NEW YORK – Christie’s is pleased to announce Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange), 1955 will be a leading highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale taking place live at Rockefeller Center on November 9, 2023 during the Marquee Week of sales. The near seven-foot tall canvas envelops the viewer in a dramatic golden glow. Filled with rich, dynamic fields of color, Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) exemplifies the boldness and complexity of Rothko’s most successful work. The painting was in the artist’s personal collection until he passed away. It subsequently belonged to legendary 20th century collectors and art patrons, Paul and Bunny Mellon and remained in their possession for half a century. The work is estimated to achieve in the region of $45 million.
Alex Rotter, Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art of Christie’s, remarks: “Rothko stands among the giants of 20th century art. He was deliberate in his process, with a singular intention of taking the practice of painting to new heights—achieving a psychological impact with his work that no other artist had previously. His work continues to awe viewers of all generations, creating a deep emotional impact—a religious-like experience for those who stand before it. The painting we are offering is a best-in-class example, it is all-encompassing, radiating with an indescribable heat and intensity. We could not be more thrilled to have this masterpiece as a leading highlight this season at Christie’s—notably alongside the artist’s international retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. ”
Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) was painted in the same year of Rothko’s first solo exhibition at the legendary Sidney Janis gallery in New York, and of the 22 paintings the artist completed that year, over half are now in major museum collections. Inspired by the Old Masters he’d seen on recent trips to Europe, Rothko refined his revolutionary painting technique to evoke the same emotion and drama that he’d experienced standing in front of the masterpieces of the Western canon. The play of light that emanates from the surface of the present work represents Rothko at his most successful, a quality highlighted by David Anfam in his discussion of the dynamic surface of this painting in his introductory essay to the artist’s catalogue raisonné.
The alchemy that takes place within Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) also owes its existence, in part, to a chance encounter the artist had with the work of one of the greater masters of 20th-century painting, Henri Matisse, when he saw The Red Studio (1911, Museum of Modern Art) upon its arrival at MoMA in 1949. Following this experience, Rothko’s subsequent works would come to be richly infused with color and rich saturation of hues would forever become inextricable from the iconic artist’s identity.
