Seagram Murals of Mark Rothko: The Intriguing Story Behind These Artworks

Rothko had specific instructions on how to hang his murals and this included the wall color and lighting. Author John Banville described the experience of seeing the murals of Rothko at the Tate Modern.

“The room is one of the strangest, most compelling and entirely alarming experiences to be had in any gallery anywhere. What strikes one on first entering is the nature of the silence, suspended in this shadowed vault like the silence of death itself – not a death after illness or old age, but at the end of some terrible act of sacrifice and atonement,” Banville said.