The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art announced this week that it is selling a $35 million painting by Mark Rothko in order to buy artwork by non-white artists.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art announced this week that they will be selling an untitled work from abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. Proceeds from the painting, which is worth anywhere from $35 to $50 million, will be used to buy paintings from non-white artists.
The decision was made after critics pointed out that the museum heavily features works by German male artists of the 1980s. According to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, fewer than 16 percent of the artists displayed in the museum are women and six percent are black or Hispanic.
The museum also has Rothko’s “No. 14” in its collection, which is not for sale. Art critics argue that “No 14.” is a better piece of art than the untitled Rothko piece that is being sold to fund the museum’s diversity initiative.
The report from the San Francisco Chronicle makes the case that Rothko would endorse the decision to sell his painting to increase representation at the museum.
The choice of a painting by Mark Rothko to, in effect, trade for works by underrepresented artists carries with it a certain sense of justice. Rothko was a Russian Jewish immigrant raised by his widowed mother in Portland, Ore., whose early years were much influenced by leftist thought. He rose to fame as among the most important of the Abstract Expressionist painters, widely revered for luminous paintings that many see as deeply spiritual. He took his own life in 1970, at age 66.
A president from an auction house said that she is optimistic that the Rothko painting will sell. She said that Rothko pieces from that era, the peak of his career, are incredibly popular. They often sell at auction at or above their asking price.
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