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No. 21

Mark Rothko American, born former Russian Empire, now Latvia
1949
Not on view
In the pivotal year of 1949, Rothko distanced himself from his Surrealist-inspired work of the 1940s and began to explore pure abstraction by painting soft-focus squares in diaphanous colors. 1949 is also the year that Matisse's 1911 painting The Red Studio, in which the artist's room is subsumed by a brilliant field of solid Venetian red, went on view at the Museum of Modern Art. The combination in No. 21 of a deep red with slate blue underpainting is close to Matisse's painting. As if to emphasize the process that occurs in his own work, Rothko said of The Red Studio—purportedly his favorite modern picture—"When you looked at that painting, you became that color, you became totally saturated with it."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: No. 21
  • Artist: Mark Rothko (American (born former Russian Empire, now Latvia), Dvinsk 1903–1970 New York, New York)
  • Date: 1949
  • Medium: Oil and acrylic with powdered pigments on canvas
  • Dimensions: 80 × 39 3/8 in. (203.2 × 100 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation Inc., 1985
  • Object Number: 1985.63.4
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow), Mark Rothko American, born former Russian Empire, now Latvia, Oil and acrylic with powdered pigments on canvas
No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow)
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1958
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Gray and Brass
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1907
Untitled, Mark Rothko American, born former Russian Empire, now Latvia, Acrylic and casein on canvas
Untitled
Mark Rothko
1964
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The Village Where I Came From, Pacita Abad Filipino American, Acrylic, oil, buttons, beads, and painted cloth on stitched and padded canvas
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