[Seagram mural study]

Date
Dimensions
25 x 38 in. (63.5 x 96.5 cm)
Estate/Inventory Number
2116.59
Collection
Collection of Christopher Rothko. © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
References
Compton, Michael. Mark Rothko: The Seagram Mural Project. Tate Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, 1988: 13, 16n30, 18, cat. 21 (color) [erroneously illustrated as cat. 21 instead of cat. 20].
Compton, Michael. “Introduction into the Seagram Mural Project.” In Mark Rothko: Kaaba in New York, edited by Thomas Kellein. Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 1989: 15.
Kellein, Thomas. “Mark Rothko–Kaaba In New York.” In Mark Rothko: Kaaba in New York, edited by Thomas Kellein. Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 1989: 15, 78 (color).
Wick, Oliver. Mark Rothko: Works on Paper, 1930–1969. Galerie Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, 2005: 29, 70, cat. 37 (color).
Wick, Oliver. “Do They Negate Each Other, Modern and Classical? Mark Rothko, Italy, and the Yearning for Tradition.” In Mark Rothko, edited by Oliver Wick. Palazzo delle esposizioni, Rome, 2007: 19, cat. 87 (color).
Wick, Oliver, ed. Mark Rothko. Palazzo delle esposizioni, Rome, 2007: 19, 199, cat. 87 (color).
Wick, Oliver. “Do They Negate Each Other, Modern and Classical? Mark Rothko und die Sehnsucht nach Tradition.” In Mark Rothko Retrospektive, by Hubertus Gassner et al. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany, and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2008: 22, cat. 82 (color).
Boehm, Gottfried. “Das Lebendige: Rothkos Zugänge zum Bild.” In Mark Rothko Retrospektive, by Hubertus Gassner et al. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany, and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2008: 183, cat. 82 (color).
Stewart, Jessica. “Biografie.” In Mark Rothko Retrospektive, by Hubertus Gassner et al. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany, and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2008: 204, cat. 82 (color).
Gassner, Hubertus, Christiane Lange, and Oliver Wick. Mark Rothko Retrospektive. Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany, and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 2008: 22, 204, 214, cat. 82 (color).
Borchardt-Hume, Achim, ed. Rothko: The Late Series. Tate Modern, London, 2008: 228, 137 (color).
Maak, Niklas. “Der amerikanische Raum.” Frankfurter Allgemeine, February 7, 2008: 33 (b/w).
Wiedemann, Christoph. “Schutzlos der Welt ausgeliefert.” Süddeutsche Zeitung Extra, February 7, 2008: 1 (b/w).
Remarks
In June 1958, Rothko accepted a commission to paint a series of canvases for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, New York, the skyscraper designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson and completed that year. In 1958 and 1959 Rothko painted about thirty large-scale canvases for the project, of which seven would likely have been installed had he not abandoned the project in 1959. Rothko made six small studies—three in crayon and three in a water-based medium, likely poster paint—and five larger paintings on paper, of which this is one, that relate to the Seagram canvases (see Related Works on Paper). The smaller works on paper were almost certainly made prior to the works on canvas [Dore Ashton, About Rothko (New York, 1983), 153] and explore a frieze-like scheme of architectonic forms suggestive of the framed portals that eventually manifested in the canvases. The larger works on paper almost certainly follow the smaller works and were likely executed prior to or in tandem with large-scale “sketches” on canvas for the Seagram cycle. The current work, with its horizontal gray portal frame on a red background, relates compositionally to a group of Seagram mural canvases dating from 1959 (e.g., figs. 1–2). Differences in palette and form, however, suggest that this and the other related works on paper might best be understood as constituting an exploratory phase of the mural work rather than one-to-one preparatory studies for the canvases themselves.
[Seagram mural study]
1. Mark Rothko, Red on Maroon, 1959, oil paint, acrylic paint, and glue on canvas, 72 x 180 in., Tate, Presented by the artist through the American Federation of Arts 1969, T01167, © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. [Anfam 663]
[Seagram mural study]
2. Mark Rothko, Untitled (Seagram Mural), 1959, oil on canvas, 105 7/8 x 180 1/4 in., National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.167, © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko. [Anfam 655]
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