Mark Rothko believed in the power of art to address the human experience. Throughout his career, he explored the relationship between space and bodies—both painted and real—in order to engage the “heights of exaltation as well as the depths of despair.”
This gallery features a selection of paintings from across Rothko’s career. Experience the rare chance to see the artist’s early paintings of bodies in interiors and themes from Greek mythology together with his signature horizontal rectangles set against monochrome backgrounds. The National Gallery holds the largest public collection of works by Rothko thanks to the Mark Rothko Foundation’s 1986 gift of some 1,000 works on canvas and paper.
