Untitled 1945

Mark Rothko made this untitled painting with oil on canvas. Here we have a collection of shapes and lines, floating in a milky, atmospheric field. Rothko’s color palette is restrained here, almost muted. See how the pale yellows and creams are interrupted by a dark ground, setting up a quiet drama. It feels like he's thinking through the act of painting as a record of movement, of the artist's hand in space. If you look closely, you can see the textures and subtle gradations, the underlayers peeking through. Note the way that the drips are incorporated into the composition, part of an almost alchemical process of creation. Look at the very top of the painting, how the black lines weave around the pale forms. It reminds me of the surrealist automatism of Masson. Rothko's work embodies a shift towards abstraction, one where feeling is prioritized over representation. And like all great art, it remains open to interpretation, a space for dialogue and contemplation.