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Untitled (Purple, White, and Red)

Hazily painted red, white, and purple rectangles, horizontal against beige background.
© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • Hazily painted red, white, and purple rectangles, horizontal against beige background.

Date:

1953

Artist:

Mark Rothko (Marcus Rothkowitz)
American, born Russia (Latvia), 1903–1970

About this artwork

Untitled (Purple, White, and Red) follows the characteristic format of Mark Rothko’s mature work, in which stacked rectangles of color appear to float within the boundaries of the canvas. By directly staining the canvas with many thin washes of pigment and paying particular attention to the edges where the fields interact, he achieved the effect of light radiating from the image itself. This technique suited Rothko’s metaphysical aims: to offer painting as a doorway into purely spiritual realms, making it as immaterial and evocative as music, and to directly communicate the most essential, raw forms of human emotion.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Mark Rothko

Title

Untitled (Purple, White, and Red)

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1953

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Not inscribed on recto; signed and dated: verso: "Mark Rothko / 1953" (upper left)

Dimensions

Unframed: 197.5 × 207.7 cm (77 13/16 × 81 13/16 in.); 197.5 × 207.7 cm (77 3/4 × 81 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Sigmund E. Edelstone

Reference Number

1983.509

Copyright

© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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