Where to See Red on Maroon: Tate Modern, London

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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