Untitled 1945

Mark Rothko made this untitled oil on canvas; look at how the colours hover! The pinks and yellows are not quite mixing, not quite separating—Rothko must have worked intuitively, letting forms emerge and recede as he went. I feel a strong sense of the artist's hand as I look at those marks. I bet that the painting shifted and emerged through trial, error, and intuition. Look at the texture; the paint is applied thinly, in layers. Do you notice how the gestures communicate intention and meaning? I wonder if Rothko found it hard to leave this piece alone. I find myself sympathizing with the struggle to know when a painting is done. He was clearly an artist engaged in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time. And that’s what painting is about; a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity, allowing multiple interpretations.