This Rain 1960

Agnes Martin made this large square canvas, 'This Rain,' with acrylic and graphite, and it's just so, so subtle. There's a kind of pale lavender rectangle hovering over a more opaque, whitish one. It's like Martin is trying to capture the feeling of rain without actually depicting anything literal. You can almost feel her standing there, wrestling with the canvas, trying to find the exact right touch. What color evokes that feeling? How light or dark should it be? How should it feel to simply be with the painting? I can imagine her wanting to make a painting that barely exists. A little like a Rothko, but more restrained, more quiet. Martin knew that painting could be this embodied expression, a way to communicate something beyond words. It's a conversation across time, each artist building on what came before. Painting is like this ongoing exchange of ideas, an endless process of reinvention. It’s about embracing ambiguity, leaving room for multiple readings, and finding new ways of seeing and feeling the world.