Untitled

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Untitled

Artist Mark Rothko (American, 1903-1970)

Date1960

Dimensions92 7/8 × 81 × 1 5/8 in. (235.9 × 205.7 × 4.1 cm)

Mediummixed media on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1970.55

Not on View

Label TextI’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. Despite the apparent absence of subject matter in his art, Rothko’s color rectangles hovering against a field of another color express timeless and tragic themes of human experience. By concentrating on color and simple shapes, he removed any narrative story or associations with the physical world, allowing for a more direct emotional experience. Acutely aware of the viewer’s role in his art, Rothko wrote, “a picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer.” Painted in the dark tonalities Rothko favored during the last 20 years of his life, Untitled consists of thin layers of paint stained into the canvas weave. The edges of all forms have been softened, allowing the rectangles to float toward the viewer or dissolve into the mysterious background.Published ReferencesPhillips, R., "Abstract Expressionists," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, XIX, no. 4, 1977, pp. 99, 101, repr. pl. III (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 96, pl. 265.

"Recent Acquisitions...," Art Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, Summer 1971, p. 256.

The Toledo Museum of Art; A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 95 (col.).

Ravin, James G., John J. Hartman, Ralph I. Fried, "Mark Rothko's Paintings...Suicide Notes?" Ohio State Medical Journal, vol. 74, no. 2, Feb. 1978, pp. 78-79, repr. (col.) on cover..

Ashton, Dore, "Rothko's Passion," Art International, vol. 22, no. 9, Feb. 1979, repr, (col.) p. 11.

Mark Rothko, Tokyo, 1993, fig. 50 (col.) [text in Japanese].

Rothko, Paris, 1998, p. 41, fig. 32 (col.) [special issue of Connaissance des Arts]

Danto, Arthur C., "Rothko's Material Beauty," The Nation, vol. 267, no. 25, Dec. 21, 1998, pp. 33-34.

Anfam, David, Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas: Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven, Yale, 1998, no. 670, p. 530, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 56, repr. (col.).

Anfam, David, Abstract Expressionism, London, The Royal Academy of Arts, 2016, repr. (col.) pl. 101, p. 216.

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Heritage and Horizon: American Painting 1776-1976, 1976, no. 54, repr. (col.)

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Mark Rothko, 1903-1970, A Retrospective, 1978, no. 156, repr.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Mark Rothko, 1998, no. 84, repr. (col.) p. 181.

Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain. 2000-01.

Riehen/Basel, Foundation Beyeler, Mark Rothko ' A Consummated Experience Between Picture and Onlooker', 2001, no. 48, repr. p. 131, (col.).

London, Royal Academy of Arts and Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Abstract Expressionism, September 24- June 4, 2017.

Toledo Museum of Art, Everything is Rhythm: Mid-Century Art & Music, April 6, 2019-February 23, 2020. Paris, Franch, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Mark Rothko, Oct. 18, 2023 - Apr. 2, 2024.