Which famous artist's work is most fond of collectors? And what is not love? And why 2008 was not the best market for works by the artist?

In the Tate Modern gallery in London is currently being exhibition of recent works of famous artist-abstraktsionista Mark Rothko (Mark Rothko) . In paintings, exhibited in the museum, depicting the famous «color field». According to the artist, looking at them, people should reflect on the eternal.

Real Name Rothko - Markus Y. Rotkovich. He was born in Latvia in 1903. When the future painter was ten years old his family emigrated to the United States. In the 1920's, young artist's career began in earnest and in 1934 founded the Union of Artists of New York. It is closely contact with such famous representatives of the New York School of Jackson Pollock (Jackson Pollock) and Gottlib Adolf (Adolph Gottlieb). In 1940, Rotkovich «Americanize» its long name.

In the same decade, the artist finally broke with the tradition of figurative painting and abstraction came to the net. In his paintings, he began to write rectangles of bright colors, with blurred contours, which seemed to begin «pulse» looking at them. These rectangles painter called «a living space of energy», which materializes the spirit. A prominent critic Clement Greenberg (Clement Greenberg) described the work of Rothko «paint color fields». Sam the artist talked about his paintings as a «spiritual substrates».

In late 1950 Rothko palette became significantly darker. Before his own death in 1970 (the artist committed suicide) in his paintings dominated by dark red, brown, black and other dark colors. It is such a work and is now on display at an exhibition at the Tate. Collectors, however, prefer a more vivid picture of Rothko, and the difference in price between the «light» and «dark» work very much. But in 2007, in the wake of high-profile artist auction success, and the darkest works things went just fine: working in black tones «Untitled», written in just a few months before the suicide, Rothko, has more than 10 million dollars at Sotheby's Nov. 14 .

In 1961, the Museum of Modern Art in New York held a large solo exhibition of Rothko. Four years later, one of his paintings with the «color fields» called «two dark rectangles on a red background» was sold for 10 thousand dollars. In 1966, a similar product, «The Red Room 22», lasted for 15.5 thousand ... After twenty years of the best works Rothko brought more than a million dollars in 1999, his bright picture «№ 15» is the first product of the artist that has at public auction ten threshold. And in May 2008, the picture came back up for auction and has already 45 million! But the record price for the Rothko, this does not become: a year earlier, on 15 May 2007, the painting called «White Center» was sold at Sotheby's for 65 million dollars and became the most expensive of the year. «White Center» also won the first line in the list of the most expensive work of post-war artists, however, he stayed there a short: this year it skinul with pedestal «Triptych 1976» Francis Bacon (Francis Bacon).

in 2007 became the most successful auction sales of Rothko. The price index at Artprice paintings soared upward: six paintings brought the entire amount in excess of $ 10 million. But Rothko's annual turnover amounted to almost 207 million! Mad amount considering that before (even in the best years), traffic was not raised above 50 million. However, it turned out that the more he has nowhere to grow. From January to November 2008 auction turnover of the artist's works was the same modest by the standards of the past year, 50 million. And almost all this amount of liability that is the 45 millionth sale of the painting «№ 15». Of course, was the case would be much better if someone bought a painting «orange, red and yellow» at Sotheby's in May ... but canvas does not help him «a pretty kettle» color, and the buyer is not found. A 5 November Shristie's remained unsold painting «№ 43 (Lilac)», for which organizers had hoped the auction to gain 30 million.

This year, Rothko was able to install only one record, and is sad: the percentage of unsold works at 26.6. This is three times more than usual: from 1998 to 2007, the buyer is not found, on average, 9 percent of the artist's works. Does this mean that the market объелся Rothko and prices of his work will no longer grow? .. The answer to this question, we probably know only after the crisis.

stats auction sales of works of Mark Rothko, you can see here .

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Sources: artprice.com , artinvestment.ru

PS Pro Mark Rothko, you can also read the following article:

Mark Rothko - author of the most expensive work of artists of Russian origin

Record Rothko «podtyanul» All market

Gallery Tate Rothko abandoned the works, estimated at one billion dollars

How to hang thick bands?

Mark Rothko: a genius or a product of spin-doctoring? Discussion Forum ARTinvestment.RU