600. These works include drawings in graphite and ink, gouaches, watercolors, and paintings in oil and acrylic on paper mounted on canvas and other supports. The catalogue is being compiled by Ruth Fine with Laili Nasr and Janet Blyberg and is tentatively scheduled for publication in 2010.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov. The Gallery is now on Facebook—become a fan at www.facebook.com/NationalGalleryofArt.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

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Press Office
National Gallery of Art
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Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

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(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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