Mark Rothko, The Black-Form Paintings
No 1, no 2, no 4, no 5, no 5 (2), no 6, no 7, no 8 , 1964, Mixed media on canvas.
© 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
The TATE gallery in london says this about them:
“Although not related to a commission, Rothko clearly recognised the Black-Form paintings as a coherent series and numbered them sequentially No. 1 to No. 8, with No. 5 curiously appearing twice. Yet they were never shown as a series during his lifetime. These works mark a complete break with his colour field paintings of the 1950s.”
While I have done my best to complete this series (My previous post on it was two less than we have here now and several scans have been updated) I am still unsure as to many things, including if there is an existing scan of No 3. There are other Rothkos with that number but I have yet to knowingly see a No 3 from 1964 that goes in this set. There are some other Rothkos that are looks-appropriate as well as many different scans of these with endless variations of black, brown, purple and grey (my previous scan of no 4 was positively purple) making the “Dark Rothkos” some of the hardest to compare. I’ll call these the best scans I can find right now and I do love this series and how Rothko seems to take his colorful translucency and turn it around in this contemplative, mournful and very mortal feeling series.
I was dubious about the second no 5, myself but that ones comes right from the Tate and we who are amateurs will assume real scholarship behind that.
I hope you enjoyed this Rothko series and investigation as much as I did, and if you find a scan of Number three, well, hand it over.
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