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Past Exhibitions


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White Night

White Night, 1942, Mark Tobey, American, 1890-1976, tempera on paperboard mounted on composition board, 22 ¼ x 14 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Berthe Poncy Jacobson, 32.78. © Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Paul Macapia.​​​​​​​​​​

Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical

Jun 19 – Sep 7 2014

Seattle Art Museum

Simonyi Special Exhibition Galleries

Meet the mystics—the four artists who, in the late 1930s and ‘40s, became known as the Northwest School of modern art. Fed by one another’s passions and talents, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson sought to create art that consciously responded to the world events around them. All saw art as a form of spiritual quest. All were influenced by the Northwest’s swirling mix of Native American and Asian traditions.

Soon, they were known in New York and across the country—regional artists whose visions, for a time, were universal.

This summer, see these critically acclaimed American modernists at the Seattle Art Museum, which holds one of the largest and finest collections of their work.


Mark Tobey​

Forms Follow Man

Forms Follow Man, 1941-1943, Mark Tobey, American, 1890-1976, transparent and opaque watercolor on Crescent board, 14 1/4 x 20 3/4 in., Seattle Art Museum, Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, 50.90, © Mark Tobey / Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Elizabeth Mann.​

Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey Studying Japanese Prints, 1958, Gordon Parks, 1912–2006, Taken for Life Magazine, January 1, 1958, Time/Life Picture Collection, courtesy of Getty images.

Rummage

Rummage, 1941, Mark Tobey, American, 1890-1976, tempera and opaque watercolor on paperboard, 38 3/8 x 25 7/8 in., Seattle Art Museum, Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, 42.28, © Mark Tobey / Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Paul Macapia.

When I’d go downtown at night…I’d always feel crowds coming, there were so many people. I began to paint crowds because they flooded the markets and they flooded the streets and they worked all night.

Mark T​obey

Moving Moments

Moving Moments, 1970, Mark Tobey, American, 1890-1976, oil on canvas, 62 × 38 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2009.52.78, © Mark Tobey / Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Susan Cole.​


Morris Graves​​​

Dove of the Inner Eye

Dove of the Inner Eye, 1941, Morris Graves, American, 1910-2001, opaque watercolor on oiled paper, 20 5/8 x 35 3/4 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2005.168, © Morris Graves Foundation.

Morris Graves

Morris Graves, in front of Spring with Machine Age Noise (plate 46), 1960, Seattle Art Museum. Seattle Post-Intelligencer staff photographer, filed February 1960. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle.

You were concerned with the state of the world…The Depression and the isolation—we were all experiencing a kind of despair—

Morris Graves

Inner Eye Eagle with Chalice

Inner Eye Eagle with Chalice, 1941, Morris Graves, American, 1910-2001, opaque watercolor on architectural tracing paper, 15 1/2 × 21 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2009.52.15, © Morris Graves Foundation, Photo: Elizabeth Mann.

Millenium Light

Millennium Light, 1933-34, Morris Graves, American, 1910-2001, oil on canvas, 39 x 40 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2009.52.98, © Morris Graves Foundation, Photo: Elizabeth Mann.


Kenneth Callahan​​​

Riders on the Mountain

Riders on the Mountain, 1956, Kenneth Callahan, American, 1905-1986, Seattle, Washington, oil on canvas, 21 x 35 1/2 in., Seattle Art Museum, Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, 56.284, © Estate of Kenneth Callahan.

Kenneth Callahan

Kenneth Callahan in the Seattle Art Museum, 1937. The painted panels are from Callahan's mural cycle for the US Public Health Service Hospital, Seattle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer staff photographer, filed March 26, 1937. Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle.

I will lift my e​yes up to the hills whence comes my strength.

Kenneth Callahan

The Seventh Day (The Seed Was in Itself)

The Seventh Day (The Seed Was in Itself), 1952-53, Kenneth Callahan, American, 1905-1986, tempera on paperboard, 34 x 46 3/4 in. Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Annual Purchase Fund, 53.123, © Estate of Kenneth Callahan.

The Seventh Day (The Seed was in Itself) (detail)

The Seventh Day (The Seed was in Itself) (detail)


Guy Anderson​​​

	Deception Pass through Indian Country

Deception Pass through Indian Country, 1959, Guy Anderson, American, 1906-1998, oil on wood, 11 x 30 3/8 in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Sidney and Anne Gerber, 65.158, © Guy Anderson and Deryl Walls, Photo: Chris Eden.

Guy Anderson

Guy Anderson in his studio, La Conner, Washington, ca. 1965, Art Hupy (1924–2003), Art Hupy Collection, Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries (negative number Hupy0125-40).​

Search for the Morning

Search for the Morning, 1950-52, Guy Anderson, American, 1906-1998, oil on canvas, 62 x 50 1/2 in., Frame: 66 1/2 × 5 5in., Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Edward L. Cushman, 89.191, © Guy Anderson and Deryl Walls, Photo: Paul Macapia.

I've never been completely won over to the pure school of landscape painting, though, or the pure school of still life, or the complete and pure school of abstraction…they are always the background for development of all the richness of the later forms…on the earth.

Guy Anderson

Language Wheel

Language Wheel, 1962, Guy Anderson, American, 1906-1998, oil on wood, 81 x 48 in. (205.7 x 121.9 cm), Seattle Art Museum, Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2012.15.3. © Guy Anderson And Deryl Walls, Photo: Elizabeth Mann.

Modernism in the Pacific Northwest Catalogue

To learn more about the modern art movement born in Seattle, pick up a copy of Patricia Junker’s history, the first major study of this material: Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical (co-published with the University of Washington Press, 2014).

Spo​nsors

The exhibition is organized by the Seattle Art Museum.

Special exhibitions at SAM are
made possible by donors to
Spain Arts & Culture​​

Presenting Sponsor
Spain Arts & Culture​​

Visionary Circle
Jeffrey and Susan Brotman
Barney A. Ebsworth
Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation
Bagley and Virginia Wright Foundation​
Ann P. Wyckoff

Generous Support
The Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz
    Foundation For The Arts, Inc.
National Endowment for the Arts
Seattle Art Museum Supporters (SAMS)

Additional Funding
Northwest Art Fund
Perkins Coie LLP
The Terra Foundation for American Art
Twining Humber Endowment for
    American Art Research and Education
U.S. Bank Foundation
Contributors to the Annual Fund

Modern and contemporary art programs at SAM are supported by a generous group of donors in honor of Bagley Wright.​​

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