NEW YORK \u2013 Collectors looking to add a Mark Rothko work to their portfolio have the opportunity to acquire a large blue-and-green painting by the celebrated and influential American abstract impressionist next month when it goes on the auction block at Christie\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. 17\u201d will be offered at the auctioneer\u2019s post-war and contemporary art evening sale in New York on May 10 with a pre-sale estimate of $30 million to $40 million.<\/p>\n
The oil painting\u2019s two large colour panes \u2013 one electric blue, the other dark green \u2013 are separated by a horizontal azure blue bar that bleeds into the neighbouring areas.<\/p>\n
It has an extensive exhibition history.<\/p>\n
It was created in 1957 and included in a retrospective of Rothko\u2019s works that travelled across Europe between 1961 and 1963. When the retrospective opened at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, it was the first time that much of the British public encountered Rothko\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a seminal exhibition positioning Rothko as a leading figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement,\u201d said Brett Gorvy, international head of Christie\u2019s contemporary art. \u201cThe effect of these exhibitions in Europe was very important to his career.\u201d<\/p>\n
The painting comes on the heels of a red-hot market for works by Rothko, who died in 1970.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe global interest in Rothko is enormous,\u201d said Gorvy, adding that the work was conservatively estimated to bring up to $40 million. \u201cWhat\u2019s exciting about a painting like this coming to today\u2019s market is that it\u2019s not limited to one audience. Rothko’s probably the most global artist in terms of high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking from Hong Kong, Gorvy added: \u201cWhen I talk to any of the native collectors here, they\u2019re looking for Rothko. He\u2019s at the top of their list of post-war artists, more than any other of the abstract expressionists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last May, Christie\u2019s sold Rothko\u2019s 1958 painting \u201cNo. 10\u201d for nearly $82 million, exceeding its $60 million pre-sale estimate. The auction record for a Rothko is $86.8 million for his \u201cOrange, Red, Yellow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rothko painted \u201cNo. 17\u201d during a brief period when he was using lighter coloration and just months before he began work on his famous, darker and intense, Seagram Murals series that he later donated to the Tate museum in London.<\/p>\n
The work was acquired by an Italian collector following the retrospective and remained unseen by the public until 2001 when it appeared at another major Rothko exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. A short time later it was purchased by another collector who is selling it now.<\/p>\n
Gorvy called the work \u201cmajestic\u201d and \u201cmagical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cfloating, cloud-like effects\u201d of the two large colour panes \u201ctotally envelop you in this kind of almost marine quality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market for big Rothko works from his prime period in the late fifties is fairly mature. That means the buyers and price levels are fairly well established,\u201d said Marion Maneker, publisher of Art Market monitor, an art market information service that covers the global art market. \u201cThis work should provide a good test of both the global demand for big Rothkos, which has been a benchmark of the blue chip market for the last 10 years, and the strength of the top end of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The painting will be on view at Christie\u2019s London from April 11 through April 17.<\/p>\n
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