No. 24 - Mark Rothko

A classic example of Mark Rothko's 1950s Color Field painting, featuring soft-edged, luminous rectangles of orange and olive green.

Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz in Dvinsk, Russia, moved to the United States in 1913. He became a central figure in the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. By the early 1950s, Rothko had moved away from his earlier surrealist-influenced work to develop his signature style: large, rectangular fields of colour stacked vertically on the canvas.

No. 24, created in 1951, demonstrates this approach. The composition consists of a large, muted olive-green rectangle suspended between two broader areas of orange-red. The edges of these forms are not hard or defined. Instead, they appear soft, blurred, and atmospheric. Rothko achieved this effect by applying thin, translucent layers of oil paint, allowing the colours to bleed into one another at the boundaries. This technique creates a sense of light emanating from within the canvas itself.

Rothko intended for his paintings to be viewed at close range. He believed that the scale of his work, combined with the lack of representational imagery, would allow the viewer to experience a direct, human connection with the colour. The absence of a clear subject matter forces the eye to focus entirely on the interaction between the hues and the physical texture of the paint. The work does not depict an object or a scene. It exists as a physical presence, occupying the space of the room and inviting a quiet, contemplative observation. The balance of the warm, earthy orange against the cooler, darker green creates a tension that is resolved through the soft, hazy transitions between the blocks of colour. This print captures the subtle variations in tone and the delicate, painterly quality of the original surface.