Landscape with Mountains [recto] c. late 1930s

Mark Rothko made this landscape painting with watercolors on paper. The sweeping gesture of the hillside is pretty wild! You can sense Rothko really getting into the swing of it, and it makes you wonder whether painting this landscape might have been his way of really *feeling* something, getting in touch with nature, and maybe even finding a kind of freedom. You can see how the paint is thinly applied, kind of translucent, and the white of the paper shows through. The mountains feel heavy and solid, in contrast to the light, airy pinks and greens of the valley below, while thin horizontal marks pull the landscape together. It reminds me that art history is just one big conversation, a huge call and response of ideas. It's like Rothko is saying, "Hey, world, look at this place, look at these feelings," and then, we, the viewers, get to add our own thoughts and emotions into the mix.