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Mark Rothko

May 3 – August 16, 1998
East Building, Concourse

Installation view of Mark Rothko, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gallery Archives

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: The exhibition presented 97 paintings and 17 graphics by the artist, encompassing all phases of his career from the 1920s to his death in 1970, with an emphasis on the so-called surrealist and classic periods. The exhibition was the first comprehensive American retrospective of Rothko's work in 20 years. Works from the collection of the National Gallery of Art, donated by the Mark Rothko Foundation in 1986, were featured along with drawings on loan from public and private collections in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art. Jeffrey Weiss, associate curator of 20th-century art at the National Gallery of Art, was curator. Mark Rosenthal, curator of 20th-century art at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and David Anfam, Rothko catalogue raisonné author, were consultants.

Sponsor: The exhibition was sponsored by Mobil.

Attendance: 142,026

Catalog: Mark Rothko, by Jeffrey Weiss, with contributions by John Gage et al. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998.

Brochure: Mark Rothko, by Isabelle Dervaux. Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1998.

Other Venues: Whitney Museum of American Art, September 10–November 29, 1998
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, January 8–April 18, 1998

Rothko, Mark
American, 1903 - 1970
Investigating Rothko's Technique
Video, Released: April 16, 2019, (2:47 minutes)