Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art, Portland Art Museum
From the 1930s through the 1950s artists affiliated with what is known as the Northwest School focused national attention on the Northwest as a center for Modern Art. Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson were viewed as leaders of a movement that they often chose not to recognize. Their influences included Asian art, Post Impressionism, Cubism, non-Christian religious philosophy, and the Northwest landscape. How the Northwest School, “white writing”, and the art and philosophy that inspired them influenced artists beyond the Seattle area, especially in Oregon, will be explored in this inaugural David and Anne McCosh Memorial Visiting Lecture.
