Rothko: Dark Palette

New York, New York, United States

Beginning in about 1957, Rothko’s palette darkened, as the bright yellows, reds, pinks, and oranges of earlier works in his classic format yielded to burgundy, plum, brown, blue-green, and black. This exhibition, at Pace Gallery’s 510 West 25th Street location in New York, assembled works borrowed from the collections of Rothko’s children, Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko; Albright-Knox Art Gallery; National Gallery of Art; Museum of Modern Art; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and private collections. With a total of 19 works, Dark Palette featured 11 large canvases, including the show’s earliest painting from 1955 as well as a mural from the abandoned 1958–1959 commission for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, New York, and 8 paintings on paper made in 1968 and 1969. The catalog includes an introduction written by Arne Glimcher, founder of the Pace Gallery and a friend of Rothko’s, brief quotations by the artist, and short essays by Christopher Rothko.