A general framework to study the price-color relationship in paintings with an application to Mark Rothko rectangular series

Abstract

We propose a general framework to study the relationship between the price of a painting and its color-related attributes. To this end we focus on four key aspects: dominant colors, features of the color palette, color harmony, and color emotions. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach with an example based on Mark Rothko's post-1950 paintings (the “rectangular” series), and auction data from the 1994 to 2018 period. We identify two distinct price-color regimes in Rothko's market: (a) [1994-2005], a period in which prices are explained mainly by the growing popularity of the artist regardless of the color attributes of the paintings sold; and (b) [2006-2018], a period in which color-related attributes explain most of the prices. Furthermore, we find that in this second period, the dominant colors and the diversity of the color palette, are by far the most relevant attributes that influence the price; color harmony and color emotions hold almost no explanatory power during this period. Finally, we propose a new metric based on the Herfindahl Index to describe color diversity; this metric seems to be promising at characterizing the effect of the color palette on the price of a painting.