(Untitled) [verso]
1901 to 1925
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on wove paper
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.56.249.b
Art Historical Context
Mark Rothko, the renowned Latvian-born American artist (1903–1970), began his creative journey in the early 20th century with modest drawings like this untitled graphite sketch on the verso of wove paper, dated sometime between 1901 and1925. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Department of Drawings (CG-W), this work was generously gifted by The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc. It offers a rare glimpse into Rothko's formative years, long before his iconic color field abstractions of the 1940s and 1950s that defined Abstract Expressionism. Crafted in graphite on wove paper—a smooth, versatile ...
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...