Few know how he arrived at them. Even here, as Weinberg noted in an interview, one can, in retrospect, discern hints of the unique manner that was to come. Obvious references to the output of Rothko's friends and mentors, from Milton Avery to Arshile Gorky, populate these creditable but palpably exploratory works. The flattened sense of form in some of the pictures seems lifted from Avery's pictorial vocabulary. By the time he is well into the 1940s, he has developed a more refined and sophisticated creative persona.
Organic forms dominate.
The biological forms incorporate quasi-mechanical elements. Shapes tend to be flattened and shallow. Spaces are intentionally stage-like. Ties to European surrealists like Yves Tanguy are evident. At almost the same time, Gorky is exploiting the legacy of the ancient world, in works that draw upon the energy of the Greco-Dionysian spirit.