Untitled
1961
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
pen and ink and graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 28 x 21.7 cm (11 x 8 9/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.56.321
Art Historical Context
Mark Rothko's *Untitled* (1961) offers a rare glimpse into the intimate preparatory world of one of the 20th century's most profound Abstract Expressionists. Created with pen and ink and graphite on wove paper—a smooth, versatile support ideal for precise lines and subtle shading—this modest drawing measures just 28 x 21.7 cm. Unlike Rothko's signature monumental oil paintings, with their vast fields of shimmering color evoking spiritual depth, this work captures the artist's exploratory sketches, likely probing the soft, organic forms that defined his mature style during the early 1960s. In ...
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...