Untitled (Black on Grey)

Untitled (Black on Grey) is an acrylic on canvas painting by Mark Rothko. featuring a black rectangle and a grey rectangle. The painting has a buildup of thin, translucent layers of differently shaded blacks, which are luminous and warm. Rothko described the overall effect as touching upon the ‘historical sublime’

Untitled (Black on Grey)
Artist	Mark Rothko
Year	1970
Medium	Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions	203.3 cm × 175.5 cm (80.0 in × 69.1 in)
Location	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City[1]

In mid-1968, Rothko suffered an aortic aneurysm and could only work on stretched paper during his recuperation. The edges were secured using gummed tape that left a white margin when removed. This led to the first of the ‘black and grey’ paintings that introduced new formal elements: a division running across the image like a horizon line and a painted area framed with a band of white just over a centimeter wide. Later, Rothko taped the edges of his canvases before painting to produce the same effect. When asked about these paintings, he said they were about death.