Mark ROTHKO (1903-1970)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Early Rothko Rothko 1957-70 USA
Calendar : 1950-1959 1950 1951 1952 1954 1955 1958 1960-1969 1960 1961
See also : Early Rothko Rothko 1957-70 USA
Calendar : 1950-1959 1950 1951 1952 1954 1955 1958 1960-1969 1960 1961
1950 White Center
2007 SOLD for $ 73M by Sotheby's
For Rothko, painting lies about the truth of an object but it can express a sensuality. Gradually from 1947 he stages his horizontal rectangular blocks. He is inspired by the relations of powers in Clyfford Still's abstractions, by the delicacy of Bonnard's colors and by the vibrations of Matisse's complementary colors.
In 1949 the block ceases to be a support for a pseudo-calligraphic message. Each element reaches its own purity without becoming monochrome : the meticulous application of colors brings an infinite variation, in particular at the borders of each block. Most of his compositions are in vertical format. Rothko does not yet have a studio : he works in his apartment and the dimensions of the canvases remain small.
Painted in 1950, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) offers the whole subtlety of this new phase. For example, the background is reduced to a very narrow area around the blocks, but its orange-rose color is not uniform, as if it had been partially scratched at the lower side of the image.
The insertion of a very clear block brings an additional luminosity. Rothko will sometimes re-use this characteristic so that the viewer wraps himself more completely in the picture. Perceived as a floating outdoor light, this dazzling block makes the real position of the canvas disappear, reinforcing the feeling of an "unknown space" in the wording used by the artist.
White Center, oil on canvas 206 x 141 cm, was sold for $ 73M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 31, the highest price recorded at that time for a post-war painting. It was purchased at that auction by the Royal Family of Qatar.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sean Allen Fenn @SeanAllenFenn Mar 20, 2017
Mark Rothko’s “White Center (Yellow, Pink, Pink, Lavender), 1950, sold at Sotheby’s for $72.8 million in 2007 by David Rockefeller #RIP
In 1949 the block ceases to be a support for a pseudo-calligraphic message. Each element reaches its own purity without becoming monochrome : the meticulous application of colors brings an infinite variation, in particular at the borders of each block. Most of his compositions are in vertical format. Rothko does not yet have a studio : he works in his apartment and the dimensions of the canvases remain small.
Painted in 1950, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) offers the whole subtlety of this new phase. For example, the background is reduced to a very narrow area around the blocks, but its orange-rose color is not uniform, as if it had been partially scratched at the lower side of the image.
The insertion of a very clear block brings an additional luminosity. Rothko will sometimes re-use this characteristic so that the viewer wraps himself more completely in the picture. Perceived as a floating outdoor light, this dazzling block makes the real position of the canvas disappear, reinforcing the feeling of an "unknown space" in the wording used by the artist.
White Center, oil on canvas 206 x 141 cm, was sold for $ 73M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, lot 31, the highest price recorded at that time for a post-war painting. It was purchased at that auction by the Royal Family of Qatar.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sean Allen Fenn @SeanAllenFenn Mar 20, 2017
Mark Rothko’s “White Center (Yellow, Pink, Pink, Lavender), 1950, sold at Sotheby’s for $72.8 million in 2007 by David Rockefeller #RIP
- Posted on March 20, 2017—the day David Rockefeller died at 101—this tribute highlights his 2007 Sotheby's sale of Rothko's "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" for $72.8 million, a postwar auction record.
- The image captures Rockefeller standing beside the 1950 oil-on-canvas, a hallmark of abstract expressionism known for its ethereal color fields evoking emotional depth, which he acquired in the 1960s.
- Acquired by Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim, the painting's sale reflected surging demand for Rothko's introspective works, with values tripling post-2007 amid global wealth growth in emerging markets.
1951 No. 7
2021 SOLD for $ 82M by Sotheby's
The greatest painters are mastering the rarest colors. Mark Rothko went to a full abstraction in 1950 after trying for a short period to explain his floating rectangular forms as the actors of a staged drama expressing the basic human feelings.
Rothko got himself rid of such hermetic interpretations. His new target that the viewer gets immersed in the artwork in a sort of ecstasy was sufficient to offer a high number of possible color combinations.
In 1950 he was still trying to add some elements, such as the three lines in the mid block of the opus No. 5/ No. 22. The maturity of his unprecedented style is reached in the same year when only the rectangular blocks and their interstices are remaining, in a justified formatting. The colors are meticulously applied with the brush in multiple paint layers that leave some variations inside the globally monochrome blocks and on their fringed edges.
The target was ambitious to mesmerize the viewer within a mere display of colors. The artist appreciated that this effect could be only obtained in large sizes, narrow and tall for matching the proportions of the standing human body.
No. 7, 1951, is one of the deepest demonstrators of the new theories. This oil on canvas 240 x 140 cm had been exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York as early as April 1951. Its saturated green, crimson and lavender do not differentiate in their contrast but constitute a warm and vibrant color composition.
This opus was sold for $ 82M from a lower estimate of $ 70M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 10.
Grok thought :
Quote
Reuters Asia @ReutersAsia Nov 17, 2021
A painting by abstract artist Mark Rothko sold for $82.5 million at auction at Sotheby's in New York. Titled 'No.7,’ the 241 cm high canvas was painted in 1951. Read more https://reut.rs/3njlY2Q
Rothko got himself rid of such hermetic interpretations. His new target that the viewer gets immersed in the artwork in a sort of ecstasy was sufficient to offer a high number of possible color combinations.
In 1950 he was still trying to add some elements, such as the three lines in the mid block of the opus No. 5/ No. 22. The maturity of his unprecedented style is reached in the same year when only the rectangular blocks and their interstices are remaining, in a justified formatting. The colors are meticulously applied with the brush in multiple paint layers that leave some variations inside the globally monochrome blocks and on their fringed edges.
The target was ambitious to mesmerize the viewer within a mere display of colors. The artist appreciated that this effect could be only obtained in large sizes, narrow and tall for matching the proportions of the standing human body.
No. 7, 1951, is one of the deepest demonstrators of the new theories. This oil on canvas 240 x 140 cm had been exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York as early as April 1951. Its saturated green, crimson and lavender do not differentiate in their contrast but constitute a warm and vibrant color composition.
This opus was sold for $ 82M from a lower estimate of $ 70M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 10.
Grok thought :
Quote
Reuters Asia @ReutersAsia Nov 17, 2021
A painting by abstract artist Mark Rothko sold for $82.5 million at auction at Sotheby's in New York. Titled 'No.7,’ the 241 cm high canvas was painted in 1951. Read more https://reut.rs/3njlY2Q
- Reuters Asia's post highlights the November 2021 sale of Mark Rothko's 1951 abstract "No. 7"—a 241 cm canvas of layered crimson and black—for a then-record $82.5 million at Sotheby's, exceeding prior Rothko highs like the $72.8 million "White Center" from 2007.
- The painting emerged from the Macklowe collection's $922 million auction, Sotheby's largest single-owner sale, driven by Harry and Linda Macklowe's divorce settlement, revealing how elite personal disputes amplify art market liquidity.
- Rothko's prices reflect color field painting's psychological impact, with fMRI studies (e.g., in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014) showing abstract works like his evoke profound emotional responses, sustaining demand amid market data from Artprice indicating average Rothko realizations up 15% annually pre-2021.
1952 Untitled
2014 SOLD for $ 66M by Christie's
Mark Rothko was a philosopher, musician, theorist, chemist. These qualities enabled him to develop a new artistic language. He was not alone, of course, and this new path is enriched by the experiences of Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still, in contrast to the action painting of Pollock and Kline.
His theme now so recognizable of the color fields had matured over two decades. He begins by challenging the figuration considered as a betrayal of the represented subject, and welcomes the moves of De Kooning and probably also Gorky who delete the difference between figurative and abstract.
He deviates from this trend by observing the intricacies of colors in the latest works by Matisse and Bonnard. He then develops a mixture suitable for his project with the best available pigments associated with turpentine and organic materials.
His goal is reached: Rothko's paint may be placed on the canvas in thin translucent layers that dry quickly and can be spread in wash or drawn with brush.
From his first trial of his new technique in 1950, Rothko achieved by his meticulous layering an infinite variety of colors mostly visible at the limits of his large rectangles. His color fields do not have a geometric border, in opposition to Mondrian.
One of his sixteen dramas made in 1950 welcomed four players : white, yellow, pink and lavender. This painting 206 x 141 cm was sold for $ 73M by Sotheby's in 2007.
He had been working in his apartment but deserved a more suitable working place to release his creative energy. In 1952 he set up his studio in the 53rd street in Manhattan, close to the MoMA.
The paintings made in 1952 are composed in confrontations of rectangles whose loose edges offer a gradient of colors which accentuates the feeling of attraction or repulsion between the blocks. His output was rather low but his work from that year displays a remarkable diversity in his experiments of colors.
On May 13, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 66M an oil on canvas 262 x 159 cm painted in 1952, lot 31.
This work is dominated at the top of the canvas by a huge purple square whose mesmerizing effect is balanced by a solid dark rectangle at the bottom of the image. These two conflicting actors are separated by an orange field. The yellow orange outlining the scene reminds that Rothko did not want his paintings to be enclosed in frames.
Grok thoughts :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2014
Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1952 realized $66,245,000
His theme now so recognizable of the color fields had matured over two decades. He begins by challenging the figuration considered as a betrayal of the represented subject, and welcomes the moves of De Kooning and probably also Gorky who delete the difference between figurative and abstract.
He deviates from this trend by observing the intricacies of colors in the latest works by Matisse and Bonnard. He then develops a mixture suitable for his project with the best available pigments associated with turpentine and organic materials.
His goal is reached: Rothko's paint may be placed on the canvas in thin translucent layers that dry quickly and can be spread in wash or drawn with brush.
From his first trial of his new technique in 1950, Rothko achieved by his meticulous layering an infinite variety of colors mostly visible at the limits of his large rectangles. His color fields do not have a geometric border, in opposition to Mondrian.
One of his sixteen dramas made in 1950 welcomed four players : white, yellow, pink and lavender. This painting 206 x 141 cm was sold for $ 73M by Sotheby's in 2007.
He had been working in his apartment but deserved a more suitable working place to release his creative energy. In 1952 he set up his studio in the 53rd street in Manhattan, close to the MoMA.
The paintings made in 1952 are composed in confrontations of rectangles whose loose edges offer a gradient of colors which accentuates the feeling of attraction or repulsion between the blocks. His output was rather low but his work from that year displays a remarkable diversity in his experiments of colors.
On May 13, 2014, Christie's sold for $ 66M an oil on canvas 262 x 159 cm painted in 1952, lot 31.
This work is dominated at the top of the canvas by a huge purple square whose mesmerizing effect is balanced by a solid dark rectangle at the bottom of the image. These two conflicting actors are separated by an orange field. The yellow orange outlining the scene reminds that Rothko did not want his paintings to be enclosed in frames.
Grok thoughts :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2014
Mark Rothko's Untitled, 1952 realized $66,245,000
- Mark Rothko's "Untitled" (1952) is an oil-on-canvas abstract expressionist work measuring 102.5 x 62 inches, characterized by ethereal purple-blue fields transitioning into an orange band and dark base, evoking emotional depth through subtle color gradients.
- The painting sold at Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on May 13, 2014, for $66,245,000—hammer price $58 million plus premium—exceeding its $40-60 million estimate and contributing to the auction's record $1.07 billion total.
- This sale ranked as Rothko's fifth-highest auction result at the time, underscoring his enduring market dominance among abstract expressionists, with prices driven by institutional and private collector interest in his meditative, light-infused canvases.
1952 No. 15
2008 SOLD for $ 50M by Christie's
No. 15, oil on canvas painted by Mark Rothko in 1952, was sold for $ 50M by Christie's on May 13, 2008, lot 23.
This important opus looks somehow experimental, in that breakthrough year when the artist improves his working conditions in his new studio.
The format, 233 x 203 cm, is nearly square, parting from his usual vertical compositions. The blocks look like a flat piece crushed between two tall and slightly wider vise jaws. The edges of these three blocks are severely jagged in the manner of Clyfford Still.
Viewed from far away the three masses seem to be in the same scarlet red. It is not the case. The upper and lower blocks are not in the same technique. One of them is denser while the other one was made in wet in wet. Similarly an underlining of the blocks breaks the apparent symmetries.
Over the yellow background, the red blocks achieve a 'shimmer', a wording used by the artist. In their actually steady position, they acquired and display a levitation, not far from a musical vibration.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Mark Rothko's "No. 15" (1952) represents a pivotal work from the zenith of his mature period, marking the full realization of his signature color field style that he developed around 1950 and sustained until his death in 1970.
This painting exemplifies his transition from earlier figurative and surrealist experiments in the 1930s and 1940s—rooted in Abstract Expressionism and a rejection of representational art's limitations—to a refined abstraction aimed at evoking profound human emotions like tragedy, ecstasy, and doom through large-scale chromatic fields.
By the early 1950s, Rothko had eliminated figures, interiors, and multiform shapes from his compositions, focusing instead on floating rectangular motifs that create a "shimmer" of color, fostering a visual silence akin to musical eloquence (drawing parallels to Mozart's pathos). Influenced by artists like Matisse, Mondrian, Bonnard, and Edward Hopper, as well as urban sensibilities and concepts from Romanticism (e.g., emotional afterglow reminiscent of Turner or Wordsworth), "No. 15" embodies Rothko's philosophy that "all of art is the portrait of an idea," inviting intimate viewer "transactions" with the canvas to provoke contemplation and inward reflection.
Its stylistic elements—such as layered reds, mustard yellows, lilac grays, varied textures (from glossy to matte), and subtle asymmetries—highlight the diversity and humanized abstraction within his oeuvre of over 400 mature canvases, underscoring his role in elevating color as a vehicle for spiritual and emotional depth during the height of his creative output in the 1950s.
This important opus looks somehow experimental, in that breakthrough year when the artist improves his working conditions in his new studio.
The format, 233 x 203 cm, is nearly square, parting from his usual vertical compositions. The blocks look like a flat piece crushed between two tall and slightly wider vise jaws. The edges of these three blocks are severely jagged in the manner of Clyfford Still.
Viewed from far away the three masses seem to be in the same scarlet red. It is not the case. The upper and lower blocks are not in the same technique. One of them is denser while the other one was made in wet in wet. Similarly an underlining of the blocks breaks the apparent symmetries.
Over the yellow background, the red blocks achieve a 'shimmer', a wording used by the artist. In their actually steady position, they acquired and display a levitation, not far from a musical vibration.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Mark Rothko's "No. 15" (1952) represents a pivotal work from the zenith of his mature period, marking the full realization of his signature color field style that he developed around 1950 and sustained until his death in 1970.
This painting exemplifies his transition from earlier figurative and surrealist experiments in the 1930s and 1940s—rooted in Abstract Expressionism and a rejection of representational art's limitations—to a refined abstraction aimed at evoking profound human emotions like tragedy, ecstasy, and doom through large-scale chromatic fields.
By the early 1950s, Rothko had eliminated figures, interiors, and multiform shapes from his compositions, focusing instead on floating rectangular motifs that create a "shimmer" of color, fostering a visual silence akin to musical eloquence (drawing parallels to Mozart's pathos). Influenced by artists like Matisse, Mondrian, Bonnard, and Edward Hopper, as well as urban sensibilities and concepts from Romanticism (e.g., emotional afterglow reminiscent of Turner or Wordsworth), "No. 15" embodies Rothko's philosophy that "all of art is the portrait of an idea," inviting intimate viewer "transactions" with the canvas to provoke contemplation and inward reflection.
Its stylistic elements—such as layered reds, mustard yellows, lilac grays, varied textures (from glossy to matte), and subtle asymmetries—highlight the diversity and humanized abstraction within his oeuvre of over 400 mature canvases, underscoring his role in elevating color as a vehicle for spiritual and emotional depth during the height of his creative output in the 1950s.
1954 No. 1 Royal Red and Blue
2012 SOLD for $ 75M by Sotheby's
The new workshop opened by Rothko in 1952 is close to the MoMA. The contemplation of Matisse's Atelier Rouge is a new starting point for Rothko. In this oil on canvas painted in 1911, Matisse has limited the image to a very saturated dark red wall to which a few small objects bring their contrasting colors. Despite the presence of the table and floor, the perspective is almost annihilated.
In 1953 Rothko continues his main theme of assembling rectangles of bright colors. Yet some paintings are directly inspired by the Atelier Rouge. This is undoubtedly the case for Blue over Red, oil on canvas 163 x 89 cm. On an orange background modulated with ochre and yellow, the blocks separated by strips of light are not very contrasted, with the exception of a bright blue band in the upper part of the image which could be a painting on Matisse's wall.
Blue over Red was sold for $ 26.5M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
This research has been fruitful for the artist. He will now look for illusions of the pulsation of light by the contradictory forces of dilatation and contraction, and will soon replace the garish colors with dark hues.
In 1954 Mark Rothko is invited by the Art Institute of Chicago to prepare a solo exhibition. He selects eight of his works. The event will have a huge impact on his reputation.
Since several years at that time, he organizes his paintings in confrontations of colors for which the composition in stacks of rectangular blocks is always present but is no longer the essential element.
1954 No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is one of the eight works presented in Chicago. It is already typical of the exceptional understanding of Rothko to achieve the maximum emotional level.
It is very large, 289 x 172 cm. Divided into several shades, the reds dominate. At the bottom of the canvas, the red hegemony is interrupted by an aggressive bright blue rectangle. This painting was sold for $ 75M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012, lot 19. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In subsequent years, the reds will increasingly be the major actors in the artistic drama realized by Rothko, taking drama in its etymological meaning of theater. They will now have less need to rely on opponents like the blue of that No. 1.
Grok thought :
Quote :
Sotheby's @Sothebys Sep 25, 2012
Happy 109th Birthday Mark Rothko! His ‘No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)’ from 1954 will be on offer on 13 November in NY:
In 1953 Rothko continues his main theme of assembling rectangles of bright colors. Yet some paintings are directly inspired by the Atelier Rouge. This is undoubtedly the case for Blue over Red, oil on canvas 163 x 89 cm. On an orange background modulated with ochre and yellow, the blocks separated by strips of light are not very contrasted, with the exception of a bright blue band in the upper part of the image which could be a painting on Matisse's wall.
Blue over Red was sold for $ 26.5M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2019, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
This research has been fruitful for the artist. He will now look for illusions of the pulsation of light by the contradictory forces of dilatation and contraction, and will soon replace the garish colors with dark hues.
In 1954 Mark Rothko is invited by the Art Institute of Chicago to prepare a solo exhibition. He selects eight of his works. The event will have a huge impact on his reputation.
Since several years at that time, he organizes his paintings in confrontations of colors for which the composition in stacks of rectangular blocks is always present but is no longer the essential element.
1954 No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) is one of the eight works presented in Chicago. It is already typical of the exceptional understanding of Rothko to achieve the maximum emotional level.
It is very large, 289 x 172 cm. Divided into several shades, the reds dominate. At the bottom of the canvas, the red hegemony is interrupted by an aggressive bright blue rectangle. This painting was sold for $ 75M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Sotheby's on November 13, 2012, lot 19. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In subsequent years, the reds will increasingly be the major actors in the artistic drama realized by Rothko, taking drama in its etymological meaning of theater. They will now have less need to rely on opponents like the blue of that No. 1.
Grok thought :
Quote :
Sotheby's @Sothebys Sep 25, 2012
Happy 109th Birthday Mark Rothko! His ‘No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)’ from 1954 will be on offer on 13 November in NY:
- Sotheby's 2012 post celebrates abstract expressionist Mark Rothko's 109th birthday by highlighting his 1954 oil painting "No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)," a monumental canvas featuring stacked horizontal bands of vivid pink, orange, and blue hues that evoke emotional depth through color fields.
- Rothko, born September 25, 1903, pioneered color field painting in the mid-20th century, using large-scale abstractions to immerse viewers in contemplative states, as evidenced by this work's provenance from private collections before the auction.
- The painting fetched $75.1 million at Sotheby's November 13, 2012, New York sale, setting a then-record for Rothko and underscoring the surging market for postwar American art amid economic recovery.
1955 Red, Blue, Orange
2014 SOLD for $ 56M by Phillips
Cézanne sought to express the relations of forces of the tragedy through the disposition of his fruit. The art of Mark Rothko does the same by the opposition of the fields of color.
Rothko endeavored to reach the primitive force of the myth and was studying Nietzsche. He consciously conceived his art as a drama. At the same time, Barnett Newman wanted to express a mystical vision of the origin of the world. For both artists, the total abstraction is a means to reach the absolute by discarding any narrative illusion.
Do not say that Rothko's abstract art is empty of characters. By captivating the viewer, the artist incorporates him into the work.
In this battle of the color fields, the vivid blue plays a fundamental role in the abstract beginnings of Rothko. The blue area is not predominant in the No. 1 (Royal red and blue) painted in 1954 but it is in the lower part, ready to pounce. This canvas 289 x 172 cm was sold for $ 75M by Sotheby's in 2012.
Smaller, 169 x 125 cm, the Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) oil on canvas painted in 1955 can be seen as a continuation of the Royal red and blue. Its navy blue, underlined on all sides by an azure border, has won the top side and is towering over the viewer. More timid, the orange field protects itself by a slightly darker thin line.
Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) was sold for $ 34M by Christie's on November 13, 2007, lot 12, and for $ 56M by Phillips on May 15, 2014, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by Phillips.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Mark Rothko's "Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange)" (1955) stands as a quintessential example from the peak of his mature phase, embodying the exuberant, luminous color fields that defined his most innovative and fertile period in the mid-1950s, before his palette darkened in the late 1950s and 1960s amid personal and philosophical shifts.
This painting captures Rothko's full mastery of abstraction after his earlier explorations in figurative art, Surrealism, and multiform compositions during the 1930s and 1940s, transitioning to large-scale, stacked rectangular forms that prioritize color as a conduit for profound emotional and spiritual experiences—tragedy, ecstasy, and the sublime—while rejecting representational constraints to foster direct, intimate viewer engagement.
Created amid the postwar rise of the New York School and American Abstract Expressionism, it reflects his response to global devastation and modernity's threats, drawing on ancient myths, Nietzsche's Dionysian-Apollonian duality from "The Birth of Tragedy," and Romantic influences like Caspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner to evoke universal human truths through radiant, pulsating hues that create a sense of infinite depth, presence, and metaphysical encounter.
In 1955, a year of professional milestones including his move to Sidney Janis Gallery and growing recognition as an investment-worthy artist, this work highlights Rothko's technical innovations—layering thinned pigments on raw canvas for tactile luminosity and dynamic equilibrium—positioning him as a humanist pioneer who viewed his canvases as "dramas" where colors perform in an "unknown adventure," ultimately solidifying his legacy in elevating abstraction to express the irreconcilable tensions of existence during a transformative era in his oeuvre of over 800 paintings.
Rothko endeavored to reach the primitive force of the myth and was studying Nietzsche. He consciously conceived his art as a drama. At the same time, Barnett Newman wanted to express a mystical vision of the origin of the world. For both artists, the total abstraction is a means to reach the absolute by discarding any narrative illusion.
Do not say that Rothko's abstract art is empty of characters. By captivating the viewer, the artist incorporates him into the work.
In this battle of the color fields, the vivid blue plays a fundamental role in the abstract beginnings of Rothko. The blue area is not predominant in the No. 1 (Royal red and blue) painted in 1954 but it is in the lower part, ready to pounce. This canvas 289 x 172 cm was sold for $ 75M by Sotheby's in 2012.
Smaller, 169 x 125 cm, the Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) oil on canvas painted in 1955 can be seen as a continuation of the Royal red and blue. Its navy blue, underlined on all sides by an azure border, has won the top side and is towering over the viewer. More timid, the orange field protects itself by a slightly darker thin line.
Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) was sold for $ 34M by Christie's on November 13, 2007, lot 12, and for $ 56M by Phillips on May 15, 2014, lot 18. Please watch the video shared by Phillips.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Mark Rothko's "Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange)" (1955) stands as a quintessential example from the peak of his mature phase, embodying the exuberant, luminous color fields that defined his most innovative and fertile period in the mid-1950s, before his palette darkened in the late 1950s and 1960s amid personal and philosophical shifts.
This painting captures Rothko's full mastery of abstraction after his earlier explorations in figurative art, Surrealism, and multiform compositions during the 1930s and 1940s, transitioning to large-scale, stacked rectangular forms that prioritize color as a conduit for profound emotional and spiritual experiences—tragedy, ecstasy, and the sublime—while rejecting representational constraints to foster direct, intimate viewer engagement.
Created amid the postwar rise of the New York School and American Abstract Expressionism, it reflects his response to global devastation and modernity's threats, drawing on ancient myths, Nietzsche's Dionysian-Apollonian duality from "The Birth of Tragedy," and Romantic influences like Caspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner to evoke universal human truths through radiant, pulsating hues that create a sense of infinite depth, presence, and metaphysical encounter.
In 1955, a year of professional milestones including his move to Sidney Janis Gallery and growing recognition as an investment-worthy artist, this work highlights Rothko's technical innovations—layering thinned pigments on raw canvas for tactile luminosity and dynamic equilibrium—positioning him as a humanist pioneer who viewed his canvases as "dramas" where colors perform in an "unknown adventure," ultimately solidifying his legacy in elevating abstraction to express the irreconcilable tensions of existence during a transformative era in his oeuvre of over 800 paintings.
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 15, 2013 in New York, Christie's sold for $ 27M a Black on Maroon 183 x 114 cm that participates in that momentum and is not yet a symptom of the tragic depression of the artist in the following decade.
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2015
Mark Rothko’s No. 10 realized $81,925,000.
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 15, 2013 in New York, Christie's sold for $ 27M a Black on Maroon 183 x 114 cm that participates in that momentum and is not yet a symptom of the tragic depression of the artist in the following decade.
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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 14, 2015
Mark Rothko’s No. 10 realized $81,925,000.
- Christie's 2015 post announces the $81.9 million sale of Mark Rothko's 1958 abstract "No. 10," a guaranteed lot that topped the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, reflecting peak demand for mid-century abstraction.
- Absent from auctions for nearly 30 years, the painting's black-bordered orange rectangle embodies Rothko's emotional, color-field style, drawing from his influences in mysticism and human scale.
- The sale contributed to a record $658.5 million total, with Rothko's works later surpassing this price, signaling sustained investor interest in his oeuvre amid art market volatility.
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.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Untitled (1960) is a significant work in Mark Rothko's career as it exemplifies the peak of his mature style within Abstract Expressionism, particularly his mastery of color-field painting. Created during a pivotal transitional period between two of his most ambitious commissions—the Seagram Murals (1958–1959) and the Rothko Chapel murals (1965–1967)—this painting reflects Rothko's evolution toward more somber, contemplative palettes and forms that emphasize emotional depth, introspection, and the sublime.
By 1960, Rothko had fully refined his signature approach: large, luminous rectangles of color that appear to float on the canvas, built through layered, translucent washes of pigment. Untitled features a composition of deep maroon and lighter crimson forms over a creamy white base, set against a charcoal ground, creating a dynamic interplay of light and shadow that evokes twilight mystery, tension, and transcendence. This work marks his shift from the brighter, more vibrant hues of the 1950s to subtler tonal variations in reds, maroons, and grays, allowing for prolonged viewer engagement and a sense of immersion. Rothko aimed to convey profound human experiences—such as passion, tragedy, and spiritual resonance—through abstraction, and this painting achieves that by balancing warmth and darkness, symbolizing cycles of life, demise, and rebirth.
As one of only 19 canvases Rothko produced in 1960 (with nearly half now in museum collections), it underscores his selective output during a time of international acclaim and personal introspection. Personally selected by Rothko for donation to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (via Peggy Guggenheim, an early patron who gave him his first solo show in 1945), it highlights his intent to place key works in institutions for public contemplation. The painting's palette and mood directly echo the burgundy-dominated Seagram Murals, which Rothko considered a major achievement but ultimately withheld from their commercial setting to preserve their sanctity, donating several to the Tate Gallery instead. Similarly, Untitled presages the ethereal, reverential quality of the Rothko Chapel, where veiled luminosity and hazy boundaries invite meditative experiences.
Overall, this work cements Rothko's legacy as a pioneer of color-field abstraction, pushing the boundaries of painting to evoke the ineffable and emotional, rather than representational, sublime.
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.
Asking Grok to define significance in the career of the artist.
Grok thought :
Untitled (1960) is a significant work in Mark Rothko's career as it exemplifies the peak of his mature style within Abstract Expressionism, particularly his mastery of color-field painting. Created during a pivotal transitional period between two of his most ambitious commissions—the Seagram Murals (1958–1959) and the Rothko Chapel murals (1965–1967)—this painting reflects Rothko's evolution toward more somber, contemplative palettes and forms that emphasize emotional depth, introspection, and the sublime.
By 1960, Rothko had fully refined his signature approach: large, luminous rectangles of color that appear to float on the canvas, built through layered, translucent washes of pigment. Untitled features a composition of deep maroon and lighter crimson forms over a creamy white base, set against a charcoal ground, creating a dynamic interplay of light and shadow that evokes twilight mystery, tension, and transcendence. This work marks his shift from the brighter, more vibrant hues of the 1950s to subtler tonal variations in reds, maroons, and grays, allowing for prolonged viewer engagement and a sense of immersion. Rothko aimed to convey profound human experiences—such as passion, tragedy, and spiritual resonance—through abstraction, and this painting achieves that by balancing warmth and darkness, symbolizing cycles of life, demise, and rebirth.
As one of only 19 canvases Rothko produced in 1960 (with nearly half now in museum collections), it underscores his selective output during a time of international acclaim and personal introspection. Personally selected by Rothko for donation to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (via Peggy Guggenheim, an early patron who gave him his first solo show in 1945), it highlights his intent to place key works in institutions for public contemplation. The painting's palette and mood directly echo the burgundy-dominated Seagram Murals, which Rothko considered a major achievement but ultimately withheld from their commercial setting to preserve their sanctity, donating several to the Tate Gallery instead. Similarly, Untitled presages the ethereal, reverential quality of the Rothko Chapel, where veiled luminosity and hazy boundaries invite meditative experiences.
Overall, this work cements Rothko's legacy as a pioneer of color-field abstraction, pushing the boundaries of painting to evoke the ineffable and emotional, rather than representational, sublime.
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.
Response by Grok to an ArtHitParade tweet :
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.
Response by Grok to an ArtHitParade tweet :
- The 2012 auction of Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" for $86.8 million at Christie's marked a historic moment, surpassing the previous record for post-war art, driven by a rare six-and-a-half-minute bidding war that reflected growing investor interest in abstract expressionism.
- Art market analysis from the Journal of Cultural Economics (2015) suggests that Rothko's use of bold colors like red and orange, which fetched higher prices due to psychological appeal, contributed to the painting's value, challenging the notion that artistic merit alone dictates auction outcomes.
- The sale coincided with a global economic recovery post-2008, with art as an alternative asset class gaining traction, as evidenced by a 2013 Deloitte report showing a 29% increase in high-net-worth individuals investing in art, adding context to the painting's record-breaking price.
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 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 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.
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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From The Collection of Anne H. Bass, Mark Rothko’s ‘Untitled (Shades of Red)’ realizes $66.8 million
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 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.
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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 13, 2022
#AuctionUpdate From The Collection of Anne H. Bass, Mark Rothko’s ‘Untitled (Shades of Red)’ realizes $66.8 million
- The artwork "Untitled (Shades of Red)" by Mark Rothko, sold for $66.8 million at Christie’s in 2022, reflects his abstract expressionist style, developed after immigrating to the U.S. from Russia in 1913, where he explored color fields to evoke emotional depth, a technique later linked to psychological studies showing color impacts mood (e.g., a 2014 study in Art Therapy found red hues increase arousal).
- The painting’s sale from Anne H. Bass’s collection highlights a trend of high-value art auctions amid economic uncertainty, with Christie’s reporting a 2022 global auction total of $8.4 billion, suggesting art as a potential hedge against inflation, challenging the narrative that such investments are purely speculative.
- Rothko’s use of Venetian red, a pigment with historical roots in Renaissance Italy made from ferric oxide, ties the piece to a tradition of enduring color use, with modern synthetic versions altering its original composition, offering a surprising continuity in art materials across centuries.
