Lecture

Mark Rothko: Drawings

Mark Rothko, Untitled, c.1962, Ink and watercolor on wove paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington. © Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.56.642. © Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
  • 21 August 2024 17.30–18.30
  • The National Museum – The Auditorium
  • In English

Join us for a lecture on Mark Rothko’s drawings by Adam Greenhalgh from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Mark Rothko is best known for large and colorful abstract paintings on canvas. Lesser-known are the hundreds of smaller drawings on paper that he made. Not intended to be shown to the public, these private works, sketches, preparatory studies, and experiments reveal clues about Rothko’s creative choices, technical processes, and source materials.

They also shed light on the productive relationship between works on paper and canvas in Rothko’s oeuvre and reveal an unknown side of the famous artist. This lecture will survey Rothko’s engagement with drawing, focusing on his rich and varied use of ink, graphite and line rather than oil, acrylic, and color.

This lecture will be held in English. The lecture is free with a valid entrance ticket to the museum.

Adam Greenhalgh is an associate curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. He has been lead author since January 2015 on the team producing the catalogue raisonné  «Mark Rothko: The Works on Paper». He is also the curator of the «Mark Rothko: Paintings on Paper» exhibition, which opened at the National Gallery in November 2023, and the author of the companion book.