Mark ROTHKO | Multiform

Mark ROTHKO
 Latvia 1903 – United States of America 1970

Multiform 1948 oil on canvas
no inscriptions
155.0 (h) x 118.7 (w) cm Purchased 1981 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
NGA 1981.730 © Mark Rothko/ARS. Licensed by Viscopy

  • estate of the artist;
  • from whom bought, through The Pace Gallery, New York, by the Australian National Gallery, February 1981
  • Mark Rothko
    • Kunsthaus Zurich 21 Mar 1971 – 09 May 1971
    • Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalga 26 May 1971 – 19 Jun 1971
    • Stõdtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf 24 Aug 1971 – 03 Oct 1971
    • Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Rotterdam 20 Nov 1971 – 02 Jan 1972
    • Hayward Gallery 02 Feb 1972 – 12 Mar 1972
    • MusÚe National d'Art Moderne 23 Mar 1972 – 08 May 1972
  • Mark Rothko, 1903-1970: A Retrospective
    • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 27 Oct 1978 – 14 Jan 1979
    • The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 08 Feb 1979 – 01 Apr 1979
    • Walker Art Center 21 Apr 1979 – 10 May 1979
    • Los Angeles County Museum of Art 03 Jul 1979 – 26 Sep 1979
  • Mark Rothko Retrospective
    • Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art 23 Sep 1995 – 05 Nov 1995
    • Marugame Genichiro Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art 11 Nov 1995 – 24 Dec 1995
    • Nagoya City Art Museum 04 Jan 1996 – 12 Feb 1996
    • Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 17 Feb 1996 – 24 Mar 1996
  • Abstract Expressionism: the National Gallery of Australia celebrates the centenaries of Jackson Pollock and Morris Louis
    • 14 Jul 2012 – 24 Feb 2013
  • John T. Spike, ‘Current and forthcoming exhibitions’, Burlington Magazine vol. 121 no. 910, January 1979, pp. 61, 63, illus. pl. 79 as ‘Untitled’ 1947;
  • Stephen Polcari, ‘The intellectual roots of Abstract Expressionism: Mark Rothko’, Arts Magazine vol. 54 no. 1, September 1979, pp. 124–134, illus. b&w, fig. 17;
  • Ann Gibson, ‘Regression and color in Abstract Expressionism: Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still’, Arts Magazine vol. 55 no. 7, March 1981, pp. 144–153, illus. col;
  • Roland Bothner, ‘Mark Rothko’s modulationen’, Pantheon no. 45, 1987, pp. 172–178, illus. col., fig. 4;
  • Michael Lloyd and Michael Desmond, European and American paintings and sculptures 1870–1970 in the Australian National Gallery, Canberra: Australian National Gallery 1992, pp. 248–249, illus. col., as ‘Multiform’;
  • David Anfam (et al), Mark Rothko, Tokyo: Tokyo Shimbun, 1995, cat. 22, illus. col., p.107;
  • David Anfam, Mark Rothko: The works on canvas: Catalogue raisonné, New Haven, London and Washington: Yale University Press and the National Gallery of Art 1998, cat. 380, p. 291, illus. col.;
  • Sasha Grishin, ‘Monet’s Waterlilies: a reflection’ in artonview no. 15, Spring 1998, pp. 4–7, illus. col.;
  • Anthony White, ‘Art metropolis: A new display of international art’, artonview no.  32, Summer 2002–2003, p. 21, illus. col.;
  • Collectionhighlights, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, p. 229, illus. col.

Untitled (Multiform) 1948 is one of a small group of untitled works, collectively known as Multiforms,[1] which were painted by Rothko during the years 1947 to 1949—immediately preceding the mature works for which he is best known. In these transitional paintings, Rothko abandoned the Surrealist-inspired personal myths and classical themes of his earlier works―which are evident in the National Gallery’s Untitled c 1944–1946,[2] a drawing in which the washes of colour and skeletal lines metamorphose into a biomorphic ‘figure’―and moved towards a fully abstract vocabulary.

Writing in 1947, he described his paintings as ‘dramas’ but, added that it was no longer practicable for post-war artists to use figurative subject matter to convey emotions and experiences: ‘with us the disguise must be complete’, he asserted. ‘The familiar identity of things has to be pulverised in order to destroy the finite associations with which our society increasingly enshrouds every aspect of our environment’.[3]

Michael Lloyd and Michael Desmond, European and American paintings and sculptures 1870–1970 in the Australian National Gallery, Canberra: Australian National Gallery 1992, pp. 248–249, revised Steven Tonkin 2003

[1] The title Multiform does not seem to have been used before Rothko’s death. It appears for the first time in the catalogue for the Rothko exhibition at the 1970 Venice biennale. Staff of the Marlborough Gallery, who prepared this catalogue, concluded that Rothko used the term ‘multiform’ generically when referring to his transitional paintings of 1948–1949; Bonnie Clearwater, correspondence with the Australian National Gallery, 12 July 1984

[2] Collection National Gallery of Australia

[3] Mark Rothko, ‘The Romantics were prompted’, Possibilities no. 1, Winter 1946–1947, p. 84

The National Gallery of Australia holds two paintings by Rothko, Untitled (Multiform)1948 and No. 20 (Deep red and black) 1957, and a drawing Untitled c 1944–46.