Rothko's Faded Murals

In October, 1963, the Harvard University student paper announced that five large plum- and crimson-colored murals had been installed in the private dining room on the tenth floor of the Holyoke Center. This room had picture windows on the north and south walls for viewing scenes of Boston. The paintings valued at more than $100,000 were a gift of the artist Mark Rothko. Rothko had agreed to make the murals after the university had remodeled the room to meet his requirements. Another of Rothko’s conditions was that the public could view the murals but that special curtains always be used to cover the windows to protect the paintings from light. However, people went there to eat and have parties so they wanted to see the view and opened the curtains. People often spilled food and drink on the paintings and even bumped their chairs into the big panels that were eight and a half feet high and covered the east and west walls of the penthouse dining room.

Shortly after Rothko’s death in 1970, concerns were raised about the condition of the paintings. Finally in 1979 they were taken down and put in dark storage. Was that the end of Rothko’s work? Were the paintings ruined by the sunlight?

Click here to learn more about the fate of the paintings.