Abstract Composition in Brown, Black, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Blue [recto]
c. 1944
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
watercolor, pen and black ink, and brush and black ink over graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 38.1 x 53.4 cm (15 x 21 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.43.182.a
Art Historical Context
Mark Rothko's *Abstract Composition in Brown,, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Bluerecto]* (c. 1944) captures the artist's early experimentation with abstraction during a pivotal moment in his career. Created as a drawing on wove paper, work measures 38.1 x 53.4 cm and features a vibrant interplay of watercolor, pen and black ink, brush and black ink over graphite At the time, Rothko was from surrealist influences toward the monumental color field paintings that would define Abstract Expressionism in the late 1940s and 1950s. The piece exemplifies Rothko's bold use of layered media, where graphite...
About the Artist
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko (born Marcus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz, September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) stands as one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American art and a central pioneer of Abstract Expressionism. Born into a Jewish family in Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), then part of the Russian Empire, Rothko's early life was marked by the fear and persecution faced by Jews in Tsarist Rus...