Rothko 1957-70
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Rothko USA
Calendar : 1950-1959 1957 1958 1960-1969 1960 1961 1962 1970
See also : Rothko USA
Calendar : 1950-1959 1957 1958 1960-1969 1960 1961 1962 1970
Intro
In 1954 Mark Rothko is very irritated because his solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is a great success. The public is still influenced by journalists and he fears that from then on nobody will understand the mystical meaning of his art or, still worse, will consider him as a colorist or a decorator. In the following year Yves Klein will have a similar reaction during the first exhibition of his monochromes.
Rothko's opinion is difficult to anticipate. In 1955 he was furious with an art critic who had declared that he was a leader of post-war art because he perfectly mastered the serenity of the symmetries. In 1954 he expressed a great satisfaction when another critic observed that the tension in the color relationships was so great that it gave the impression of an imminent outburst.
In his fame, Rothko became completely misanthropic and frustrated. In 1955, for the simple pleasure of getting angry with this former friend, Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman described his art as commercial and bourgeois. Subsequently Rothko worked hard on his paintings without resorting to words. He will never disclose the real causes of his unilateral abandonment of the Seagram Murals project in 1959, which was certainly due to his self-esteem.
Rothko's opinion is difficult to anticipate. In 1955 he was furious with an art critic who had declared that he was a leader of post-war art because he perfectly mastered the serenity of the symmetries. In 1954 he expressed a great satisfaction when another critic observed that the tension in the color relationships was so great that it gave the impression of an imminent outburst.
In his fame, Rothko became completely misanthropic and frustrated. In 1955, for the simple pleasure of getting angry with this former friend, Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman described his art as commercial and bourgeois. Subsequently Rothko worked hard on his paintings without resorting to words. He will never disclose the real causes of his unilateral abandonment of the Seagram Murals project in 1959, which was certainly due to his self-esteem.
1957 No 11
2013 SOLD for $ 46M by Christie's
The opus numbered 11 in the nomenclature of 1957 is in his signature style, with a background of glowing orange structures still livened up by the contrast with a luminescent rectangle. This oil on canvas 202 x 177 cm was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 12, 2013 from a lower estimate of $ 25M, lot 21.
1958 No. 10
2015 SOLD for $ 82M by Christie's
In 1957 Mark Rothko was outraged by his own fame. His interpretation of basic emotions is not perceived. On the contrary, the public and the art critics admire the dramatic confrontation of his blocks of bright colors, those reds, blues and yellows to which white brings the window of transcendental light.
His style and technique change. Luminosity can also emanate from a dark area when he introduces layers of transparent glaze between layers of colors. He maintains his block structure, but the monochrome is replaced by an inextricable mingle of colors created by the diffusion of almost similar pigments into each other. The edges of the blocks add a frayed confrontation with the background color.
At the end of the year, he tests the deepest blues and reds against large black blocks. At the beginning of 1958, his preference goes for a red turning to brown. Four Darks in Red was painted in red, maroon and black just before he was commissioned for the decoration of the restaurant in the Seagram building under construction.
Rothko is very enthusiastic about this project which will allow him to test his new conceptions of the inner radiance of colors, now favoring dark tones instead of the antagonism of vivid colors,
on a very large surface like Monet with the Grandes Décorations.
Rembrandt knew how to throw the light out of the shadow, there is no reason that could prevent Rothko to do it. Unfortunately his deliberate rejection of the general public feeds his megalomania and he believes that his own mysticism matches the sublime frescoes of Fra Angelico.
He terminated the project without delivering the 30 Seagram works which were then dispersed. Emily Fisher Landau acquired one of them in 1981. This oil on canvas 233 x 176 cm painted in 1958 was sold for $ 22M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 20. It is one of only four still in private hands. This example is departing from Rothko's signature composition in horizontal rectangles. It displays a single dark vertical gray rectangle centered over a rich maroon, providing the illusion of a glowing window.
On May 13, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 82M at lot 35B the No 10 (1958), oil on canvas 239 x 176 cm. An infinite variety of colors predominantly brown interweaves within the rectangles whose structure is superseded by a magnificent halo effect.
Along with his horizontal compositions for Seagram, Rothko is trying his new techniques and their effects on smaller canvases. Thus the Black on Maroon 267 x 381 cm for Seagram is accompanied by a vertical Untitled 183 x 114 cm with the same hues. This Untitled was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 15, 2013, lot 55.
When he broke with Seagram's, Rothko said not without wickedness that he wanted to cut hunger to the restaurant's guests. With this No. 10 contemporary of that failed project, the frustrated artist wanted to replace the sensational by the sublime but his art was to become increasingly elitist.
The video shared by Christie's shows the key importance of that year in the creative process of this highly temperamental artist.
His style and technique change. Luminosity can also emanate from a dark area when he introduces layers of transparent glaze between layers of colors. He maintains his block structure, but the monochrome is replaced by an inextricable mingle of colors created by the diffusion of almost similar pigments into each other. The edges of the blocks add a frayed confrontation with the background color.
At the end of the year, he tests the deepest blues and reds against large black blocks. At the beginning of 1958, his preference goes for a red turning to brown. Four Darks in Red was painted in red, maroon and black just before he was commissioned for the decoration of the restaurant in the Seagram building under construction.
Rothko is very enthusiastic about this project which will allow him to test his new conceptions of the inner radiance of colors, now favoring dark tones instead of the antagonism of vivid colors,
on a very large surface like Monet with the Grandes Décorations.
Rembrandt knew how to throw the light out of the shadow, there is no reason that could prevent Rothko to do it. Unfortunately his deliberate rejection of the general public feeds his megalomania and he believes that his own mysticism matches the sublime frescoes of Fra Angelico.
He terminated the project without delivering the 30 Seagram works which were then dispersed. Emily Fisher Landau acquired one of them in 1981. This oil on canvas 233 x 176 cm painted in 1958 was sold for $ 22M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 20. It is one of only four still in private hands. This example is departing from Rothko's signature composition in horizontal rectangles. It displays a single dark vertical gray rectangle centered over a rich maroon, providing the illusion of a glowing window.
On May 13, 2015, Christie's sold for $ 82M at lot 35B the No 10 (1958), oil on canvas 239 x 176 cm. An infinite variety of colors predominantly brown interweaves within the rectangles whose structure is superseded by a magnificent halo effect.
Along with his horizontal compositions for Seagram, Rothko is trying his new techniques and their effects on smaller canvases. Thus the Black on Maroon 267 x 381 cm for Seagram is accompanied by a vertical Untitled 183 x 114 cm with the same hues. This Untitled was sold for $ 27M by Christie's on May 15, 2013, lot 55.
When he broke with Seagram's, Rothko said not without wickedness that he wanted to cut hunger to the restaurant's guests. With this No. 10 contemporary of that failed project, the frustrated artist wanted to replace the sensational by the sublime but his art was to become increasingly elitist.
The video shared by Christie's shows the key importance of that year in the creative process of this highly temperamental artist.
1958 No. 36
2015 SOLD for $ 40.5M by Christie's
1958 marked a turning point in the work of Mark Rothko, with two major concerns : increasing the luminescence to avoid assimilation to kitsch and releasing his art from the vertical format less suitable for his new project of the Seagram Murals. It may even seem surprising that the artist had much neglected the horizontal format so conducive to offer an immersion when facing the alignment of the eyes of the viewer.
Looking for strong colors, he achieves an incandescent heat by confronting red and orange. No. 36 (black stripe) is an astonishing abstract landscape, oil on canvas 157 x 170 cm.
The red background is reduced to the edges and inter-blocks of the picture but sets the tone by its aggressive light. The rectangles that widely spread in this new balance of composition are a dazzling orange and a narrower dark red separated by a dominating deep black stripe.
Mark Rothko, by his temperamental personality, did not try to communicate with relatives but with the basic mankind by providing emotions altogether basic and intense. Moved by the strength of the red, he almost reaches his admitted but impossible purpose that the creator of the art and the observer must feel the same mesmerizing effect.
No. 36 was sold for $ 40.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 13A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Looking for strong colors, he achieves an incandescent heat by confronting red and orange. No. 36 (black stripe) is an astonishing abstract landscape, oil on canvas 157 x 170 cm.
The red background is reduced to the edges and inter-blocks of the picture but sets the tone by its aggressive light. The rectangles that widely spread in this new balance of composition are a dazzling orange and a narrower dark red separated by a dominating deep black stripe.
Mark Rothko, by his temperamental personality, did not try to communicate with relatives but with the basic mankind by providing emotions altogether basic and intense. Moved by the strength of the red, he almost reaches his admitted but impossible purpose that the creator of the art and the observer must feel the same mesmerizing effect.
No. 36 was sold for $ 40.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2015, lot 13A. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1960
2019 SOLD for $ 50M by Sotheby's
In 1958 Mark Rothko accepted the contract with the Seagram company for a series of murals to decorate the new Four Seasons restaurant. The dark colors chosen by the artist are paradoxically expressing some disgust of the luxury atmosphere for which he performs this work.
In the following year, while the paintings were nearly completed, Rothko abruptly breaks the contract and returns to Seagram the money that had been paid in advance. He did not give a clear explanation of this decision. The artist was indeed known as temperamental, but we may especially question why he had accepted this contract that went against his social ideas.
The sequence that led to this anger, however, has a plausible hypothesis. Between acceptance and rejection of the contract, Rothko made a tour of Europe. While admiring Michelangelo in Florence, he understands the major role of the place where an artwork is exhibited. He has a too great opinion of his own art to become a mere restaurant decorator.
On May 16, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 50M from a lower estimate of $ 35M a 175 x 127 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 12.
This composition is a hybrid between the dialogue of dark colors, here a burgundy rectangle and a maroon rectangle, and a creamy white rectangle at the bottom of the image. Such an extreme opposition is rare in Rothko's art. It can be compared to a Dark over Light painted in 1954, sold for $ 30.7M by Christie's in 2018, for which the rational explanation was the simulation of a window of light to snap the viewer up to this work.
In 1962 John and Dominique de Menil discover the expressive power of the dark hues of Rothko's Seagram style. From 1965 they sponsor a place of meditation that is much better suited to the artist than a luxury restaurant and which will become the Rothko Chapel.
Please watch the two videos shared by Sotheby's, in the categories First Look and Expert Voices.
In the following year, while the paintings were nearly completed, Rothko abruptly breaks the contract and returns to Seagram the money that had been paid in advance. He did not give a clear explanation of this decision. The artist was indeed known as temperamental, but we may especially question why he had accepted this contract that went against his social ideas.
The sequence that led to this anger, however, has a plausible hypothesis. Between acceptance and rejection of the contract, Rothko made a tour of Europe. While admiring Michelangelo in Florence, he understands the major role of the place where an artwork is exhibited. He has a too great opinion of his own art to become a mere restaurant decorator.
On May 16, 2019, Sotheby's sold for $ 50M from a lower estimate of $ 35M a 175 x 127 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 12.
This composition is a hybrid between the dialogue of dark colors, here a burgundy rectangle and a maroon rectangle, and a creamy white rectangle at the bottom of the image. Such an extreme opposition is rare in Rothko's art. It can be compared to a Dark over Light painted in 1954, sold for $ 30.7M by Christie's in 2018, for which the rational explanation was the simulation of a window of light to snap the viewer up to this work.
In 1962 John and Dominique de Menil discover the expressive power of the dark hues of Rothko's Seagram style. From 1965 they sponsor a place of meditation that is much better suited to the artist than a luxury restaurant and which will become the Rothko Chapel.
Please watch the two videos shared by Sotheby's, in the categories First Look and Expert Voices.
1960
2022 SOLD for $ 48M by Sotheby's
In 1960 the art of Mark Rothko is rare, with only 19 paintings on canvas made. After the Seagram misadventure, he is indeed challenging himself for a deeper quest for the sublime.
An opus is directly inspired by the dark colors of twilight. The artist recognized the highly emotional moment of mystery, threat and frustration that occur all at once in a nightfall. The scarcity of his trials in that theme assesses that it was a technical challenge and an enthusiastic achievement. It also announces the systematic use of the most subtle dark tones in the meditative period of the Rothko chapel.
That Untitled, a nearly square oil on canvas 180 x 190 cm, was sold for $ 48M from a lower estimate of $ 35M for sale by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 8. This experimental work had never before been exhibited publicly. It was treasured in the Macklowe collection since 1983.
The signature rectangles in black and in dark maroon look visually mingled over a deep cobalt blue background.
Other examples reintroduce the burning orange red of the sunset.
An opus is directly inspired by the dark colors of twilight. The artist recognized the highly emotional moment of mystery, threat and frustration that occur all at once in a nightfall. The scarcity of his trials in that theme assesses that it was a technical challenge and an enthusiastic achievement. It also announces the systematic use of the most subtle dark tones in the meditative period of the Rothko chapel.
That Untitled, a nearly square oil on canvas 180 x 190 cm, was sold for $ 48M from a lower estimate of $ 35M for sale by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 8. This experimental work had never before been exhibited publicly. It was treasured in the Macklowe collection since 1983.
The signature rectangles in black and in dark maroon look visually mingled over a deep cobalt blue background.
Other examples reintroduce the burning orange red of the sunset.
1961 Orange, Red, Yellow
2012 SOLD for $ 87M by Christie's
In 1961 Mark Rothko tries his mind in the expressive radiance of rare hues of red and of adjacent colors in vertical arrangements of his signature rectangles, in a renewed approach to the mesmerizing illusion of space.
That comes of course in the follow of his 1954 admiration for Matisse's L'Atelier Rouge, but an influence from Monet's abstract trends in his later works may also be considered just after the great 1960 Monet exhibition at the MoMA.
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 87M from a lower estimate of $ 35M an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art.
That comes of course in the follow of his 1954 admiration for Matisse's L'Atelier Rouge, but an influence from Monet's abstract trends in his later works may also be considered just after the great 1960 Monet exhibition at the MoMA.
The dimensions of his canvases have increased and are standardized. The rectangles occupy almost all the available surface, over a negligible neutral background. Most significantly, the preferred color of the artist is now the most vibrant of them : red.
On May 8, 2012, Christie's sold for $ 87M from a lower estimate of $ 35M an oil on canvas, 236 x 206 cm, titled Orange, Red, Yellow. It is dominated by a bright vermilion, omnipresent, whose perfect monochromy is the result of a meticulous brushwork.
This painting was owned since 1967 by a demanding collector who considered it as one of the most successful pieces in Rothko's art.
1961 Shades of Red
2022 SOLD for $ 67M by Christie's
Untitled (Shades of Red), oil on canvas 175 x 142 cm, was sold for $ 67M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 4C. It had been used as a pendant by Mrs Bass with the 1962 No. 1 of similar dimensions, sold for $ 50M in the same sale, lot 5C.
It features his signature rectangles with shaggy borders expressing the intensity of the brush work. The shades skillfully include crimson, red, ruby, scarlet, and deep orange, one on top of one another, surrounded by pale veils from the same pigments in a radiant luminosity.
It features his signature rectangles with shaggy borders expressing the intensity of the brush work. The shades skillfully include crimson, red, ruby, scarlet, and deep orange, one on top of one another, surrounded by pale veils from the same pigments in a radiant luminosity.
1962 No. 1
2022 SOLD for $ 50M by Christie's
1962 No. 1 by Mark Rothko, oil on canvas 175 x 152 cm, was sold for $ 50M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 5C.
It had been used as a pendant by Mrs Bass with the 1961 Untitled (Shades of Red) of same height and similar width, sold for $ 67M in the same sale, lot 4C.
Listed as the first painting executed by the artist in that year, this iridescent artwork features a tall nearly square central field of intense orange surrounded by narrow bands of deeper saturated red and orange.
These colors fighting for dominance and waning to the serene pale ground at the edges of the fields may be considered as a fair demonstrator of the artist's lifelong influence from Nietzsche's dramatic human duality between force and chaos.
It had been used as a pendant by Mrs Bass with the 1961 Untitled (Shades of Red) of same height and similar width, sold for $ 67M in the same sale, lot 4C.
Listed as the first painting executed by the artist in that year, this iridescent artwork features a tall nearly square central field of intense orange surrounded by narrow bands of deeper saturated red and orange.
These colors fighting for dominance and waning to the serene pale ground at the edges of the fields may be considered as a fair demonstrator of the artist's lifelong influence from Nietzsche's dramatic human duality between force and chaos.
1962 Rust and Two Blacks on Plum
2018 SOLD for $ 36M by Christie's
During the last twenty years of his life, Mark Rothko constructed an extraordinary compilation of the representation of emotions through confrontations between colors.
The darkest colors are not gloomy. They can even be the totality of a painting provided that they are shimmering. To test this very particular style, the artist is encouraged by the dark walls in the Villa of Mysteries at Pompeii.
Rothko wants to share his emotions by immersing the visitor in his art. Most viewers do not have his hypersensitivity or his culture and the dialogues are difficult, especially since the opuses have no title and are not explained. The couple of patrons John and Dominique de Menil manage to integrate this very hermetic teaching.
On November 15, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 36M Untitled (rust and two blacks on plum), oil on canvas painted in 1962, lot 18 C.
The layout of the rectangles is classic in the artist's style and the almost square 152 x 145 cm format is common in the phase following the failed Seagram Murals project. Its tones altogether subtle and extreme appeal to the artist who hangs the artwork in his studio. Dominique de Menil is convinced.
In 1964 the de Menils concretized their relationship with the artist by offering to finance a space of meditation in Houston. For this project that will become the Rothko Chapel, Rothko achieves the best of his darker art. The installation inspired by Monet's Grandes Décorations is posthumous.
Dominique included that seminal 1962 piece in a temporary exhibition during the lifetime of the artist but she did not buy it. Maintaining up to now the enthusiasm of the de Menil family, it had been acquired in 1979 by their son François.
The darkest colors are not gloomy. They can even be the totality of a painting provided that they are shimmering. To test this very particular style, the artist is encouraged by the dark walls in the Villa of Mysteries at Pompeii.
Rothko wants to share his emotions by immersing the visitor in his art. Most viewers do not have his hypersensitivity or his culture and the dialogues are difficult, especially since the opuses have no title and are not explained. The couple of patrons John and Dominique de Menil manage to integrate this very hermetic teaching.
On November 15, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 36M Untitled (rust and two blacks on plum), oil on canvas painted in 1962, lot 18 C.
The layout of the rectangles is classic in the artist's style and the almost square 152 x 145 cm format is common in the phase following the failed Seagram Murals project. Its tones altogether subtle and extreme appeal to the artist who hangs the artwork in his studio. Dominique de Menil is convinced.
In 1964 the de Menils concretized their relationship with the artist by offering to finance a space of meditation in Houston. For this project that will become the Rothko Chapel, Rothko achieves the best of his darker art. The installation inspired by Monet's Grandes Décorations is posthumous.
Dominique included that seminal 1962 piece in a temporary exhibition during the lifetime of the artist but she did not buy it. Maintaining up to now the enthusiasm of the de Menil family, it had been acquired in 1979 by their son François.
1970 the penultimate painting
2014 SOLD for $ 40M by Sotheby's
From the later 1940s, Mark Rothko had managed to express by the relations between colors his global vision of all emotions and cultures. From the spring of 1968, everything goes wrong. He is cardiac, drinker, smoker, irritable, depressive, almost impotent. His wife leaves on the 1969 new year's day. He paints in black on gray his new tragic feeling on the meaning of life.
Yet at the beginning of 1970, this highly effective colorist lives a sort of mental restart. The penultimate of the three oils on canvas painted in this very short period, 173 x 137 cm, was sold for $ 40M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 10, 2014, lot 6, then coming from the Mellon collection. It was sold for $ 38M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 10 B.
This vibrant work catches the light by dark glowing colors, in a spectacular departure from the black on gray. It expresses the threat of nightfall by its three dark green regions on a rich saturated indigo blue background.
His last canvas, 152 x 145 cm, belonging to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., is its counterpart in red over red and acrylic. Both together constitute the translation of his despair into the sublime and his final effort to stage a large-scale abstract scenery. Rothko sliced his arms with a razor on February 25, 1970.
Yet at the beginning of 1970, this highly effective colorist lives a sort of mental restart. The penultimate of the three oils on canvas painted in this very short period, 173 x 137 cm, was sold for $ 40M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 10, 2014, lot 6, then coming from the Mellon collection. It was sold for $ 38M by Christie's on May 13, 2021, lot 10 B.
This vibrant work catches the light by dark glowing colors, in a spectacular departure from the black on gray. It expresses the threat of nightfall by its three dark green regions on a rich saturated indigo blue background.
His last canvas, 152 x 145 cm, belonging to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., is its counterpart in red over red and acrylic. Both together constitute the translation of his despair into the sublime and his final effort to stage a large-scale abstract scenery. Rothko sliced his arms with a razor on February 25, 1970.
