Black on Maroon
- Artist: Mark Rothko
- Date: 1959
- Medium: Oil paint, acrylic paint and glue tempera on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 2667 x 2286 x 42 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the "Black on Maroon" by Mark Rothko, a 1959 oil, acrylic and glue tempera on canvas that stretches more than eight feet high. Rothko began the piece as part of a series for the Seagram Building’s Four Seasons restaurant, intending a dramatic, scale‑driven impact. He laid a deep maroon ground, then overlaid a thick black rectangle that encloses a narrower maroon frame, creating a window‑like shape. The edges bleed softly, giving the block a sense of depth and movement.
Rothko mixed ultramarine, maroon, blue‑black and brown‑black layers to achieve a velvety black that changes with light. The result is a contemplative, almost somber field that invites the viewer to sit inside the painting’s quiet drama. He withdrew the commission, feeling a private restaurant was an unsuitable home for such an intense mood, and later presented the works to the American Federation of Arts in 1969.
As an abstract expressionist, Rothko’s colour field technique turns the canvas into an emotional landscape, with the interplay of maroon and black probing the limits of human feeling.
See it in person
Black on Maroon is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
