Woman Running Fingers Through the Hair of Another Woman 

Here we see Mark Rothko's exploration of intimacy and form in his piece, 'Woman Running Fingers Through the Hair of Another Woman.' Painted with gestural brushstrokes, Rothko uses broad, expressive strokes to define the two figures. The color palette is subdued with muted reds and greens. Rothko seems to blur the boundaries between figures and background. Notice how the lines of the women almost merge with the abstract field. The women's bodies are not solid, they are fragmented forms held together by texture and color. The structural composition is a play between representation and abstraction. The figures, though recognizable, appear to be dissolving into their surroundings. This interplay challenges our perception, destabilizing the conventional idea of the subject. Rothko uses a semiotic language of art to move beyond traditional representations and to question how we define and perceive form and identity.