Study of Head Facing Right [verso] 

Editor: This is "Study of Head Facing Right," a pen and ink drawing on paper, by Mark Rothko. I am struck by the figure’s downward gaze and how lightly sketched it is. What do you make of it? Curator: It’s intriguing how Rothko uses the classical portrait as a symbol itself, before deconstructing it later in his career. Consider the traditional connotations: power, status, identity. But here, these are fleeting, almost ghostlike. How do you think he conveys this sense of ephemerality? Editor: Partly the medium – the quick pen strokes, unfinished lines… it suggests a sketch, something not intended to be permanent. Curator: Exactly! And that fleeting quality resonates. The subject gazes downward, perhaps introspective, weighted by thought. Consider how this differs from a Renaissance portrait, where the gaze is often assertive and outward-looking. Is Rothko engaging in a dialogue with that tradition? Editor: It definitely feels like a conscious subversion of it. Almost as if he's questioning the very idea of fixed identity or the importance of individual achievement. Curator: Precisely! The downward gaze carries cultural weight. It's a visual motif for contemplation, sorrow, even humility – emotions often suppressed in those traditional power portraits. Editor: So the symbols and their history inform how we read even this seemingly simple drawing? Curator: Absolutely. The power lies in understanding the ongoing dialogue between an artist and their visual inheritance. Seeing how Rothko takes a form so weighted with tradition, and empties it out – fills it with something new. Editor: I see that so clearly now, the ghost of older images shimmering through this one. It's made me consider the weight of art history differently.