artist-mark-rothko:
Number 19, Mark Rothko, 1949, Art Institute of Chicago: Contemporary Art
Like many of the New York School painters of the 1940s, Mark Rothko was largely influenced by Surrealism, creating allegorical abstractions depicting biomorphic and mythological forms. By 1947 he abandoned representational imagery entirely and began working with color, light, and space. Number 19 follows the characteristic format of his multiform paintings, in which loosely defined organic shapes hover over a thinly brushed background. Whereas color once assumed a supporting role in his compositions, by this period, color had become a defining force, thus marking the transition from Rothko’s early work to his mature, color-field paintings.
Anonymous gift
Size: 172.8 × 101.8 cm (68 × 40 1/8 in.)Medium: Oil on canvashttps://www.artic.edu/artworks/6010/
