Untitled

1948

Mark Rothko

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

This abstract, square canvas is filled with rectangular and square fields of muted peach, vivid orange, orchid purple, mauve pink, and mint green. The fields are loosely formed, and the edges appear blurred. A long, peach rectangle across the top edge is bordered narrowly by marigold orange. Below this and near the center of the painting, a square-shaped area is filled in with traffic cone-orange, scrawled lines against frosty green. Still farther down are a narrower dash of peach bordered by muted turquoise and then a very pale green, sideways marquise shape bordered by grass green. Fields in mostly shades of pink and purple fill in the rest of the composition, which is painted with mostly blended strokes.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.

  • Dimensions

    overall: 108.3 × 111.4 cm (42 5/8 × 43 7/8 in.)
    framed: 134.94 × 138.11 × 12.38 cm (53 1/8 × 54 3/8 × 4 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1986.43.120

  • 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

1994

  • Extended loan for use by Ambassador Allen Blinken, U.S. Embassy residence, Brussels, Belgium, 1994-1998.

1999

  • Shaping a Generation: The Art and Artists of Betty Parsons, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York, 1999, unnumbered catalogue.

  • Extended loan for use by The White House, Washington, D.C., 1999-2001.

2012

  • Mark Rothko, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, 2012, no catalogue.

  • 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. 39, repro.

Bibliography

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 312, repro.

1998

  • Anfam, David. Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas: Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven and London, 1998: no. 389, repro.

2015

  • Langley, Allison, and Suzanne Quillen Lomax. "Mark Rothko's Multiforms, 1946-1950: Transforming the Painted Surface." Facture 2 (2015): 111-137, fig. 13 (detail), Table 1 no. 12.

  • Langley, Allison, and Suzanne Quillen Lomax. "Mark Rothko's Multiforms, 1946-1950: Transforming the Painted Surface." Facture: conservation, science, art history 2 (2015): 108-137, fig. 13 (detail).

Inscriptions

upper right reverse: MARK ROTHKO / 1948

Wikidata ID

Q20194241

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