Untitled 1942

Mark Rothko made this untitled painting with oil on canvas; it's a real material thing. The way he puts color down feels so intuitive, like he’s feeling his way through the painting. Look at the red background, how it's not one solid color but a bunch of strokes bumping up against each other. And that bird-like figure, it's not just orange, but a mix of shades and lines that give it this raw, almost vulnerable quality. There's a directness here, a sense of the hand that I find really moving. It’s not trying to be perfect. I am reminded of Francis Bacon. Both artists embraced the messiness of paint and the ambiguity of form. They remind us that art doesn’t have to be neat or easily understood to be powerful. It can be a space of exploration, a dialogue between the artist and the canvas that invites us to join in.