To give his works on paper greater physical presence American artist Mark Rothko applied them to a sheet of canvas and then stretched the canvas. We remember seeing a moody 1967 untitled Rothko work presented in this way when the Thyssen Bornemisza collection toured New Zealand in 1980. As you approached the work it was certainly easy to assume it was painted on canvas. Oddly circular then to see some Rothko reproductions in an Auckland restaurant dutifully mounted on canvas to lend them added gravitas.
