A New Side of Rothko Emerges in a Show of His Intimate Works on Paper

Following the “once-in-a-lifetime” exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris last year, a very different, but no less valuable presentation of Mark Rothko paintings is coming to the capital of Norway.

The exhibition “Mark Rothko. Paintings on Paper” at Oslo’s Nasjonalmuseet (National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design) is the first and so far the only European stop of a travelling show that was first staged at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. last year.

The curatorial team at Nasjonalmuseet, led by the museum’s curator Øystein Ustvedt, has added their own flavor to the new iteration of the show, offering an intimate glimpse into Rothko’s artistic trajectory, which was otherwise difficult to experience at the Parisian blockbuster.

Installation of Rothko's early surrealist works and later color field paintings on paper

Rothko created some 1,000 paintings on paper. These are not sketches, or prep for canvas works, but paintings in their own right, mounted on boards or frames. Works on show in Oslo were drawn from this specific oeuvre, organized around four key periods. Starting from the rarely seen figurative paintings of people and landscapes in the 1930s, the show follows his experiments with Surrealist paintings in the 1940s, to the transition to his famous color field works in the 1950s and 1960s.

installation view of Rothko's surrealist work and color field paintings in warm tone

The exhibition is mostly laid out in chronological order across different rooms, but the museum’s exhibition designer Ragna Jacobsen has added windows and doors on the wall panels that divide these rooms. These simple yet thoughtful arrangements create extra depth and perspective to the show, allowing visitors to see works from across different periods at the same time, despite being hung from afar and contemplate their connections across time and space.

installation view of paintings on the wall

“For many years, he was very reluctant towards abstraction. He wanted to communicate basic human emotions and existence. [A painting’s] relationship with the viewer was important to the artist,” noted Ustvedt. And the show’s design was a realization of this aspect of Rothko’s art. “We try to make a connection, to create a dialogue.”

Mark Rothko, Untitled (seated woman in striped blouse), 1933/1934, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.56.472 © 2023 Kate Rothko Prizel &Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / BONO

Parallels can be drawn between Rothko’s canvas works and paintings on paper. One notable feature was the use of a darker, somber palette in his later works, which are often associated with the state of his mental health in the years prior to his death by suicide in 1970.

Installation view of an exhibition of Rothko's color field paintings

However, the Oslo show does not end with this bulk of work. Occupying the last room are pieces in bright tones of blue, pink, purple, and grey, created in 1969. Visitors will likely leave the show on a much more uplifting mood, a fine conclusion of a beautifully staged exhibition that offers a lot of food for thought.