One of Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals was defaced on Sunday at the Tate Modern. Black on Maroon (1958), which is valued at tens of millions of dollars, was a gift to the museum by the Modernist artist.
The defacer, Vladimir Umanets, scrawled “Vladimir Umanets, A Potential Piece of Yellowism.” in black ink in the lower right-hand corner of the piece. Umanets claims that it was not an act of vandalism as he was adding something new to the piece and acting in line with the bizarre art movement, Yellowism.
One of modern art’s most important figures, Rothko painted Black on Maroon as part of a series originally commissioned by the Four Season in New York City which was located in the Seagram Building, a renowned modernist skyscraper. Rothko decided not to give the paintings to the Four Seasons upon completion because he did not want them to become a backdrop for wealthy diners. In 1965 he donated some of the works to the Tate and nine were delivered in 1970 on the day the artist died.
