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Curator: This watercolor and ink drawing is by Mark Rothko, though it is, for the moment, without a title and lacks a firm date. What leaps out at you here? Editor: Immediately, it's the division of labor, or should I say the divided plane – that upper register of gestural abstraction contrasting with the figuration in the lower section. The production of each seems quite distinct. Curator: It feels to me like two worlds colliding, doesn't it? One is dreamlike, surreal almost. Those bulbous shapes and that eye staring...it feels incredibly psychological. While below, there's that struggle, a more visceral depiction of human forms rendered roughly. Editor: It does feel very compartmentalized, doesn't it? Like separate tasks. Are these watercolor experiments or studies toward larger works? I am fascinated by how Rothko worked, whether this informs anything larger. Curator: Given that his process evolved from figuration to the abstract fields he's known for, I see this as a moment of him processing a world that is constantly at odds. The upper register, this explosion of pure emotion rendered abstract, almost eclipses the figures below mired in physical struggles. What's the power dynamic here? It's interesting because while Rothko's late work is purely non-objective, it never ceases to deal with power or absence. Editor: Indeed, but look at how the medium serves different roles. Upstairs, we have washier color, more spontaneous marks. Downstairs is thicker applications, attempting form, almost sculptural compared to those light, airy forms that dominate the top half of this drawing. Even the humble materials feel conflicted in this drawing! It feels he is deliberately fighting this image in its totality. Curator: Ultimately, though, both the form and anti-form combine, as they often do, within a fragile embrace of modernist ambivalence! Thanks for looking into the artifice of construction, a welcome addition to our journey with Rothko’s evolving abstraction! Editor: An important exercise to question not what he expresses but how he expresses! Thank you.