Rothko's Seagram Murals were painted as the result of a commission from the upmarket Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York. Rothko later changed his mind, deciding it wouldn't be a suitable environment for his paintings and returned the money he'd received.
"He knew that he wanted to paint maroon paintings so he decided to prime his canvases with a maroon priming made of rabbit-skin glue and a red and a blue pigment to make the maroon... Rothko used a fairly traditional basis for his paintings. He used tube oil paints, artists' oil paints, that he would squish out into tins - often old coffee tins - and then add a bit of turpentine so that it would be silky and softer."The Seagram paintings are hung high up on the wall, against a warm background color, which is what Rothko specified when some were exhibited at London's Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1961. Exhibition Room 3 is a huge space, enabling you to see the paintings from a distance unusual in the Tate. There are a few pillars in the way, but if you position yourself carefully you get a fabulous view of what the paintings might have been like in the restaurant.
-- Mary Bustin, Tate Senior Paintings Conservator
Quote source: "Mark Rothko Seagram Murals 1958-9", Modern Paint Podcast