WASHINGTON, DC.- A new exhibition featuring seven of the enigmatic black paintings made in 1964 by American artist Mark Rothko (1903–1970) is the second in a series of shows installed in the National Gallery of Art‘s Tower Gallery, East Building, that center on developments in art since midcentury. On view February 21, 2010 through January 2, 2011, “In the Tower: Mark Rothko” includes works drawn largely from the Gallery’s own vast collection of Rothko’s oeuvre and features a short film created for the exhibition. These austere paintings—each presenting a single black rectangle on a black or nearly black field—are among the most mysterious of Rothko’s career. This is the first exhibition devoted to Rothko’s black paintings since the show that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Rothko Chapel at the Menil Collection in Houston in 1996. The dozen