4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2011.

No. 5 (Untitled)

Artist Mark Rothko (American, b. Russia, 1903 - 1970)

Date1949

MediumOil on unprimed canvas

Dimensions85 × 63 × 1 1/4 in. (215.9 × 160 × 3.2 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineBequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number89.54

Terms

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting on unprimed canvas. It is vertically oriented. The stripes are horizontal. In order, they are: dark gray, light gray with dark squiggles toward the right, blue, darker stripe, blue, light gray, dark gray, blue. They are wide stripes of nearly equal thickness and have soft edges. The center two blue stripes and light gray stripe don't meet the edges of the canvas.
Label TextMark Rothko American, b. Russia, 1903–1970 No. 5 (Untitled), 1949 Oil on unprimed canvas I’m not interested in the relationship of color to form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotion—tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. –Mark Rothko Do you think these hazy blocks of deep blue, grey, and brown convey a sense of sorrow, ecstasy, or doom? Mark Rothko hoped to evoke such poignant emotions by painting rectangles of color that appear to float in space and bleed into their surroundings. Although many of his paintings would feature luminous fields of red, orange, and yellow, Rothko believed that darker colors conveyed the tragic state of existence more successfully than brighter hues. Bequest of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 89.54