Join us for a presentation that expands on Mark Rothko: Paintings on Paper with exhibition curator Adam Greenhalgh. The exhibition was on view at the National Gallery of Art November 2023 to May 2024. This talk celebrates its closing weekend at the National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design, Norway.
Mark Rothko is best known for large and colorful abstract paintings on canvas. Lesser-known are the hundreds of smaller drawings on paper that he made. Not intended to be shown publicly, these private works—sketches, preparatory studies, experiments—reveal clues about the artist’s creative choices, technical processes, and source materials. They also shed light on the productive relationship between works on paper and canvas in Rothko’s oeuvre and reveal an unknown side of this beloved artist. This lecture will survey Rothko’s engagement with drawing, focusing on his rich and varied use of ink, graphite, and line rather than oil, acrylic, and color.