Couple Seated on Bench 

Mark Rothko made this drawing, Couple Seated on Bench, with ink on paper. The composition is anchored by dense, rhythmic hatching that creates a sense of structure, yet there is a simultaneous feeling of dissolution, of forms barely held together. The scene depicts a man and a woman on a bench, but their representation is far from straightforward. The male figure, on the left, is constructed from a series of lines, and the female from contour. This juxtaposition of techniques, of line and form, raises questions about representation itself. The figures seem to emerge from and recede into the very fabric of the drawing, challenging fixed meanings and categories. Rothko blurs the boundaries between figure and ground. The drawing invites us to consider how meaning is constructed through the interplay of various formal elements, and how these elements can destabilize established ways of seeing and understanding.