Rothko

"A PICTURE LIVES by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world." Writing in 1947, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) addressed one of his greatest concerns: the vital relationship between a work of art and its beholder. So which works did he think were worth the risk? Although Rothko is best known for his towering abstract paintings on canvas, the artist also produced nearly 1,000 works on paper in watercolor, oil, and acrylic, many of which he considered suitable for exhibition or sale. Works on paper are often understood as preliminary to or lesser than those on canvas. But Rothko believed his paintings on paper were equally capable of holding a viewer's attention and addressing what he understood to be the universal truths of human experience. This exhibition assembles roughly 100 of the kinds of paintings on paper that Rothko chose to make public. The exhibition is organized around four periods in Rothko's career when painting on paper was his primary focus. Watercolors from the 1930s reveal his early artistic aspirations and influences. Symbolic paintings of the 1940s show Rothko searching for "timeless and tragic" subjects relevant to the turmoil of contemporary global events. In the late 1950s and late 1960s, Rothko created hundreds of paintings on paper in his signature abstract style. Just like their canvas counterparts, these works attempt to convey, in Rothko's words, "the basic human emotions-tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on." The exhibition starts here (Mezzanine) and continues one floor up (Upper Level). The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition is made possible through the generous support of LUGANO DIAMONDS Additional major support is provided by the Annenberg Fund for the International Exchange of Art and the Director's Circle of the National Gallery of Art.