Seated Woman 

Mark Rothko made this drawing, Seated Woman, using graphite on paper. The artwork shows a figure which has been drawn in a gestural and expressive manner. Rothko came to artistic maturity in the United States in the 1930s and 40s. During that time, American artists, critics, and collectors were increasingly trying to define an artistic identity that was independent of European traditions. Rothko’s early work of the 1930s was part of this general turn, showing his interest in modernism, and his attempt to synthesize it with recognizable subject matter. The figure is a modernist trope and would have represented the avant-garde’s interest in portraying the social realities of the modern era. Art historians help us understand the meaning of such drawings by researching the cultural and institutional context of their creation. In Rothko’s case, we might look to the curriculum of art schools, the tastes of gallery owners, and the wider debates about the public role of art during the Great Depression.