Untitled (bending female nude) 1933 - 1934

Mark Rothko made this unnamed nude figure on paper, we don’t know exactly when. It’s not one of his signature colour blocks, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like a Rothko. It looks like the paint was thrown down fast. There’s raw paper showing through. It looks like Rothko built the figure up from layers, starting with thin washes of paint and then adding thicker strokes on top. You can almost see the ghost of the model through the paint. There’s something about the way the pinks and reds mix that's almost fleshy, right? I'm drawn to the way he’s smudged the paint around the head. It's kind of terrifying, like the figure is dissolving before our eyes. This reminds me of work by De Kooning, another artist who was obsessed with the female form. Both artists seemed interested in how paint could capture not just the likeness of a woman, but also her essence, her energy.