Concise History of Northwest Art - Tacoma Art MuseumBlog

Post-its, artists, ideas

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 11:58:00 PDT

I've been amazed by the level of response we've had from visitors to the museum and to this website to the request to help us build a list of Northwest artists. I've been keeping track of the number of Post-Its added to the "What About...?" wall in the gallery and we're up over 650 at this point--astounding! There's about another month to go for the exhibition (it closes on May 23). Think we'll break 1000? Thanks also to those of you who have provided names through blog comments.

I just added a whole new group of Northwest artist names to the "What About...?" page on this site but had a few suggestions and names that weren't specifically Northwest that I wanted to capture here. They include:

--an exhibition about cats

--Lynda Barry (amazing cartoonist, lived Seattle for a little while but really a Midwest girl)

--Peter Max

--Vance Tahmahkera

--Fikret Mualla (Turkish artist)

--Steve Hanks

--Gil Elvgren

--Bob Ross (the "happy trees" painter from PBS)

--Koji Suzaki (Japan)

--art about penguins

--an exhibition about mythology in art (greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters)

A cascade of Northwest artists

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:02:00 PST

We had a wonderful crowd for our most recent Third Thursday and they enthusiastically snowed us under in Post-It notes with suggestions of Northwest artists to include on our running list.--193 of them to be exact! There are too many to run as a blog entry but I will add them to our What About...? page here on the website over the next week.

Thanks to all who contributed names! It's an amazing and ever-expanding list and proves how rich this region is in art and artists.

New artwork in the galleries

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:57:00 PST

Just a note to let you know we have changed out some of the work in the Concise History exhibition. Light exposure is hard on works on paper (prints, watercolors, photographs), particularly the older ones, and so we try to limit the amount of time they are on view. We just changed out a number of the older photographs and some of the prints--mostly new work by the same artists but a few new additions. We've also changed the work on the "What About...?" wall to a beautiful charcoal drawing by Native American artist, Julius Twohy (Tuohy). This drawing was recently purchased for the collection and is a significant addition to our sparse holdings in Northwest art of the 1930s.

In our Events Space I've put up a rotation of prints by another important Northwest artist whose work couldn't be squeezed into Concise History. The artworks are by Glen Alps, the innovative printmaker and influential teacher.

From the What About...? wall

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:18:00 PST

Northwest artists

Charles Mulvey

Phillip McCracken

Tammy Nicks (photographer)

Marlene Alt

Nancy Kienholz

Jeffree Stewart (landscapes especially)

Albert and Arthur Runquist (Oregon artists, WPA era)

Frederick Zinn (Tacoma artist, 1940s-1950s)

Others

Eric Carle

Themes

Pacific Northwest art quilts

Metalwork (not jewelry), especially pieces that move

cityscapes

Artists, artists, artists and other comments from the "What About...?" wall

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:12:00 PST

The weekly installment from our "What About...?" wall in the exhibition

Northwest artists (in no particular order)

Jack McLarty

Bill Colby

Russell Frost

Betty Frost

Emily Carr

Deborah Lawrence, political/feminist

Elton Bennet, Northwest silkscreen

Pat Dunlap

Helmi Juvonen (three votes this week)

Del McBride

Lorene Spencer

Wes Wehr

Merrill Wagner

Tad Crawford (twice)

Donna Carver

Jay Steensma

Waldo Chase

Cecilia Corr (Northwest watercolors and portraits)

Julie Paschkis

more Jacob Lawrence, Ambrose Patterson, Dennis Evans

Zachary Sterling

Duane Pasco

Thomas Stream

Susan Pointe

Rohn Amegatcher

Themes

the changing cityscape

Northwest coast

Northwest Native American

young artists from the university

the Northwest alt/grunge/punk scene

Local graffiti art, i.e. the Broadway Garage Project

Lego artwork

artwork by kids

scene-rock/emo-rock

black and white pictures of everday life and landscapes of the Northwest

Other artists, not Northwest

Pablo Picasso

Clyfford Still

Other comments

"Me...someday"

"The ugliest building in T-Town"

"a big picture of Myriah"

"Ryman 95 is ridiculous!"

Northwest artists

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:53:00 PST

More Northwest artist name suggestions from the gallery. They also been added to the "What About...?" page.

Barbara Lee Smith (Raft Island, fabric wall hangings)

Shirley Scheier (cut paper work)

Richard Gilkey

Jill Nordfors-Clark (basketry, Tacoma)

Trish Harding (Bellingham)

Sara McCormick

Ryan Hardesty

Alex Grey

Luke Brown

Ortega

Beautiful Angle

Edith Willey

Kathleen Gemberling Adkison

Doris Chase

LaVerne Krause

Amanda Snyder

Betty Feves

Virginia Weisel

Victoria Avakian Ross

Frances Senska

Marianne Gold

Margaret Tompkins

Virginia Banks

Eunice Jensen

Sally Haley

Ebbba Rapp

Mike Gold

Tony Angell

F. Mason Holmes (Tacoma)

David Kane

Jessica Kernan Yerxa

Graphic novel illustrators

Local graffiti artists

Art about Grunge

And outside the Northwest: Ansel Adams, Andrew Wyeth, Monet, Juanita San Pablo, Marco San Pablo

Northwest artist suggestions

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:09:00 PST

A few more suggestions on our post-it wall from museum visitors. I've added these to our Northwest artist list

Beautiful Angle (multiple votes!)
Ryan Hardesty
Victoria Haven
Mary Henry
Older works by Scott Fife
Jennifer Adams (photography)
A. Curtiss

Otherwise, someone posted a compliment to the museum ("I like the art here!)" and a couple of shout outs to Lincoln High Class of 2011. Someone also suggested the UPS Kayak Club--who knew they were all artists too!

The Prestige of the Whitney Biennial

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:54:00 PST

A couple weeks ago, the Whitney Museum of American Art announced its lineup for the upcoming 2010 biennial. The Portland artist Storm Tharp will be included, following the selection of MK Guth in 2008. The outside validation for an artist like Tharp or Guth marks an important milestone in their careers. Additionally, their work has been collected by individuals across the country and has been featured in national publications. For me, this type of achievement becomes important in reinforcing my assessment of their work and underscores their importance as markers of this moment in the region's art history. The question for me is how does a collector or curator weight this present-day judgment in five, ten, or a hundred years?

Northwest artist list

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:17:00 PST

We will continue to periodically post artist suggestions from the"What About...?" wall in the exhibition here on the blog but if you would like to browse a consolidated list, of Northwest artists, click on "what about...?" in the title bar.

New artwork on the site

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:41:00 PST

We're gradually adding more images and information to this site including links to other resources on Northwest art. If you have links to suggest, please let us know.

And to those who aren't finding images of a favorite work they saw in the museum, we wanted to let you know we are somewhat limited in what we can post based on artist preferences about image use and quality of the image we have on hand but we'll keep adding as many as we can. Next up, some of our Northwest studio art jewelry collection.

From the What About wall

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:36:00 PST

More Northwest artist suggestions--we need a bigger museum!

Emily Wood (landscapes of eastern Washington)

Phil Eidenberg-Noppe (film and video)

Emily Carr

Waldo and Corwin Chase (woodblocks)

More Michael Ehle

William Thompson (photographer, Poulsbo, WA)

Lionel Salmon

Suggestions that were more thematic:

Works that use just one color

More works in watercolor and pencil

Works that contrast pain and beauty

Works that reflect financial crises--both the current one and earlier ones

From the "What About..?" wall

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:48:00 PST

More visitor suggestions of Northwest artists they recommend or would like to see in the museum:

San Juan Island artists

More of the Mystics (Kenneth Callahan, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Guy Anderson)

Randy Van Beek (Bellingham)

John McCuistion, ceramics (Tacoma)

More contemporary work by women artists

Emily Alberts

Bill Colby (printmaker) (Tacoma)

Dylan Betz (Tacoma)

More Patty Warashina (ceramics) (Seattle)

Northwest lithographs

Art Hansen

Neil Meitzler

Georgia Gerber (Clinton, WA)

Tom Prochaska (Portland, OR)

Kim Osgood

Natalie Abigail

Nelson Sandgren (Oregon)

Erik Sandgren

Lawren Harris (Canadian)

Susan Bennerstrom

Deborah Butterfield

Susan Gans (Seattle)

Skagit Valley artists

Milton Wilson

More photography

Leroy Setziol

Nathan DiPietro (Seattle)

John Buck

David W. Craig (Eatonville)

Issei and Nissei art from WWII internment camps in the Northwest

WPA Art

Barbara Essex

A photo or print of the "What About..?" wall(!)

Other suggestions, not Northwest art:

Picasso

Claude Monet

Romantic landscape paintings

Abstract expressionism

Manga (Japanese comics)

Jewish artists and artisans

Images of water and mountains

Northwest artist interview

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:25:00 PST

A video interview with Northwest artist, Dennis Evans

New art in the museum

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:54:00 PST

This week we installed a group of acrylics in our Events Space by Northwest artist, Juan Alonso. During the run of the "Concise History of Northwest Art" exhibition we are going to use the Events Space to highlight works on paper by Northwest artists who are not represented in the larger exhibition. Here is some background on Juan Alonso:

Juan Alonso (born Havana, Cuba, 1956) has been a resident of Seattle for over 25 years. Cuban by birth, he grew up in the United States. After working as a professional musician, he began painting in the 1970s and after settling in Seattle in 1982 decided to pursue a career as a professional artist.

Alonso's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. He has been awarded the Morrie and Joan Alhadeff PONCHO Artist of the Year Award, a Gap Grant by Artist Trust and the Behnke Foundation's Neddy Artist Fellowship, among others. He also has served as an advocate for Northwest artists and particularly for minority artists in Washington State.

In addition to work in numerous public and private collections, Alonso has executed commissions for Seahawks Stadium, Seattle-Tacoma Airport, and the King County Housing Authority's Greenbridge Neighborhood Park, and continues to work on a project for the Sound Transit Edmunds Station.

Catching up Part II, Northwest Artists

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:47:00 PST

Michael Peterson's coastal work

Hilda Morris

Salish art

Work by local college students

Kenneth Callahan mural from Old State Library

Emily Carr

John Mildenberger

Josh Everson

Native American beadwork and dance regalia

Wes Wehr

Nicole Rawlins prints

Ilene Meyer

Bill Cumming

Richard Gilkey

Photography by Stadium High School students

Allan Sekula

Susan Bennerstrom

Northwest pastels and watercolors

Other suggestions:

Frida Kahlo

Surrealism

Futurism

Catching up--Northwest artists

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:22:00 PST

Catching up with our artists suggestions after some vacation downtime. Here are suggestions from visitors in the gallery as to other Northwest artists they'd like to see:

WPA Art

More Northwest Mystics (Tobey, Graves, Callahan, Anderson)

Contemporary Native American work next to the traditional

Alex Grey

Farmland/agriculture images from the Northwest

Naomi Kasumi

More Gaylen Hansen

Jack Dollhausen

Linda Okazaki

Arthur Okazaki

Jim Gale

Bill Colby

Melissa Weinman

Benjamin Malay

Scott Aho

Joel Brock

Clayton James

Wynter Jones (Utah)

Emily Carr

Kate Krider (Portland artist)

Contemporary basketmakers

Jack Gunter

Carl Chew

Danny Perkins

Nori Sato

Ross Palmer Beecher

More photography

Ken Stevens

Nancy Pawlicki

Tacoma artists

Other suggestions

Expressionism

Cartoons/comics/graphic novel illustrations

Get rid of it all and start new

Picasso

Art about conflict

Surrealism

splatter art

art about water or wood

From the "What About...?" wall

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:01:00 PST

We asked visitors to the exhibition to take a moment, grab a Post-It, and tell us about other Northwest art and artists they would like to see in the galleries or that they feel deserve some attention. We will be posting those suggestions here periodically.

Weeks 4 & 5

Emily Wood and Carl Chew

Travis Parker

Billy Corgan

Sage Campbell (Portland weaver)

Aly Gourd

Cheryl Abraham

Elton Bennett (Aberdeen, WA)

Tricia Hill

William Turner

Neil Anderson

K. Gemberling

Susan Jane Russell (gouache artist from Everett)

Elisha Miller

Gabriel Fernandez (paintings of old Astoria Hotel)

Jason Lawfer (ceramicist)

Al Currier

Mark Rothko

F. Reis (Seattle sculptor)

Darrell Scattergood (photographer)

Carina Gonzalez-Garcia

Emily Carr

Jenni Prange

Trish Harding (Bellingham)

Nancy Stonington Taylor

Byron Birdsall

Anne Schreivogel (Anacortes)

Layla Logsdon

Jeff Crow (Seattle)

Sean Alexander

Melissa Weinman

Jim Phalen

Lanny Bergher (wire sculpture)

Denzil Hurley

Micah Tucker (Tacoma)

Zachary Marvick (Tacoma)

Trimpin

Mark Zirpel

Outside of Northwest art, suggestions include: Leonardo da Vinci, Monet, horses and birds, a show on Mt. Rainier, Van Gogh, human silhouettes with wings in a coffee cup, and "bring back Quentin!"

Northwest artist interviews

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:46:00 PDT

Here are links to some video interviews with Northwest artists.

Susan Seubert, photographer

Michael Brophy, painter

From the "What About...?" wall

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:56:00 PDT

Week 3

Northwest landscapes
Alfredo Arreguin
more Jacob Lawrence
more contemporary Native American art
Clayton James
Emily Carr

From the "What About...?" wall

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:04:00 PDT

Weeks 1 & 2:

Robert Feasley (WSU professor)
current Northwest art students
Helen Loggie
Something with poetry or a haiku in it
Leon Derbyshire
Gordon Gilkey
Jackson Pollock [editor's note: Sorry not a Northwest artist though we wish]
Earnie Thomas
Michelle McArthur
Russell Frost

More wide-ranging or philosophical responses to our "What About...?" question include: Al Gore, a squiggle shaped like an ear, Fauvism, art with satyrs in it, and students from Germany.

Changing works in the exhibition

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:07:00 PDT

A really(!) observant visitor noticed that the Imogen Cunningham photograph here on the website is actually different from the one that is currently on view at the museum and asked why. That's because we have three photographs by Cunningham from the same time period that we will be rotating into the show at intervals. Since we are in the "forever" business, once a work comes into the museum's collection we treat it as gently as possible. For works on paper, that means not exposing them to light for more than a few months at a time. So we'll be changing out photographs and prints during the run of the exhibition and you'll see some of those new images appearing here on the website as well.