by
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on October 11, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000

Untitled (Red on Red): Introduction

The painting on this legacy “Untitled Red” route is Sotheby's Untitled (Red on Red), executed in 1969. The 2019 lot record identifies it as oil on paper mounted on canvas, 98.4 × 63.5 cm, with Rothko estate number 1305.69.[1] This is a crucial correction: it is not a large oil canvas merely because canvas appears in the mounting description. Paper is the painted support, while canvas is the mount.

At a Glance

  • ArtistMark Rothko
  • Date1969 [1]
  • MediumOil on paper mounted on canvas [1]
  • Dimensions98.4 × 63.5 cm [1]
  • CollectionPrivate collection (2019) [1]

This work in Rothko’s career

Contents

  1. Reds within reds
  2. Paper as a finished medium
  3. Exhibition and sale history

Reds within reds

The title suggests little contrast, yet Sotheby's describes two soft-edged red areas over a lighter red background, with shifts among brick, crimson and scarlet.[1] A viewer can compare the inner areas with the colour visible at their edges and in the interval between them. Similar hues can change each other's apparent brightness and depth. The relatively modest sheet, under one metre high, offers a different physical encounter from Rothko's room-sized canvases, although its visual organisation belongs to his mature language.

The auction's glowing interpretive language is best treated as a seller's reading rather than as a factual condition report. The stable facts are medium, measurements, date, estate number, known exhibitions and recorded provenance.[1] A small reproduction may not show every brushstroke or boundary reliably. The National Gallery's research on Rothko's paper works demonstrates the importance of support, mounting and edge treatment in his practice.[2] It does not establish the exact mounting procedure for this particular sheet.

Paper as a finished medium

NGA reports that Rothko made more than 1,000 paintings on paper and considered many finished works, not simply studies for canvas.[2] Untitled (Red on Red) is a clear example of why the medium line deserves attention. Mounting paper on canvas can make a work present more like a stretched painting, but the painted surface remains paper. Calling it just “oil on canvas” would erase a material decision.

Street view of the red-brick former Rothko studio at 153 East 69th Street.
153 East 69th Street, Rothko’s late New York studio, photographed in 2012. The building provides context for the period of his late paintings on paper.
Photograph: Beyond My Ken. Resized; photograph remains CC BY-SA 4.0. [5]

The Sotheby's record says the work is being considered for the NGA's online catalogue raisonné of works on paper.[1] “Being considered” is not the same as an accepted catalogue entry. It would also be wrong to assign this paper work a number in David Anfam's Works on Canvas catalogue simply because canvas is part of its mount. A paper catalogue entry, when established, would be the relevant object-specific scholarly reference.

Exhibition and sale history

The lot's published provenance moves from Rothko's estate through Marlborough-Gerson and Knoedler, then to an owner who acquired it in February 1981.[1] Sotheby's lists a 1971 exhibition tour in Rome, Bergamo and Turin, plus a 1981 New York group exhibition. These historical entries help place the paper painting before its 2019 appearance on the market, but they do not establish current ownership.

The 2019 public lot page gives a $7–10 million estimate and hides the final result behind login.[1] A later Sotheby's article, however, identifies this exact Untitled (Red on Red) as sold at that evening auction for $8,237,000.[4] The result is a documented 2019 transaction, not a current value. The two Sotheby's pages serve different purposes: one supplies the object record and presale estimate; the other supplies the historical result. Keeping them separate avoids treating an estimate as a sale price.

The Italian itinerary in the same catalogue is unusually specific for this late paper work: Marlborough Galleria d'Arte in Rome, Galleria Lorenzelli in Bergamo and Galleria Martano in Turin, all in February–April 1971.[1] The sheet was therefore circulated abroad soon after Rothko's death, before the 1984 Works on Paper exhibition helped make this part of his practice more visible. Sotheby's further connects it with the Blema and H. Arnold Steinberg Collection and a 2015 collection publication. These references document how the work was collected and exhibited; they are more useful here than the seller's emotional adjectives or a claim that red represented a fixed meaning for Rothko.

The first auction appearance in 2019 came nearly four decades after the Steinbergs acquired the work, according to Sotheby's accompanying account.[3] That long interval helps explain why a late paper painting can be historically important without having a busy public sale history. It also means that a 2019 price estimate cannot stand in for the forty years of collecting, occasional display and publication that preceded it. The 1971 Italian venues and 2015 Steinberg volume are better leads for reconstructing reception than a market headline.

Sotheby's presented this sheet alongside another 1969 paper work, Untitled (Red and Burgundy Over Blue).[3] The comparison is useful precisely because both are late, both involve red and both are works on paper, yet their colour arrangements are different. Rothko's late paper practice was not one repeated black-and-gray formula, nor was a red field a return to a single earlier canvas type. The NGA's 2023 research adds the material perspective: Rothko made over a thousand paper paintings and sometimes treated them as finished objects for exhibition or sale.[2] The viewer should therefore ask how the paper's scale and surface support this particular red-on-red relation, rather than rank it as a “study” solely because it is smaller than a canvas.

Sotheby's image is linked for identification and has no general reuse permission here. A comparison with the NGA's Untitled (brown and gray) shows how different two late paper works can be in palette and use of acrylic versus oil. The date alone should not invite a story in which all late works become dark or mournful: this 1969 sheet is intensely red.

Rothko works in this guide

22 artworks

NameDateMedium
Entrance to Subway1938Painting
Hierarchical Birds1944Painting
Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea1944Painting
No. 3/No. 131949Painting
Untitled (Violet, Black, Orange, Yellow on White and Red)1949Painting
White Center1950Painting
No. 101950Painting
No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)1951Painting
Untitled1952Painting
No. 61 (Rust and Blue)1953Painting
No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)1954Painting
Untitled (Yellow and Blue)1954Painting
Orange and Yellow1956Painting
Light Red over Black1957Painting
Four Darks in Red1958Painting
Black on Maroon1958Painting
No. 141960Painting
Orange, Red, Yellow1961Painting
Untitled (brown and gray)1969Painting
Untitled (Red on Red)1969Painting
Untitled (Black and Gray)1970Painting
Tentacles of Memory1945–46Drawing

Frequently Asked Questions

It is Untitled (Red on Red) of 1969, recorded by Sotheby’s in 2019 as oil on paper mounted on canvas. It measures 98.4 × 63.5 cm and carries Rothko estate number 1305.69. Those details distinguish it from other red Rothkos.[1]

Paper. Canvas forms the mount beneath the painted sheet. The full medium line matters because the presence of canvas in a mounting description does not make the work an oil painting executed directly on canvas.[1]

It is an original painting on paper. Rothko treated many painted sheets as finished works and displayed them in different ways. Neither the paper support nor its mount makes this object a printed reproduction.[1][2]

Its red palette belongs to the same final years as darker brown-and-grey works. The comparison reveals a continuing range of colour rather than a uniformly dark late style. The smaller paper format also offers a different physical scale from his monumental canvases.[2][3]

Discussion

What changes when you look at Untitled (Red on Red) as a physical painting rather than a small reproduction?

Use the questions below to compare the work with its neighbours in Rothko’s career.

Reader Insights

Close Looking

Which edge or interval asks you to slow down?

Context

How does this painting differ from the earlier and later works linked here?

Open Question

What remains uncertain after reading the museum record and looking closely?

Join the Conversation

Share an observation grounded in the work or its documented history.

References

  1. Sotheby's, Untitled (Red on Red), lot 16, 2019.
  2. Michaela Milgrom, “How Mark Rothko Made Paintings on Paper,” National Gallery of Art, 2023.
  3. Sotheby's, “Mark Rothko's Late-Career Turn to Paintings on Paper,” 2019, on the Steinberg collection interval and the paired 1969 sheet.
  4. Sotheby's, “Steinberg Collection of Chinese Ceramics Bring Color to Life,” 2021, which identifies the 2019 Untitled (Red on Red) auction result as $8,237,000.
  5. 153 East 69th Street.jpg. Photograph: Beyond My Ken. Resized; photograph remains CC BY-SA 4.0. Source · CC BY-SA 4.0.