Abstract art can often seem like nothing on the surface. Deep examination, however, can bring about many different meanings and evaluations. Mark Rothko’s No. 9 is no different than the others. The different shades of red and orange dominate the painting throughout, complimenting it with contrasting strands of black and white. In this analysis, I will argue that the different colors that appear random, are not random at all, and the art is an exact representation of a murder scene in a bedroom. The drawings of the scene as well as the choice of shapes and colors that Mark Rothko provides in the painting give evidence for this theory, and further analysis throughout this essay will provide a clear representation of the situation depicted.

The first noticeable feature is the dark red and orange that dominates the painting. This starts the art off with a feeling of danger and despair. The white is used as a safe haven in the scene of danger. The black spot is used as the figure of death. The colors used is essential to grasping the painting as a whole, and without the specific colors that Mark Rothko chose, the art could have a completely different meaning, and may have even gone from bleak to promising.  

In the bottom left corner and the top left corner, two beds are pictured. These beds provide the evidence that a bedroom is what is being depicted. The red of the beds with little to no indents shows that no one is in the beds. The crisp white pillows at the head of each bed provide some familiarity and comfort to the painting, but that is short lived. In between the beds lays a black spot. The black spot in the middle of the room could represent the body of the victim, but the symbolism doesn’t end there. It also could represent the sin that took place, and the darkness that was left from the murderer’s actions. Clearly one of the owners of the two beds has been killed while in the bedroom. The blood of the victim is represented by the red and dark orange splashes surrounding the body. The doorway is represented by the brownish line placed straight across the bed in the bottom left corner. The bedroom ends with the jagged line from the top of the painting to the bottom, with the colors, red, dark red, and the brownish doorway being used. What is on the other side of the bedroom provides more context for what exactly took place inside. 

Straight across from the top bed, the colors from the other room creep over into the bedroom to form a handgun. The placement of the handgun provides one piece of evidence that the member of the top bed was the one who was murdered. The other piece of evidence that solidifies this belief is the difference in the colors between the top half of the picture and the bottom half of the picture. The top half is darker, with more dark red features. The top feature also includes the victim and the blood. The bottom half has a lighter color scheme, and has substantially more white than the top half. This is not by accident. The white on the bottom of the picture represents the clear path that the member of the bottom bed took to exit the bedroom door, and then exit the building, before or during the murder. The white represents the safety that the bottom bed member had on their path while exiting. These factors provide the evidence that it was the top bed member who was killed, while the bottom bed member exited safety. 

One argument that can be easily refuted is that the bottom bed member was the one that killed the top bed member. This is not true because of the placement of the gun from the other room. The gun is an extension of the room across from the bedroom, which means that the danger came from the other room, and not the bedroom. The gun is clearly aimed at the member of the top bed, which means that the killer came from outside the bedroom, and had intentions to only harm the member of the top bed. The member of the bottom bed may not have been in any harm, but still exited safely through the white path. More evidence of this is the dark blue barrier between the top half of the entire picture and the bottom half. This barrier shows further that the member of the bottom bed was in no harm. 

With all this degree of drama, this person analyzing the painting will feel a great deal of emotion, and have many questions that the art cannot answer. Who was the murderer? Where did the murderer and the person from the bottom bed go? Did they leave together? These questions that are not answered shed light on the intentional haze that Rothko brings to the painting. If he did provide the answers the work of art would lose a certain value that can only be provided by mystery. If the graphic had used different colors, the entire mood would have changed. The use of red and orange highlighted the mysterious and passionate energy in the room with perfection.  

The room adjacent to the bedroom also provides some clues as to what happened in the painting. The room is crisp and clean cut, with no apparent struggle. This shows that the murderer might have been hiding in that room waiting for the two members to go to sleep. This is showed further by the placement of the gun. The gun goes through the wall and into the bedroom. That may be because the murderer had a peephole so he could watch his target, the member of the top bed, to know when the right time to commit the act was. 

One of the most important questions that is left unanswered is whether or not the murderer actually entered the bedroom. There doesn’t appear to be another entry way other than the original door, and the killer couldn’t have used it as his path to enter, as it wouldn’t be painted white as the safe path out for the member of the bottom bed. The killer most likely shot the victim through the peephole, or found an unseen entry way. If the victim was shot through the peephole, they were most likely just about to enter the bed, or had just gotten out of the bed, and fell to the ground a few feet away, where the black spot remains. 

 

 