No.11 1963

Mark Rothko made 'No. 11', with oil on canvas, where the making feels laid bare. It's a dance of salmon, peach, and cream, floating like soft focus memories. Look closely, and you'll see the layers, the almost-there brushstrokes, a quiet testament to the act of painting itself. The colors aren't just applied; they're coaxed, teased into being. The white band in the middle, it's like a breath, a pause, a reminder of the canvas beneath. Rothko's surfaces are never quite flat, never resolved. He’s not trying to trick you into seeing something that isn't there. Instead, he wants you to feel something that is there, resonating with our own messy, imperfect selves. He reminds me a little of Agnes Martin who also used soft colour to express interior emotional states. In the end, it's all just color, surface, and feeling.