Untitled 1944

This is an Untitled piece by Mark Rothko; I wonder what it was like to make this? There is a real layering of marks and textures here, a sort of palimpsest of additions and erasures. Rothko lays down planes of smoky color that feel somehow unstable and in flux. The physical presence of the materials, their opacity and transparency, the way they catch and reflect light – these elements are crucial. I keep getting drawn to that central motif in the square; what is that? It is like an offering, some kind of personal symbol. It's like he built the whole painting just to hold this one little mysterious image in place, and the other marks are just there to add more layers of feeling. This kind of work makes me think of Guston's late paintings, where he's using simple shapes and a limited palette to explore some pretty heavy stuff. For Rothko, it seems like the ambiguity is the point, inviting us to bring our own experiences to the canvas.