Two Seated Women Wearing Bathing Suits 

Curator: This drawing captures two seated women, seemingly relaxing in their bathing suits. Mark Rothko sketched it with ink, using swift, spare lines. What catches your eye initially? Editor: There's something wistful about it. The figures seem...unfinished, almost ghostly. Like memories fading at the edge. I also notice the vulnerability of their postures, very exposed but there is also this simplicity to it which gives it a sense of openness. Curator: That vulnerability is striking. Consider the swimsuit as a garment. On one level, it's about practicality, for swimming. Yet it carries social weight, tied to notions of the body, modesty, and display. Rothko seems to peel those layers back with his raw lines. The absence of color amplifies that feeling, a deconstruction. Editor: Deconstruction for sure! I find myself wanting to know what they are thinking. I suppose I am drawn in by the immediacy of a quick sketch—you get the unfiltered artist at work. A photograph wouldn't communicate it like this, because photography inherently hides things and in its artifice adds an intention where there might not be one. Curator: You're right, the intention seems different. Rothko’s known for his abstract color fields, these weren’t created until years later so he must have abandoned this sketch at some point early in his career. Editor: It's interesting how it all connects though, you can feel hints of his later style as it touches on simplicity, large swatches of feeling and emotion with seemingly sparse intention. Like it wants to become something larger than itself but at the time didn't have the voice yet. It’s nice to be privy to that private experience. Curator: Absolutely. It serves as a window into an artist’s evolution. By stripping away the detail, he directs our focus to the figures themselves. Editor: It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What other forms lie waiting beneath the surface? Thank you, I won’t soon forget these girls.