Untitled, 1954
Oil on unprimed canvas, 93 x 56 3/16 in. (236.2 x 142.7 cm)
The Katharine Ordway Collection
1980.12.24
©1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Like many of the Abstract Expressionists, Rothko celebrated painting as a revelation of the self, a metaphor for the artist's inner emotional and psychological state. Yet he was also concerned with the viewer's share in this art of subjective expression. Suggesting that his paintings be viewed up close and in dim light, he hoped to immerse the spectator in color itself. In mature works such as this painting, the deliberately limited structure of rectangles or squares, arranged in loose, vertical sequences, enable the exploration of an infinite range of exquisite color harmonies and proportional relationships. Color acts as both space and light, achieving an effect analogous to that of the diffused, colored light that streams through stained-glass windows.
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