No. 3 1953

Mark Rothko made No. 3 with oil on canvas, and when you look closely you can see how he let the paint soak into the fabric. It's like he’s staining it, rather than covering it up, and that's a really important thing to note about painting in general, its always a process of layering. Take a look at that central red block. It hovers. See how Rothko blurred the edges? It's soft and unfixed. That glow makes you feel the emotional weight of the color, that slight vibration. And the way the blocks of color bleed into each other, it's like they're breathing together. Rothko reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin, both reaching for something beyond the everyday. His work invites contemplation and asks us to feel deeply, to experience the sublime in the simplest forms. There's never one right answer in art, just different ways of seeing.