Seated Man Wearing a Jacket 

Mark Rothko created "Seated Man Wearing a Jacket," using ink on paper. The artwork's stark contrast between the deep blacks and the bare paper immediately strikes a chord, evoking a sense of somber introspection. The man's form emerges from and recedes back into the shadows, a figure suspended between presence and absence. Rothko’s brushstrokes are thick and gestural, applied with urgency, suggesting a fleeting glimpse. Rothko uses the materiality of ink to destabilize any fixed idea of identity. The subject's face is obscured, surrendering to the ink's expressive potential. It aligns with a broader artistic movement questioning the stability of representation, reflecting Existentialist themes of human ambiguity. The stark simplicity of the ink serves not just as a medium, but as a philosophical tool, questioning conventional portraiture. Rothko invites us to consider how the very act of representation shapes our understanding of self and others.