Where Is Red on Maroon? See It at Tate Modern, London

Q: What do Rothko's colors mean?

Rothko denied specific meanings but said he expressed basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom. The dark reds and maroons suggest mortality and contemplation.

Q: What is notable about Red on Maroon?

Mark Rothko's two soft-edged red rectangles float against a deep maroon background. The work is executed in oil on canvas.

Red on Maroon is one of Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals, painted in 1959. Two soft-edged red rectangles float against a deep maroon background. The colors seem to pulse and breathe, creating an immersive emotional experience.

Rothko called his paintings "dramas" and wanted viewers to feel transported. The dark palette of these late works replaces his earlier bright yellows and oranges with somber tones suggesting mortality. In 2012, a vandal defaced this painting with black ink. Conservators spent 18 months restoring it. It hangs in the Rothko Room at Tate Modern.

Yes, in 2012 a man wrote on the painting with black marker. Conservation took 18 months. The work returned to display in 2014 fully restored.

Rothko denied specific meanings but said he expressed basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom. The dark reds and maroons suggest mortality and contemplation.

Mark Rothko's two soft-edged red rectangles float against a deep maroon background. The work is executed in oil on canvas.

Red on Maroon

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Where to See It

The Artist

More by Mark Rothko

Seagram Murals (Black on Maroon)

Also at Tate Modern, London

Mrs George Augustus Frederick Cavendish Bentinck and her Children

Lightning with Stag in its Glare

Lobster Telephone

Nebuchadnezzar

Related Abstract Expressionism Works

Composition VIII

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow

Cage (1-6)

Farewell

The singer

Forest edge

Old town II

One: Number 31, 1950

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