Untitled 

This 'Untitled' watercolor by Mark Rothko presents a vibrant, if ambiguous, scene. It's easy to imagine that we're looking at a theatre or museum lobby, with figures ascending a staircase under the watchful gaze of classical busts. The cultural context is hard to pin down, as the shapes are generalized. But this piece evokes a strong sense of the period in which it was made. Mass culture was ascendant, and museums were becoming increasingly important arbiters of taste. Note how the figures are all headed in the same direction; perhaps this relates to the artist's feelings about the increasing standardization of culture during this time. Is this a playful investigation, or a dark vision of things to come? To understand this piece better, one might research the history of museums, the development of abstract art, and the cultural debates of the period when it was made. Rothko was clearly concerned with his contemporary world, even in works like this that don't offer any easy answers.