NOW ON VIEW
November 19, 2023 – March 31, 2024
East Building Mezzanine and Upper Level
Notice for visitors:
This exhibition is popular, and you may need to join a line on weekends and busier days. Please enter the exhibition on the East Building Mezzanine.
Joy, despair, ecstasy, tragedy: these are some of the themes that Mark Rothko sought to express in his luminous art. Rothko is renowned for his towering abstract paintings on canvas, but few people know that he also created nearly 1,000 paintings on paper over the course of his career. He viewed many of these as finished paintings in their own right—not simply preliminary studies intended for his own eyes. These remarkable works challenge our expectations about what “counts” as painting, as well as popular ideas about Rothko and his career.
This exhibition brings together more than 100 of Rothko’s most compelling paintings on paper, many on view for the first time. They range from early figurative subjects and surrealist works to the soft-edged rectangular fields, often realized at monumental scale, for which Rothko is best known. Together, these radiant, rarely displayed paintings transform our understanding of one of the preeminent artists of the 20th century.
Selected Works
Events
Gallery Talk
Guided Meditation
Mark Rothko and the New York School
Mark Rothko and the Spiritual in Art
Explore & Share
STORY
Who Is Mark Rothko? 9 Things to Know
Brush up on key and unexpected details about the modern artist, best known for his colorful abstract paintings.
STORY
How Mark Rothko Made Paintings on Paper
Rothko made more than 1,000 paintings on paper. Get an inside look at his methods and materials.
STORY
Artists Who Inspired Mark Rothko
Rothko's style may be singular, but his process emerged through careful study of old masters and collaboration with his contemporaries. From Michelangelo to Milton Avery, meet the artists who left their imprint on Rothko's work.
Get the book.
Read how Rothko’s paintings on paper transform our understanding of the artist.
Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington
The exhibition is curated by Adam Greenhalgh, associate curator, National Gallery of Art.
Other venues
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway, May 16–September 22, 2024
Sponsors
The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of Lugano Diamonds.
Major support is also provided by the Annenberg Fund for the International Exchange of Art and the Director's Circle of the National Gallery of Art.
Additional support is provided by the Kim and Jon Shirley Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required
Banner detail: Mark Rothko, Untitled, 1959, oil on Whatman illustration board, Private collection. Copyright © 2023 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
The copyright holders are represented by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
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