Woman Seated on a Sofa with a Child on Her Lap 

Editor: This is "Woman Seated on a Sofa with a Child on Her Lap" by Mark Rothko, rendered with watercolor and drawing. It seems quite intimate and tender in its depiction of a mother and child. What aspects of this drawing grab your attention? Curator: I'm immediately drawn to the *making* of this image. Consider the rough paper stock Rothko chose. It wasn't primed or prepared for this intimate scene; instead, its cheapness forces us to recognize the labor behind artistic representation. Look, too, at the rapidly applied washes of color – blue for the skirt, muddy browns for the floor, quickly defining the room's volume through a study of material production. Editor: So you're focusing on the tangible qualities of the work, and what that might imply. Curator: Precisely. Think of the early 20th century and the changing role of women, increasingly working and contributing to the economic sphere, as a kind of mass production of labor and commodity; consider also that watercolor drawings and mass-produced. By focusing on these choices –the material constraints, rapid execution – aren’t we compelled to reconsider sentimentality typically attached to images of motherhood and see its ties to the everyday economy? It isn't just *a* mother and child; it is *every* mother who works! Editor: I see, viewing the image within its production, within its economic realities gives it an alternate, very potent meaning. It shifts from just a sentimental genre painting. Curator: Exactly. Rothko is cleverly confronting and expanding those expectations using materials to invite questioning rather than offering reassurance. And this perspective makes the work still relevant today! Editor: Thanks, this definitely encourages a very different reading, a deconstruction through the artistic and social context. Curator: My pleasure; looking closely, always interrogating the method can open new worlds.