This painting marks a key moment of transition in Rothko’s work, from his Surrealist works of the 1940s depicting biomorphic figures to the Color Field paintings of the 1950s and 1960s for which he is best known. In this painting, indeterminate shapes of color emerge from the background to play across the surface. The fl at forms, pared down to their simplest geometric state, destroy the illusion of complicated fi gures seen in his earlier work, creating a truly nonobjective painting. By the 1950s, Rothko would reduce the multiple color blocks seen here to fewer — but much larger — fi elds, encompassing the entire surface of the canvas. The change in style may have resulted from Rothko’s interest in the modern psychology of Carl Jung. Jung proposed the idea of a collective unconscious whose emotions were conveyed through archetypal images. Rothko saw his color fi elds as a vehicle for these ideas. This plaster sculpture is the fi rst known example of a complete, represen-tational human fi gure in Giacometti’s oeuvre. Created during the seven-year period of the artist’s association with the Surrealists, the stylized female fi gure exists in an imaginary space defi ned by a series of abstract framing devices. The seat upon which the fi gure rests tilts dramatically forward, engaging the fi gure in a dynamic posture that threatens the boundaries of the sculpture’s rigid frame. The tablet pressed against the fi gure’s shins frustrates this forward movement. The large, detailed eyes recall the visionary fi guration of Byzantine mosa-ics. Poised precariously on the edge of a mystical experience, the fi gure remains suspended in a state of confi nement. Despite this tension, the long, expressive hands emerge from the frame, offering a metaphysical void for the viewer’s consideration.

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