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Auction archive: Lot number 22

Mark Rothko

Estimate
US$3,000,000 - US$5,000,000
Price realised:
US$4,085,000
Auction archive: Lot number 22

Mark Rothko

Estimate
US$3,000,000 - US$5,000,000
Price realised:
US$4,085,000
Beschreibung:

22 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT NEW YORK COLLECTION Mark Rothko Untitled 1959 oil on paper, mounted on Masonite 23 7/8 x 18 7/8 in. (60.6 x 47.9 cm) Signed and dated "MARK ROTHKO 1959" on the reverse.
Provenance Private Collection, New York, 1960s - 1976 Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, Important Post War and Contemporary Art, May 28, 1976, lot 310A Exhibited New York, The American Federation for the Arts, Mark Rothko Works on Paper, May 1984 - September 1986 Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Mark Rothko May 3 - August 16, 1998, then traveled to New York, Whitney Museum of American Art (September 17 - November 29, 1998), Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (January 8 - April 18, 1999) Literature B. Clearwater, Mark Rothko Works on Paper, exh. cat., The American Federation for the Arts, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1984, no. 26, n.p. (illustrated) B. Rose, "Talking About Art: Color as Light, Color as Form: Whistler's Mists....Rothko's Clouds," Vogue, August 1984, p. 24 (illustrated) "Calendar: Rothko, Romanesque, Running Shoes," Art and Antiques, May 1984, p. 105 (illustrated) B. Malamud, "Mark Rothko: Works on Paper," FMR, no. 11, May 1985, p. 33 (illustrated) K. Larson, "Durable Darkness," New York, June 17, 1984, p. 62 (illustrated) "Museum Notebook: Rothko on Paper," Southwest Art, March 1986, p. 11 (illustrated) Mark Rothko exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1998, no. 81, p. 175 (illustrated) Video MARK ROTHKO 'Untitled', 1959 "One of the things that makes him perhaps the most important painter of the post war era is his true reliance on the notion of materiality being the subject..." Contemporary Art specialist Benjamin Godsill on Mark Rothko's 'Untitled', 1959 from our 13 November Evening Sale. Catalogue Essay “Some artists want to tell all like a confessional. I as a craftsman prefer to tell little… there is more power in telling little than in telling all.” Mark Rothko 1958 Indeed, Mark Rothko’s work speaks for itself. Rather than pursue the path of figure, of gestural symbol, of representation in general, Rothko made a career out of communicating without the benefit of the pictorial intermediary. And while his canvas-based multiform paintings receive a great deal of attention for their unsurpassable influence in the realm of contemporary painting, Rothko’s equally impressive works on paper garner their own renown, achieving a visual effect far different—and, as in the present lot, more splendid—from his larger works on canvas. As a series in the making, Rothko’s paper multiforms stretched nearly two decades, with each successive visitation exploring a new facet of possibility. But at his career’s height, Rothko painted Untitled, 1959: one of the most perfect examples of the medium in which he was working, and a gorgeous fusion of optic possibility and immersive intimacy in painting. For the first decades of their existence, most of Rothko’s works on paper were erroneously deemed secondary to his larger canvas paintings—mostly as a result of the bias against their scale. Yet, as a medium of dependability throughout Rothko’s career, paper clearly held artistic properties lacking in canvas that appealed to Rothko. Finally, as a part of the landmark 1984 exhibition “Mark Rothko: Works on Paper” at the National Gallery in Washington DC, the present lot was instrumental in legitimizing the long-sought equality of Rothko’s paper works, appearing alongside a host of other marvelous examples of Rothko’s paper works from 1925-1970. As a medium, paper lent itself magnificently to the developing style of the young Rothko. During the 1930s and before, Rothko was a frequent draughtsman, employing both pencil and paint in his drawings and works on paper. A familiarity with the medium transformed in these years into an intimate knowledge of the structural nature of paper when applied with watercolor and oil paint in particular. During Rothko’s Surrealist phase, his attention turned towards the nuances of subconscious symbol on canvas, but he explored the same concepts on paper as well. And, as Rothko finally departed from his representational work in painting during the late 1940s a

Auction archive: Lot number 22
Auction:
Datum:
13 Nov 2014
Auction house:
Phillips
New York
Beschreibung:

22 PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT NEW YORK COLLECTION Mark Rothko Untitled 1959 oil on paper, mounted on Masonite 23 7/8 x 18 7/8 in. (60.6 x 47.9 cm) Signed and dated "MARK ROTHKO 1959" on the reverse.
Provenance Private Collection, New York, 1960s - 1976 Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, Important Post War and Contemporary Art, May 28, 1976, lot 310A Exhibited New York, The American Federation for the Arts, Mark Rothko Works on Paper, May 1984 - September 1986 Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Mark Rothko May 3 - August 16, 1998, then traveled to New York, Whitney Museum of American Art (September 17 - November 29, 1998), Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (January 8 - April 18, 1999) Literature B. Clearwater, Mark Rothko Works on Paper, exh. cat., The American Federation for the Arts, New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1984, no. 26, n.p. (illustrated) B. Rose, "Talking About Art: Color as Light, Color as Form: Whistler's Mists....Rothko's Clouds," Vogue, August 1984, p. 24 (illustrated) "Calendar: Rothko, Romanesque, Running Shoes," Art and Antiques, May 1984, p. 105 (illustrated) B. Malamud, "Mark Rothko: Works on Paper," FMR, no. 11, May 1985, p. 33 (illustrated) K. Larson, "Durable Darkness," New York, June 17, 1984, p. 62 (illustrated) "Museum Notebook: Rothko on Paper," Southwest Art, March 1986, p. 11 (illustrated) Mark Rothko exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1998, no. 81, p. 175 (illustrated) Video MARK ROTHKO 'Untitled', 1959 "One of the things that makes him perhaps the most important painter of the post war era is his true reliance on the notion of materiality being the subject..." Contemporary Art specialist Benjamin Godsill on Mark Rothko's 'Untitled', 1959 from our 13 November Evening Sale. Catalogue Essay “Some artists want to tell all like a confessional. I as a craftsman prefer to tell little… there is more power in telling little than in telling all.” Mark Rothko 1958 Indeed, Mark Rothko’s work speaks for itself. Rather than pursue the path of figure, of gestural symbol, of representation in general, Rothko made a career out of communicating without the benefit of the pictorial intermediary. And while his canvas-based multiform paintings receive a great deal of attention for their unsurpassable influence in the realm of contemporary painting, Rothko’s equally impressive works on paper garner their own renown, achieving a visual effect far different—and, as in the present lot, more splendid—from his larger works on canvas. As a series in the making, Rothko’s paper multiforms stretched nearly two decades, with each successive visitation exploring a new facet of possibility. But at his career’s height, Rothko painted Untitled, 1959: one of the most perfect examples of the medium in which he was working, and a gorgeous fusion of optic possibility and immersive intimacy in painting. For the first decades of their existence, most of Rothko’s works on paper were erroneously deemed secondary to his larger canvas paintings—mostly as a result of the bias against their scale. Yet, as a medium of dependability throughout Rothko’s career, paper clearly held artistic properties lacking in canvas that appealed to Rothko. Finally, as a part of the landmark 1984 exhibition “Mark Rothko: Works on Paper” at the National Gallery in Washington DC, the present lot was instrumental in legitimizing the long-sought equality of Rothko’s paper works, appearing alongside a host of other marvelous examples of Rothko’s paper works from 1925-1970. As a medium, paper lent itself magnificently to the developing style of the young Rothko. During the 1930s and before, Rothko was a frequent draughtsman, employing both pencil and paint in his drawings and works on paper. A familiarity with the medium transformed in these years into an intimate knowledge of the structural nature of paper when applied with watercolor and oil paint in particular. During Rothko’s Surrealist phase, his attention turned towards the nuances of subconscious symbol on canvas, but he explored the same concepts on paper as well. And, as Rothko finally departed from his representational work in painting during the late 1940s a

Auction archive: Lot number 22
Auction:
Datum:
13 Nov 2014
Auction house:
Phillips
New York
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