Untitled 1961

This untitled work by Mark Rothko is made with ink on paper. Here we see the artist experimenting with the most basic materials: paper and ink, tools for sketching and writing, elevated to the status of high art. The ink has bled and pooled, and we can see the trace of the artist's hand in the quick, almost nervous lines of the rectangles. Look closely, and you will notice areas where the ink is more saturated, revealing the absorption quality of the paper. These are not the traditional materials of the European oil painting tradition. In this work, Rothko appears to have created a window onto his subconscious, using an artistic method close to automatic writing. The apparent simplicity of the image belies the amount of work needed to generate it. The quick, almost crude manner of its making gives the piece an extraordinary visceral immediacy. The ink runs with a life of its own, giving a kind of material presence and agency.