ith brilliant hues, simplified forms, and broad, thin washes of color, Mark Rothko’s immersive abstract paintings convey the impression of a shallow pictorial space while engulfing the viewer in energetic, expansive emotional swells. Vastly outnumbering his iconic paintings on canvas, nearly 1,000 paintings on paper were created by Rothko (1903–1970). In his final years, he prioritized the making of works on paper, pointing to their importance to him. In recognition of his output, a momentous exhibition has been mounted at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., “Mark Rothko: Paintings on Paper” (November 19–March 31, 2024), which brings together 100 of the artist’s finest such examples—paintings he considered equal to
