Untitled 1961

Mark Rothko made this painting with oil on canvas. Can you imagine the physicality of moving these luscious, dissolving blocks of cadmium orange? I find myself sympathizing with the painter, Rothko. I imagine him wrestling with how to let these forms come into being. How to make it breathe and glow? The paint isn’t thick, but thin, almost stained, as it floats on the canvas. I wonder if he was thinking about color field painters like Helen Frankenthaler. Or maybe he was just in his own world, feeling the orange, letting it bleed into the edges of the tan underpainting. This simple gesture of a horizontal band hovering over another, can it really communicate feeling? Intention? Meaning? I think it can. Rothko’s been dead a long time, but through paint, there is an ongoing exchange of ideas. He is inspiring our creativity, even now.