Untitled (Seagram Mural sketch)
1958
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 266.1 x 252.4 cm (104 3/4 x 99 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.
Accession Number
1986.43.170
Art Historical Context
Mark Rothko's *Untitled (Seagram M sketch)* from 1958 is a oil on canvas measuring over 8 by 9 feet, exemplifying the artist's signature color field style within Abstract Expressionism. Created as a preparatory study for the ambitious Seagram Building mural commission in New York City, this captures Rothko's shift toward immersive, large-scale paintings designed to envelop viewers in emotional and spiritual contemplation. Rather than representational imagery, Rothko employed hazy, floating rectangles of soft color—here in muted earth tones—to evoke profound introspection, blurring the line bet...
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...