Untitled c. 1944

Curator: We're looking at an Untitled mixed-media drawing on paper by Mark Rothko, created around 1944. Editor: My first impression is a feeling of vulnerability. The forms seem like dissected memories, precariously held together with these thread-like red lines. Curator: Rothko employs colored pencil here with remarkable textural effect, notice how the layered strokes and blurred edges contribute to that sense of fragile forms. He clearly engages the physicality of the paper as part of the image. The use of these materials and techniques situates it within the historical context of post-war anxieties and uncertainty. Editor: Absolutely. And it's not just anxiety, there is a yearning. These circular shapes, what might they be? Eyes? Targets? It speaks to me of searching, being seen, the desire for connection or perhaps the fear of being targeted. The red lines, are they veins or threads of fate, or both? Curator: It's fascinating how he blurs the boundaries between recognizable figuration and total abstraction, characteristic for the abstract expressionist style. The visible making, the materiality becomes integral to experiencing it, pushing against the conventional expectations of 'high art'. Editor: And there's a certain primal quality to it all, linking back to archaic symbolism. The "eyes" evoke ancient guardian spirits, looking over. I see motifs from pre-historic cave paintings reflected. Curator: Looking closely, there is what seems to be traces of a human figure sketched out with faint strokes in one of those angular boxes! Perhaps Rothko is attempting to re-evaluate historical processes for art making through referencing these traditional shapes and artmaking strategies. Editor: These shapes, combined with the ochre background give the impression of an unearthed, almost archeological find, where each component seems loaded with layered meaning that resonate beyond a mere arrangement of shapes. The piece serves almost as an abstracted cultural or historical repository! Curator: Examining the paper itself, its texture and signs of aging, it provides an understanding of Rothko’s process and an intentional layering of time which he embeds within the artwork's presentation. Editor: The rawness of its presentation is quite moving. A window into both Rothko’s mind and maybe a collective unconscious too. Curator: This was certainly insightful and it allows us to consider the convergence of material process and emotional symbolism that makes this early Rothko work so evocative. Editor: Agreed. I feel that after diving into the layers of Rothko's symbolism we get something profoundly human.