The Price of Color in Mark Rothko’s Paintings

Abstract

The relationship between prices of paintings at public auctions and their attributes has received much attention in recent years. However, the effects of color have been mostly absent from these studies. The present study explored the relationship between price and color in Rothko’s post 1950 paintings, which were dominated by color rather than figurative elements. We characterized the color features of the paintings in terms of their dominant hues and luminosity. In addition, we developed two additional metrics to evaluate color contrast, and palette diversity. We found that in general the market favored diverse color compositions, and preferred reds over greens, blues over yellows, and lighter-colored paintings. We also identified two distinct price regimes in the period studied: a first period, dominated by enthusiasm for the artist, regardless of the painting’s characteristics; and a second period, driven by color-related attributes.