Red, Orange, Orange on Red

A floating field of tangerine orange is bounded at the bottom by an area of acidic orange, and at the top by a line of red. Mark Rothko stained the canvas with several layers of thin pigment, creating an effect that evokes the shimmering luminosity of dawn or sunset. Rothko’s compositions employ the elegant simplicity of rectilinear forms to express human emotions the artist believed to be “tragic and timeless.”