Untitled (sculptress) 1934 - 1935

Mark Rothko made this oil on canvas, Untitled (sculptress), with lots of brushstrokes that feel both tentative and sure. There's this pinky light all over, a blue behind, and they seem to be battling it out with blacks, grays, and browns. I wonder, was he in his studio just slinging paint, trying to capture something elusive about the act of creation itself? Did he want to show this artist, head bowed, maybe exhausted but still determined, chipping away at stone or clay? I’m struck by that vertical black mark to the left, how it almost divides the painting in two. It’s so assertive! And then that gesture in the sculpture, that looks like the artist is caressing a child... Painters like Rothko, they're not just making pictures; they're wrestling with what it means to be human, to make something out of nothing. You can see him working things out in real time. We’re all in conversation, all the time, trying to figure this whole painting thing out.