Number 11

Date1947

Label TextThe evolution of Mark Rothko's painting between the 1930s and 1950s includes a body of early works strongly influenced by Surrealism and imagery drawn from biology. The stratified layers of Number 11, and Rothko's treatment of edge, atmosphere and brushstrokes, reveal elements of a formula that would define his career: intensely saturated color and a format of floating rectangles suspended in atmospheric space.

Object number85.61

ProvenanceEstate of the Artist, 1970; [Marlborough Gallery Inc. New York, 1970]; Estate of the Artist, 1977; The Mark Rothko Foundation, New York (1979-1985); The painting was given to the Seattle Art Museum in 1985. The Mark Rothko Foundation, as a part of its planned dissolution, gifted 89 paintings and works on paper to 31 institutions, as well as 285 works to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Mark Tobey: Smashing Forms and Mark Tobey and Friends", November 16, 2002 - April 6, 2003 Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "International Abstraction: Making Painting Real", May 2, 2003 - February 29, 2004, (5/2/2003-2/29/2004) Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Modern in America", July 8, 2004 - February 27, 2005 (7/8/2004 - 2/27/2005) Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Recent Modern Acquisitions", August 27 - October 18, 1987, (08/27/1987 - 10/18/1987) New York, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, "Mark Rothko" , 1978 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute "The 1958 Pittsburgh Bicentennial International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture" 5 December 1959-8 February 1959, cat. No. 382 (as Number 10, 1953) New Delhi, India, "U.S. Representation: India's 3rd international contemporary art exhibition" (organized by the international program of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) no cat., traveled to All India Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi 23 February - 7 March 1957; Municipal Museum, Ahmadabad, 19-31 March; Industrial Exhibition Grounds, Hyderabad, 14-25 April; Lady Brabourne College, Calcutta, 16 may - 9 June 1957. Portland, Oregon, Portland Museum of Art "Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright: Twentieth Century American and European Paintings and Sculpture" 8 November - 6 December 1964 San Francisco, California, San Francisco Museum of Art "Colorists 1950-1965" 15 October - 21 November 1965 Washington D.C., Washington Gallery of Modern Art "Twentieth Century Paintings from Collections in the state of Washington"17 September - 30 October 1966, cat. No. 67 New York, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art "New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970" 18 October 1969 - 1 February 1970= New York, New York, Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, "Mark Rothko" 1978, cat. No. 104, col. Ill. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "The New York School" 23 November 1988-29 January 1989, no. cat., New York, New York, Barnard College, "Barnard Collects: The Educated Eye" 27 September - 31 October 1989, cat. No. 18, col. Ill. Published ReferencesAnfam, David, "Mark Rothko: the works on canvas: a catalogue raisonné" New Haven: Washington D.C.: Yale University Press; National Gallery of Art, 1999 Blinken, Donald "Eliminating the obstacles between the painter and the observer : the Mark Rothko Foundation, 1976-1986" New York: The Foundation, 1986. catalogue includes list of the distribution of works from the foundation to various institutions; 85.61 is listed on page 56. Rothko estate number: 3000.47 Chave, Anna C., "Mark Rothko: Subjects in Transitions", Yale University Press, New Haven and London: 1989, p. 73, ill. p. 72 Catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 3 May-16 Aug. 1998; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 10 Sept.-29 Nov. 1998; Musee d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 8 Jan.-18 April. 1999. New York, New York, Pace Gallery, "Rothko: The Dark Paintings 1969-1970", 1985 New York, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, "Jackson Pollock" cat. no. 76, ill. (not shown), 1978 Canadian Art 21 (September-October 1964) ill. P. 267 Carnegie Institute Department of Fine Arts "Retrospective exhibition of paintings from previous internationals, 1896-1955" Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1958. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh December 5, 1958-February 8, 1959. Geldzahler, Henry "New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970" New York: Dutton, 1969. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, together with 5 related essays. Cat. no. 349, ill. p, 299. Goldsmith, Barbara "How Henry Made 43 Artists Immortal" New York Magazine (Fall 1969), ill. -. 47, comm.; Hunter, Sam "Abstract Expressionism then - and now" Nakahara, Yusuke "An Introduction to Contemporary Art" (Tokyo, 1979), col. Ill. Portland Art Museum, Oregon, "20th Century American and European Paintings and Sculpture, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright", 1964 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum "Mark Rothko", New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1978. Cat. no. 104, col. Ill. Vallier, Dora "Mark Rothko ou l'absence de theme devenue theme" XXe Siecle 40 (June 1973) ill. P. 100 Weiss, Jeffrey "Mark Rothko" Washington: New Haven, Conn.: National Gallery of Art; Yale University Press, 1998. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 3 May - 16 Aug. 1998; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 10 Sept. - 29 Nov. 1998; Musee d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 8 Jan. - 18 April 1999 cat. No. 55, col. ill. p. 123 Weiss, Jeffrey S. and Jessica Stewart "Mark Rothko" Riehen/Basel: Fondation Beyeler; Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz; New York, N.Y.: Distribution in the US, D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers, 2001. Catalog of an exhibition held at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Feb. 18-Apr. 29, 2001. pp. 92

Credit LineGift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc.

Dimensions39 11/16 x 33 1/16 in. (100.8 x 84 cm)

MediumOil on canvas