Artist Recreates Rothko Paintings with Rice

Mark Rothko's mural paintings, most recently in the news for being defaced at the Tate Modern in London, inspired photographer Henry Hargreaves (of deep-fried iPad Internet fame) to recreate the murals via rice (plus his iconic color panels).

The story behind Rothko's murals? Commissioned by the Four Seasons Restaurant, Rothko promised to create "something that will ruin the appetite of every son-of-a-b*tch who ever eats in that room. If the restaurant would refuse to put up my murals, that would be the ultimate compliment. But they won’t. People can stand anything these days."

"We decided to take this tale full circle and reinterpret the works from rice," Hargreaves told us in an email. "We hope that this puts a smile on some people's faces and they can learn a little back story to one of the 20th century's most infamous painting series. We also encourage any would-be painting bombers to say what they will about these but to please keep their paint off the National treasures..."

Check out the works below, plus the behind-the-scenes photos over on Facebook.

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