Untitled 1944

Mark Rothko made this untitled painting with watercolor, gouache and ink. It's a process driven piece, you can tell Rothko is working and reworking areas as he goes. Looking at the surface, there's this great push and pull of dark versus light, kind of like a moody dance. The pinks and purples feel translucent, like a memory fading in and out. Then you get these decisive black marks, grounding the dreaminess. I am drawn to how these contrasting colours play off each other, it's like a conversation between boldness and vulnerability. It reminds me a bit of Philip Guston's later works. Both artists weren't afraid to embrace ambiguity, to leave things unresolved, which in my book, makes for the most interesting art.