Rose is exemplary of Agnes Martin’s mature abstractions. The title engages with the organic world: the splendor and purity of a rose is revealed through the delicacy and simplicity of the artist’s means. Rather than representing formal stringency, Martin’s reductive visual language conveys her emotional response to nature and transmits the experience of beauty and lightness. Inspiring contemplation, even meditation, Martin hints at spirituality as inherent in nature, and alludes to a transcendent reality. At a distance, the lines of Rose fade, resulting in a sense of an infinite, supernal space. While minimalist in form, Rose is personal in retaining traces of the artist’s hand. Given the individual and expressive aspect of her work, Martin preferred to be classified as an Abstract Expressionist.