Seagram murals

The murals, characterized by their dark and somber palette, represented Rothko’s commitment to expressing the basic human emotions of tragedy, ecstasy, and doom while also showing a shift to his darker state of mind.

For example, James Breslin has observed that the “brown and black rectangles resemble vertical columns, while the red area recedes, as if it were opening between them.”[1]: 382  Rina Arya argues that while these forms were rectangular, they emerged as a new imagery of windows, doors, and portals that placed the viewer on the “threshold of an experience of opposites - presence and absence, fullness and emptiness.”[3]: 327  Art historian David Anfam interjects that even though the Seagram murals were never displayed at the Four Seasons, Rothko's intention to have the viewers stare into "murky colored emptiness, around the framing structures that echo each other and across the breadth of a frieze-like, repetitive rhythm of portals and openings" was adamantly clear.

[4]: 270 Rina Arya noted that Rothko was intrigued by the fundamental aspects of mythology - “that is, violence and death” which she attributed to his exploration of human emotions and existential themes.

In the viewpoint of James E. Breslin, the Seagram Murals represented a human presence that has endured the “tragic” history of the twentieth century, or rather, Rothko’s own tragedies.

From the conflict in his marriage to the pressures that the Seagram commission placed on his professional success, his obsession to control the situation led to paintings where the enormous size of the canvas evoked the monumentality of a “portal…a site of physical movement and emotional crisis.”[1]: 403  Ultimately, the works represent Rothko's own life as he migrated into a new social reality that was "producing more and more frustration.