Woman Seated on a Green Chair c. 1930

Mark Rothko made "Woman Seated on a Green Chair" with paint on board, and what strikes me is how he's playing with the push and pull of colour. It's not about capturing a likeness; it's more like a feeling of a figure in a space. Look at how the pink of the background kinda bleeds into the child's face, blurring the lines. The strokes are broad, almost like he's sculpting with paint. The red in the chair anchors the whole composition and draws your eye down. It's like a stage, and the child is the performer, slightly awkward, totally compelling. I wonder if Rothko was looking at someone like Bonnard here, in terms of intimacy and domestic space. Both artists are more concerned with the impression, the felt experience, than with exact representation. It's a reminder that art is always a conversation, a reaching out across time and space.