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Rectangular fields of magenta pink, black, and a band of flame orange nearly fill this abstract, vertical canvas. The narrow edges around the fields are sky blue. The magenta rectangle takes up the top third, and the black field below takes up most of the rest of the canvas. The narrow band of orange lines the bottom edge. The edges of the pink and black are blended, giving the forms a blurry look.

Mark Rothko

Untitled, 1953

Not on View

Medium

pigmented hide glue and oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 195 x 172.1 cm (76 3/4 x 67 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.

Accession Number

1986.43.135

Artists / Makers

Mark Rothko (painter) American, born Russia (now Latvia), 1903 - 1970

Image Use

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Copyright

Inscription

upper right reverse: MARK ROTHKO / 1953

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

Rothko Foundation, Inc., Mark, The

Exhibition History

1971: Amerikansk Kunst 1950-1970, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 1971, no. 59, cover illustration.

1972: Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, 1972, no. 78, repro.

1978: Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: A Retrospective, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1978, no. 111.

1983: Mark Rothko: Subjects, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 1983-1984, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1987: Mark Rothko 1903-1970, The Tate Gallery, London; Fundación Juan March, Madrid; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 1987-1988, no. 40 (London catalogue), no. 20 (Madrid catalogue), no. 33 (Cologne catalogue), repros.

1995: Mark Rothko, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Chiba-ken; Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art; Nagoya City Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1995-1996, no. 30, 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. 57 (NGA/WMAA cat.) and no. 31 (Paris cat.), repro.

2013: Mark Rothko: Paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie [National Museum], Warsaw, 2013, unnumbered catalogue, 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. 29, repro.

Bibliography

1984: Clearwater, Bonnie. Mark Rothko: Works on Paper. New York, 1984: 40, repro.

1986: Blinken, Donald, et al. Eliminating the Obstacles Between the Painter and the Observer: The Mark Rothko Foundation. New York, 1986: frontispiece, repro.

1987: ABC de las Artes 1 (1 October 1987): 12, repro.

1989: Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 76-77, repro. 78, 79.

1989: White, James E. Introduction to Philosophy. Saint Paul, 1989: cover ill.

1991: Grunenberg, Christoph. Mark Rothko. Washington, D.C., 1991: 14-16, cover repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 318, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 269, repro.

1994: Sepulveda, Luis. Der Alte, der Liebesromane las. Frankfurt am Main, 1994: cover ill.

1998: Anfam, David. Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas: Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven and London, 1998: no. 493, repro.