No. 5
1964
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
oil, acrylic and mixed media on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 206.2 x 195.7 cm (81 3/16 x 77 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.43.133
Art Historical Context
Mark Rothko's *No. 5* (1964) exemplifies the artist's mastery of color field painting, a hallmark of Abstract Expressionism. This monumental canvas, measuring over 2 meters tall and nearly as wide, envelops viewers in vast, ethereal fields of color rendered in oil, acrylic, and media. Rothko's signature technique involved layering thin glazes of pigment with soft, blurred edges, creating a luminous depth that seems to hover and breathe, inviting profound emotional introspection rather than literal representation. Created during Rothko's mature period, *No. 5* reflects the post-World War II er...
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...