MARK ROTHKO (1903-1970), No. 1 (Painted in 1949). Oil on canvas, 78.3 x 39.7 in. (198.8 x 100.8 cm.) Estimate on Request.
Christie’s to auction Mark Rothko’s No. 1, 1949 Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 7 March 2017 in London will include Mark Rothko’s groundbreaking ‘No. 1 (1949, estimate on request)’]]>
January 18, 2017, source: Christie’s
Mark Rothko’s “No. 1” (1949, estimate on request), is one of the artist’s earliest examples of his mature artistic vocabulary, dating from the pioneering year of his practice and was first shown in 1950 as part of his historic solo exhibition at New York’s Betty Parsons Gallery.
Having never been previously offered at auction, Rothko’s “No. 1” is one of the few works from the 1950 Betty Parsons Gallery show that remain in private hands and heralds the incandescent union of light and colour for which his work would come to be much celebrated. Of the suite of 12 paintings, nine are now held in major American museums including: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (No. 2), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (No. 3), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (No. 4), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (No. 6), National Gallery of Art, Washington (No. 7, No. 8), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington (No. 9), and Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, New York (No. 12). The importance of “No. 1” to Rothko’s practice is underlined by the fact that he guarded the work and kept it in his possession until his untimely death. A glowing vision of rich orange and lemon-bright yellow, punctuated at its core by a dramatic zone of ochre strokes upon a bar of vaporous blue and teal, No.1 paved the way for the transformative painting as mood for which he is critically acclaimed.
Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg’s “Transom” (1963, estimate on request) comes to auction alongside a major retrospective of his work at London’s Tate Modern, and demonstrates the radical new visual language that went on to lead a generation of American artists towards global domination. Together these two masters of 20th-Century painting will lead the field of American talent that will take centre stage during 20th Century at Christie’s, a series of sales that takes place from 28 February to 10 March 2017. Ahead of the auction the works will tour and be exhibited in Hong Kong (17-20 January), Shanghai (8 February), Beijing (11-13 February) and New York (24-26 February).
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Mark Rothko’s ‘No.1 (Royal Red and Blue)’ at Sotheby’s (news, 2012)
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