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  • J.M.W. Turner
  • Ophelia
  • Tracey Emin

DON'T MISS

Exhibition

Turner & Constable: Rivals & Originals

Tate Britain
Until 12 Apr 2026
Exhibition

Theatre Picasso

Tate Modern
Until 12 Apr 2026
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Tate Modern Exhibition

Rothko

26 September 2008 – 1 February 2009
28981336001

Rothko

Tate Modern presents an exhibition by one of the world’s most famous and best-loved artists, Mark Rothko. This is the first significant exhibition of his work to be held in the UK for over 20 years.

Tate Modern's iconic 'Rothko Room' works are reunited for the first time with works from Japan. The Seagram Murals were originally commissioned for The Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building New York.

Rothko’s iconic paintings, composed of luminous, soft-edged rectangles saturated with colour, are among the most enduring and mysterious created by an artist in modern times. In the exhibition his paintings glow meditatively from the walls in deep dark reds, oranges, maroons, browns, blacks, and greys.

The exhibition will also focus on other work in series, such as the Black-Form paintings, his large-scale Brown and Grey works on paper, and his last series of Black on Grey paintings, created in the final decade of his life from 1958–70.

29403962001

Rothko

Tate Modern

Bankside
London SE1 9TG
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Dates

26 September 2008 – 1 February 2009

In partnership with

Times Newspapers Ltd

Times Newspapers Ltd

Find out more

 
 
listen

Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals): Autumn

Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals), after Mark Rothko, by Jim Aitchison. A new version of music commissioned from the composer by Tate for the 2008/2009 Mark Rothko exhibition at Tate Modern, supported by the PRSF Foundation for New Musi

 
 
listen

Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals): Closing

Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals), after Mark Rothko, by Jim Aitchison. A new version of music commissioned from the composer by Tate for the 2008/2009 Mark Rothko exhibition at Tate Modern

 
 
listen

Shadows of Light II (Music from the Seagram Murals): Opening

Composed by Jim Aitchison, Performed by Kreutzer Quartet

read

BP British Art Displays: Turner/Rothko

BP British Art Displays: Turner/Rothko: Press related to past exhibition at Tate Britain.

Mark Rothko Red on Maroon Mural, Section 4 1959

Mark Rothko: The Seagram Murals

Mark Rothko: The Seagram Murals; past exhibition at Tate Liverpool

read

Of redemption and damnation

Carter Ratcliff

Rothko believed he was "producing an art that would last for 1,000 years". It was a sentiment that was in stark contrast to the new, brash, secularised art emerging in New York in the 1960s.

Brice Marden Adriatic 1972
read

Landscapes of the mind

Brice Marden

Simon Grant talks to Brice Marden about his enduring fascination with Rothko’s paintings.

read

The History and Manufacture of Lithol Red, a Pigment Used by Mark Rothko in his Seagram and Harvard Murals of the 1950s and 1960s

Harriet A. L. Standeven

For his 1950s and 1960s Seagram and Harvard murals, American artist Mark Rothko employed lithol red – a highly fugitive pigment that is more commonly associated with the printing industry than artists’ paints. Some of the murals have faded, which has significant consequences for our appreciation of Rothko’s work today. This paper discusses the chemistry, manufacture, availability and end-use of lithol red in order to gain a greater understanding of how Rothko might have viewed the pigment.

Visitors looking at interpretative material in Room 4 Rothko exhibition, Tate Modern
read

Tools to Understand: An Evaluation of the Interpretation Material used in Tate Modern’s Rothko Exhibition

Renate Meijer and Minnie Scott

Renate Meijer and Minnie Scott, Tools to Understand: An Evaluation of the Interpretation Material used in Tate Modern’s Rothko Exhibition, Tate Papers report, no.11

Artist

Mark Rothko

1903–1970
Artwork
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