Mark Rothko - No. 10 1958
Mark Rothko - No. 10 1958
239x175cm oil/canvas
Sold for: USD 81.9 million
Auction house: Christie's, New York
Sale date: 13 May 2015
Seller: Anonymous owner
Buyer: Anonymous buyer
From Christie's:
Painted in 1958, when the artist was at the height of his artistic and critical achievements, Mark Rothko’s No. 10 represents the pinnacle of his alchemical prowess. Using the most basic of artistic materials—canvas, oil and pigment—Rothko is able to create a painting that appears to glow with a supranatural luminescence, the result of a surface that fizzles with painterly energy. By 1958 the vibrancy of his paintings had become subdued, and an austere and ominous palette had come to the fore, beginning what is regarded by many as one of the most significant periods in his art.