Lilac and Orange over Ivory

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, on reverse: Mark Rothko 1953

Label

Luminous rectangles rendered in saturated colors are suspended in space. Like many Abstract Expressionists, Mark Rothko experimented with symbolic and surrealistic imagery before progressively stripping his paintings of any figurative content.

Rather than describing a subject, Rothko creates an experience. The flatness of the surface gives way to a sense of deep space. The act of looking may morph into a consideration of the infinite, and the apprehension of the physical painting may lead to metaphysical contemplation on the nature of being. In Rothko’s own words,I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. . . . The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you . . . are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point.

From the 2023 exhibition Kent Monkman: The Great Mystery, curated by Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs & Curator of Indigenous Art

This towering abstract painting is a prime example of Mark Rothko’s signature compositions, in which luminous rectangles are rendered in saturated colors and suspended in atmospheric space. Like many of his Abstract Expressionist colleagues, Rothko experimented with symbolic and surrealistic imagery in the 1930s, before progressively stripping his paintings of any figurative content by the mid-1940s. By 1949, the year he arrived at his iconic compositional format, he had eliminated all elements from his work that he considered extraneous to his goal of capturing the abstract qualities of color and light. The soft edges of the vertically stacked rectangles in Lilac and Orange over Ivory make them shimmer, suggesting both movement through space and potential shifts in size and shape.

Rather than describing a subject, Rothko creates an experience. Engaging intensely with Lilac and Orange over Ivory, we can begin to feel the forms shifting in space over time. The flatness of the surface gives way to a sense of deep space. The act of looking morphs into a consideration of the infinite, and the apprehension of the physical painting leads into metaphysical contemplation on the nature of being.

From the 2019 exhibition The Expanding Universe of Postwar Art, curated by John R. Stomberg Ph.D, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director

Course History

ARTH 17, Abstract Expressionism, Jim Jordan, Spring 2012

SART 15, Drawing I, Gerald Auten, Spring 2012

ARTH 16.2, Picasso: The Vollard Suite, Michael R. Taylor, Fall 2013

THEA 90, Contemporary Practices in U.S. Theater, Laurie Cherba Kohn, Fall 2013

WRIT 5, The Waste Land, Before and After, Melissa Zeiger, Fall 2013

ARTH 17, The Power of Place: Urban and Rural Images in American Art, 1900-1945, Sarah Powers, Winter 2014

Film Studies 42.23, Travelers and Tourists, Heidi Denzel, Spring 2023

College Course 21.01, What's In Your Shoebox? , Francine A'Ness and Mokhtar Bouba, Spring 2023

Native American and Indigenous Studies 21.01, Indigenous People Political Economies, Raymond Orr, Spring 2023

Native American and Indigenous Studies 30.26, Indigenous Geographies, Elan Pochedley, Spring 2023

Native American and Indigenous Studies 8.01, Perspectives in Native American Studies, Raymond Orr, Spring 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

English 62.05, Horrors of Survival: Modern American Literature, Jamie Godley, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program – Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Mokhtar Bouba, Summer 2023

Writing 2.05, Why Write, Anyway?, Erkki Mackey, Fall 2023

College Course 26.01, What's In Your Toolbox?, Francine A'Ness and Mokhtar Bouba, Fall 2023

Writing 5.05, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Fall 2023

Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Fall 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Doug Moody, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, exhibited with Abstraction at Mid-Century: Major Works from the Whitney Museum of American Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31-June 17, 2001.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 9-July 5, 1998.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 1, 2006-December 11, 2007.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 18, 1997-January 15, 1998.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 19, 2000-March 30, 2001.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 22, 1999-September 17, 2000.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 29, 1994-January 2, 1996.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 6, 1993-August 31, 1994.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 15-September 15, 2002.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 13, 2006-September 8, 2006.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10, 2004-September 4, 2005.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 18-September 16, 2001.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 26, 1996-June 22, 1997.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 31, 1992-September 7, 1993.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hamshire, October 13, 1998-September 20, 1999.

Contemporary Art from the College Collection, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 24-March 2, 1975.

Cubism and Its Legacy, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 17-December 20, 2013.

Director's Choice, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 10-July 10, 1966.

Kent Monkman: The Great Mystery, Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 8 - December 9, 2023.

Light in Art, Jaffe-Friede, Strauss and Barows Galleries, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 2, 1977-January 29, 1978.

Mark Rothko 1903-1970: A Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum, New York City, New York, October 26, 1978-January 21, 1979; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, February 15-April 8,1979; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 25-June 10, 1979; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California, July 3-September 26, 1979.

Mark Rothko: A Retrospective Exhibition, Paintings 1945-1960, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1961; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England, 1961 [not exhibited]; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 24-December 27, 1961; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium, 1962; Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland, 1962; Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy, 1962; Musee de'Art Monderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France, 1963, no. 23.

Second Stage of Modernism: Art from 1945 to the Present, William B. Jaffe, Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall, Churchill P. Lathrop, Friends, and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 6-August 16, 1987.

Selections: Contemporary Art, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 12, 1975-January 11, 1976

The Dartmouth Collection: 19th & 20th Century Paintings, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 17-November 6, 1982.

The Expanding Grid, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 7-August 27, 2012.

The Expanding Universe of Postwar Art, Northeast Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 26-December 1, 2019.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, March 29, 2016-June 30, 2018.

Twentieth Century Works from the Dartmouth Collection, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 19-May 29, 1988.

Publication History

Kelly Sidley, The Dartmouth, Thursday, October 17, 1996, Hanover: Dartmouth College, p. 7

Thomas Buser, Experiencing Art Around Us, St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1995, Ill. p.. 124

Teizo Taki, Mark Rothko, Contemporary Great Masters, Volume 4, Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd., 1993, plate 19

Jacquelynn Baas, From "a few curious Elephants Bones" to Picasso, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, September 1985, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College, 1985, pp. 37-43, ill. p. 40

Dan Rockmore, "Objects, Arrows, and Rectangles." In D. I. Wallace, editor, Visual Proof: The Experience of Mathematics in Art, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1999, pp. 36-39, ill. p. 36, listed p. 62, Cat. no. 10.

Larry Silver, Transformation: Jews and Modernity, Philadelphia: Arthur Ross Gallery: Published in conjunction with the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania; Distributed by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001, 84 p., ill.

Dennis R. Anderson, The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collecion and Plaza Memorials, New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2002, 260 pp., ill. p. 176, fig. 1 [published as "No. 8 (Orange and Lilac over Ivory]

Wendy Conquest, Bob Drake, Dan Rockmore, The Math Life, Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Math Department and National Science Foundation, 2002, education video production

Christiane Schreiter, Mark Rothko 2004 (Calendar), Weingarten, GERMANY: Kunstverlag Weingarten, Spring 2003

Brian Kennedy, Sean Scully: The Art of the Stripe, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2008, ill. p. 28.

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.30, no.8.

Peter Selz, Mark Rothko, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1961, ill. p. 21. A separate catalogue in the language of each country, all published ast "No. 8"; Robert Goldwater, Bryan Robertson, Peter Selz, Mark Rothko, A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings, 1945-1960, London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1961, no. 23 (not shown); Robert Goldwater, Peter Selz, and Emilio Villa (in Dutch and French), Mark Rothko, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, 1961, no. 23; Peter Selz, Mark Rothko, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1962, no. 23; Roberth Goldwater and Peter Selz, Mark Rothko, Kunsthalle, Basel, 1962, no. 23; Palma Bucarelli, Mark Rothko, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Roma, 1962 (not shown); Peter Selz, Mark Rothko, Musee de'Art Monderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 1963, no. 19.

Diane Waldman, Mark Rothko, 1903-1870, A Retrospective, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, no. 165. [as "Orange and Lilac over Ivory"]

Jacquelynn Baas, Treasures of The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 1985, no. 142.

David Anfam, Mark Rothko, The Works on Canvas, Catalogue Raisonne, Vol. 1, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, ill. p. 373, cat. no. 490. [published as "No. 8 (Lilac and Orange over Ivory; Orange and Lilac over Ivory)]

John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 166, ill. plate no. 97.

Provenance

Sidney Janis Gallery, New York; sold to William S. Rubin (1927-2006), New York; given to present collection, 1961.

Catalogue Raisonne

David Anfam, Mark Rothko, The Works on Canvas, Catalogue Raisonne, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, p. 373, cat. no. 490.

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