EXHIBITION
CALENDAR
2016–18
Rachel Eggers
Manager of Public Relations
[email protected]
206.654.3151
The following information is subject to change. Prior to publication, please confirm
dates, titles, and other information with the Seattle Art Museum public relations office.
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SEATTLE ART MUSEUM – NOW ON VIEW
Big Picture: Art After 1945
Seattle Art Museum
July 23, 2016–ongoing
Big Picture: Art After 1945 features significant works of abstract painting and
sculpture from SAM’s collection. Tracing landmark artistic developments in the
decades following World War II, the installation reveals how abstraction
established itself as a dominant force to be reckoned with.
Big Picture will highlight works from the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection
given to the museum, such as Mark Rothko’s No. 10 (1952), Jasper Johns’
Thermometer (1959), and Eva Hesse’s No Title (1964). It will also feature key
loans from other local collections, reflecting the depth and commitment of
private collectors in Seattle.
Virginia and her husband, Bagley Wright, who passed away in 2011, are
longtime visionary leaders and legendary arts patrons of SAM and Seattle. The
Wrights have donated extraordinary works to the museum for decades but
within the past two years, Virginia Wright gave a large part of her and her
husband’s collection to the museum. These works have transformed SAM’s
modern and contemporary collection, elevating it to national status.
In addition, Big Picture includes select contemporary works that point to the
continuity and resonance of these ideas today, such as X (2015)—a painting
recently acquired by the museum—by Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob Lawrence
Prize-winner Brenna Youngblood. Also on view will be five videos that highlight
the physical act and process of painting; the selection includes works by Kazuo
Shiraga, Yvonne Rainer, and Margie Livingston—as well as Hans Namuth’s
famed work that shows Pollock performing his drip-painting technique.
Following the opening on July 23, additional installments are planned for
August 20 and then again on November 19. The August installment addresses
varying modes of portraiture, while November introduces works by European
artists such as Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer and Katharina Fritsch. In subject
and materiality, these works are grounded in the post-war European
experience and address different concerns from the American works.
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Light and Space
Seattle Art Museum
August 15, 2015–November 6, 2016
Historically, Los Angeles and New York have had their differences when it
comes to artistic legacies. The post-war flourishing of American painting
centered largely on New York City where a concentration of artists and critics
also shaped the discussion of contemporary art.
Working in a different context, a number of artists in and around Los Angeles
began experimenting with new ideas and materials focused on color and light
in the 1960s. Their sculptures and paintings explored reflective surfaces,
translucent materials, prism effects, and color gradations that create subtle and
varied optical effects. Concurrently—in New York— a number of artists made
serial or modular structures, which were designed to engage the viewer’s
perception of space.
Donald Judd was one of the New York artists whose work defined the
parameters of Minimal Art early on. His serial structures in this gallery make
volume and space measurable. Side-by-side, the works of Judd and the West
Coast artists reveal surprising affinities in their embrace of light and color.
In Marfa, Texas, Judd created an installation of aluminum boxes inside a hangar
illuminated by natural light. Our sense of volume and weight shifts dramatically
depending on the changing light conditions at that site.
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Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography
Seattle Art Museum
April 30, 2016–January 8, 2017
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s saw major gains in the struggle to end
segregation and discrimination against African Americans, as well as many
other marginalized groups, including Native Americans, homosexuals, and
women. While landmark pieces of legislation during that decade officially
outlawed racial discrimination, the realities of social and institutional inequity
continued well past these watershed years—and the "foot soldiers" of the
movement continued their efforts to confront them.
This exhibition features major works from the collection by artists including
Dan Budnik, Danny Lyon, Roy deCarava, Robert Frank, Gary Winogrand, Marion
Post Wolcott, and others. Whether capturing the inequalities of Jim Crow-era
segregation, documenting keystone moments and leaders of the movement, or
exposing the racial injustices that continued long after desegregation, these
artists used documentary photography as a tool for activism and to bear
witness to the battle for equality.
As a contemporary counterpart to these historical works, the exhibition
features the work of two artists who examine the racial injustices that persist
today, despite the many victories of the Civil Rights Movement. Joseph
Norman’s sympathetic portraits of gang members in the 1990s question the
continued disenfranchisement of young black men, and Shikeith examines the
personal, societal, and emotional obstacles faced by black men today through
video.
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African Renaissances
Seattle Art Museum
May 6, 2016–July 16, 2017
Things Fall Apart may be the title of a famous novel about Nigeria, but it also
sums up a mistaken notion that the African continent is afflicted with only bad
news.
This installation offers a realistic vision by recognizing cultural leaders who
preside over kingdoms and live in thriving communities and cities. Regalia and
furnishings that were originally seen in the courts of the Benin, Asante, Kom,
and Kuba kingdoms are on view. Many of these kingdoms faced extreme
domination by colonial powers in the early 20th century but reestablished their
own power during the last half of the century. In addition, art created by
Maasai, Fulani, and Ndebele women declares their views of the world.
Finally, art provided by a musical leader living in Seattle contributes a sense of
how things are coming together for a 21st-century futurist renaissance.
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Emblems of Encounter
Seattle Art Museum
January 23, 2016–ongoing
Looking back 500 years, one can see the late 15th century as a major turning
point in history. When Portuguese navigators first arrived on the shores of
West Africa, the two continents of Europe and Africa began interacting in new
ways. After a very brief period of mutual respect and commercial exchange,
European traders quickly moved to exploit the region’s natural resources—
including human labor—which became the basis for the massive slave trade
that eventually affected twenty million Africans.
The ten works of European and African art in this gallery, dating from the end
of the 15th century to the end of the 20th, have been selected from SAM’s
collection as examples of these interactions over time. Bringing them together
in this context reminds us that works of art contain multiple meanings and
associations that can be viewed through different perspectives. Even small
works connect us with a long and complex history that has shaped many
aspects of our world today.
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Art and Life Along The Northwest Coast
Seattle Art Museum
Ongoing
Over their long habitation of the Pacific Northwest, First Peoples have shaped
their lifeways around the resources of the water, forests, valleys, and
mountains. In tandem, they have developed rich oral traditions and ceremonies
that link inextricably to this region.
With this installation of SAM’s collection of Northwest Coast art, visitors will
encounter the creative expressions of generations of artists who created forms
for daily life, for potlatch ceremonies, and for spiritual balance. The presence of
contemporary arts, shown alongside historical forms, highlight the vitality of
traditions that are being re-envisioned for present times.
The installation also includes a new acquisition: twelve masks representing
supernatural creatures associated with the Animals Spirits Dance by
Gwaysdams carver Sam Johnson. Originally commissioned for the opening
celebration of the Pacific Science Center’s Seamonster House in 1971, the masks
were transferred to SAM in 2006 and are now on view for the first time.
The interpretation and context for the masks are being defined though a
collaboration with community members. The colorful, boldly carved masks
represent a modern interpretation of the principles of Kwakwaka’wakw art and
the dramatic nature of the dance privilege associated with them. The twelve
masks—representing mouse, raccoon, deer, wolf and others—and a
commissioned button blanket to adorn one of the masks, will be installed in
July, 2026, accompanied by a video of the masks being danced in 1971. This
display compliments the interactive video component about the history of the
houseposts that will be installed in an adjacent gallery.
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SEATTLE ART MUSEUM – COMING SOON
Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style
Seattle Art Museum
October 11, 2016–January 8, 2017
"I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the
perfection of my style." – Yves Saint Laurent
The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) presents Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of
Style, showcasing highlights from the legendary designer’s 44-year career.
Drawn from the collection of the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent,
the exhibition features new acquisitions by the Foundation that have never
been shown publicly before.
With a selection of 100 haute couture garments, SAINT LAURENT rive gauche
clothing and accessories, photographs, drawings, films, and other multimedia
elements from the Foundation’s vast archive, the exhibition creates a visually
rich environment for visitors to witness the development of Saint Laurent’s
style and recurring themes throughout the designer’s career. The multifaceted
exhibition is curated by independent Parisian curator and fashion expert
Florence Müller in collaboration with Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM’s Deputy Director of
Art and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture.
The exhibition is organized by the Seattle Art Museum in partnership with the
Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent, Paris.
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Jennifer West
November 19, 2016–May 7, 2017
Seattle Art Museum
Jennifer West lives and works in Los Angeles and creates experimental films
and installations. At a time when analog film has become largely obsolete, she
is buying old film stock and uses everyday household materials from hot water,
bleach, vanilla, coffee and vinegar to nail polish and more to paint and erode
the film emulsion and create colored splotches, patterns and chance effects.
When digitized and re-screened her deconstructive films have the most
surprising and beautiful visual effects. Details of her installation for the Seattle
Art Museum coming soon.
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Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series
Seattle Art Museum
January 21–April 23, 2017
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of artist Jacob Lawrence’s birth,
the Seattle Art Museum presents Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series. Thanks
to a major loan from The Museum of Modern of Art in New York (MoMA) and
The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, all 60 panels from his masterwork
The Migration Series—depicting the exodus of African Americans from the rural
south between World War I and World War II—will be shown together for the
first time in more than two decades on the West Coast.
Lawrence conceived of The Migration Series as a single work of art, painting on
all 60 panels at the same time to achieve unity of form and color. The complete
work appears rather like a large mural painting, an art form that Lawrence
admired and that gained new attention in the late 1930s and 1940s, thanks to
government sponsorship and the role that public art was given in bringing the
US out of the Great Depression.
Fittingly, SAM will install the series like a mural in its Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob
Lawrence Gallery, which was created to honor their enduring gifts to the city.
Both Lawrences were generous supporters of the museum and of the arts
throughout this region—an immense legacy that continues to this day.
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Seeing Nature: Landscape Masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection
Seattle Art Museum
February 16–May 23, 2017
Co-organized by the Seattle Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum and the
Paul G. Allen Family Collection, Seeing Nature explores the development of
landscape painting from a small window on the world to expressions of artists’
experiences with their surroundings on land and sea.
The exhibition begins with Jan Brueghel the Younger’s allegorical series of the
five senses. These exquisite, highly detailed paintings provide a platform for
visitors to explore the exhibition by considering their own experience with the
world through sight, touch, smell, sound and taste. The next section of the
exhibition demonstrates the power of landscape to locate the viewer in time
and place—to record, explore, and understand the natural and man-made
world. Artists began to interpret the specifics of a picturesque city, a parcel of
land, or dramatic natural phenomena. This collection features a stunning group
of evocative Venetian scenes by Canaletto, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, and
J.M.W. Turner, among others. The exhibition also features a rare landscape
masterpiece by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest of 1903.
The final section of the exhibition explores the paintings of European and
American artists working in the complexity of the 20th century. In highly
individualized ways, artists as diverse as Georgia O’Keeffe, Edward Hopper,
David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, and Ed Ruscha bring fresh perspectives to
traditional landscape subjects.
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Denzil Hurley
Seattle Art Museum
May 20–November, 2017
Denzil Hurley was born in Barbados and is Professor in the School of Art at the
University of Washington. Hurley is dedicated to abstraction and his work has
centered on the tension between formal elements—either a series of elements
within a single painting--or the relationships between paintings and their
surrounding architecture in a constellation. In earlier works, his paintings
showed traces of the artist’s process, layers of additions and subtractions that
remained visible in each finished piece.
In his exhibition at SAM, we will be featuring his most recent body of work,
which introduces entirely new ideas and hovers between painting and
sculpture. His monochrome black canvases have been modified with
broomsticks, poles and other found objects, some of them reminiscent of
protest signs. At times clustered, they become unyielding signs without
specific message. Although abstract, they allude to larger social and political
events and a culture of protest. If the black monochromes read as abstract
signs, his canvases in the shape of frames literally mark a void and create a
boundary for the empty space of the wall. Taken together, these works
continue a conversation with the history of abstraction—Malevich’s black
square is a distant relative. Yet as modified objects mounted on sticks and
poles they are no longer static objects but suggest a different history and use
and read as metaphors for a culture of protest that unfolds in the streets.
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Yayoi Kusama
Seattle Art Museum
June 30–September 10, 2017
Spanning over five decades, Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors focuses on the
evolution of the Japanese artist’s immersive, multi-reflective Infinity Mirror
Rooms. The exhibition takes as its point of departure Kusama’s original Infinity
Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, in which she displayed a vast expanse of redspotted, white tubers in a room lined with mirrors, creating a jarring illusion of
infinite space. The show explores how the interiority of the early infinity nets
paintings and the multiplication into a unique world of “self-obliteration” shifts
from a strategy of political liberation during the Vietnam War to a shared
condition of harmony in the present. Grounded on a kaleidoscopic perception
and the transience of reflection and light, the infinity rooms invite the viewer to
experience a myriad of dualities, for example utopic/dystopic, private/public,
unity/isolation, obsessive/detached, irrational/rational, and life/death.
While Kusama’s infinity nets, dot paintings, and sculptures have been widely
exhibited, this project will be the first to focus exclusively on the
phenomenological impact of the infinity rooms over the scope of her career.
Historically inspired by the opto-kinetic work of the Zero group, whose
exhibitions Kusama participated in, and working contemporaneously with Allan
Kaprow’s environments and happenings in New York, Kusama’s interest in the
use of mirrors, electric lights, and kinetics lies both in optics as well as in
participatory art practices. By examining the early unsettling installations
alongside more recent ethereal atmospheres, the show attempts to historicize
this body of work amidst the resurgence of experiential practices within the
global landscape of contemporary art.
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Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect
Seattle Art Museum
October 19, 2017–January 15, 2018
More information coming soon.
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A Broad and Luminous Picture:
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian
Seattle Art Museum
June 14–September 9, 2018
More information coming soon.
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ASIAN ART MUSEUM – NOW ON VIEW
GOLD: Japanese Art from the Collection
Asian Art Museum
April 9-October 9, 2016
The Golden Pavilion, gold tea house, golden Buddha hall, golden screens, and
kimonos embroidered with gold thread, lacquerware decorated with gold…the
list is endless. Gold has long been used as a luxurious material for architectural
features, sculpture, painting, textiles, and many other forms in Japanese art,
universally coveted for its rich color and enduring value. It has come to
symbolize power, strength, wealth, eternity, and religious sanctity.
Here is a gallery gleaming with all that glitters. Selected from the museum’s
Japanese collection, these objects provide a glimpse of exceptional works that
use gold. Buddhist paintings, shrines and accoutrements, monk’s robes and
temple runners—all demonstrate gold’s sacred symbolism in Buddhism; while
gold leaf on paintings, gold decorations on lacquer boxes and inros, and gold
threads in kimonos and obis, all impart a luminous layer to the artworks.
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Mood Indigo: Textiles From Around the World
Asian Art Museum
April 9–October 9, 2016
Mood Indigo: Textiles From Around the World honors the unique ability of the
color blue to create many moods in cloth. Drawn primarily from the Seattle Art
Museum’s global textile collection, the exhibition illuminates the historic scope
of this vibrant pigment.
Mood Indigo features a set of tapestries from Belgium, a silk court robe from
China, a vast array of kimonos from Japan, batiks and ikats from Indonesia and
Africa, and ancient fragments from Peru and Egypt.
An immersive installation devoted to indigo by contemporary artist Rowland
Ricketts will be accompanied by a soundtrack by sound artist Nobert Herber
that unveils the musical nuances indigo can suggest. From the sultry darkness
of midnight to the vitality of a bright sky, come let the myriad blues in their
multiple forms surround you.
The exhibition is organized by the Seattle Art Museum.
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ASIAN ART MUSEUM – COMING SOON
Tabaimo
Asian Art Museum
November 11, 2016–February 26, 2017
Tabaimo is an acclaimed Japanese artist known for her immersive and thoughtprovoking video installation works. This is the first exhibition that Tabaimo is
curating. It includes Tabaimo’s existing and new works, as well as works from
SAM’s collection that she has selected for their close connections with her own
work. The core concept of this show is “utsushi,” which literally means copying
or paying homage to. Tabaimo is fascinated with the ways in which artists of
different time communicate with each other through art works, a mute but yet
very expressive channel over time and beyond time.
This will be the final exhibition at the Asian Art Museum before it closes for
necessary renovations.
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OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK – NOW ON VIEW
Victoria Haven: Blue Sun
Olympic Sculpture Park
April 2, 2016–March 5, 2017
Seattle native Victoria Haven’s process could be described as a form of
mapping. Her abstract drawings, prints, and videos are markers of time and
place that connect us—by way of association—to history and lived experiences.
Haven's dramatic wall drawing Blue Sun is inspired by a recent video project
where the artist filmed the radical transformation of South Lake Union from her
studio window, over a ten-month period.
At certain times during the year, the camera recorded unusual optical effects
that made the sun appear as a blue dot. These were not natural phenomena
that a viewer could see when looking at the landscape—they were effects
created by the optical apparatus, resulting from the light reflected on the
camera lens. As the arc of the sun progressed from winter into spring and
summer, other patterns emerged from the reflections of the sun on nearby
buildings in the city, creating an imaginary geography.
These observations form the basis for the design of the wall drawing, which
consists of a cluster of bold crystalline forms that traverse the entire length of
the east wall of the Olympic Sculpture Park's PACCAR Pavilion. The forms
register as sculptural structure, creating a dynamic dialogue with other
sculptures at the park.
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Tamiko Thiel: Anthropocene Gardens
Olympic Sculpture Park
June 25, 2016–September 30, 2017
Tamiko Thiel’s summer project at the Olympic Sculpture Park imagines a near
future for the earth as it enters the Anthropocene—a new epoch in which
global warming will lead to conditions similar to the Cretaceous period 100
million years ago. Using the native plant life of the park as a starting point, Thiel
will create an augmented reality installation in which virtual plants grow and
mutate in response to the earth’s changing conditions, changing the landscape
as we know it. As the artist describes this transformation, “native species will
change to forms better adapted to increasingly tropical temperatures, their
characteristic flowers, leaves, berries transforming into fantastic sculptural
forms.” Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in this Anthropocene
environment through their own smart devices, seeing the landscape shift and
mutate around them as they move through the park.
Thiel is known for her site-specific virtual and augmented reality installations
which explore issues of place, cultural identity, and the environment. She grew
up in Seattle, and is currently based in Munich.
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OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK – COMING SOON
Spencer Finch
Olympic Sculpture Park
Opening Spring 2017
More information coming soon.
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Image credits: Installation view of Big Picture: Art After 1945 at the Seattle Art Museum.
© Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Natali Wiseman. Installation view of Light and Space at
the Seattle Art Museum. © Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Mark Woods. Installation view of
Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography at the Seattle Art Museum. © Seattle Art Museum,
Photo: Natali Wiseman. Installation view of African Renaissances at the Seattle Art
Museum. © Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Natali Wiseman. Installation view of Emblems of
Encounter at the Seattle Art Museum. © Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Natali Wiseman.
Installation view of Art and Life Along the Northwest Coast at the Seattle Art Museum. ©
Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Natali Wiseman. Yves Saint Laurent, Cocktail dress. Homage
to Piet Mondrian. Fall-Winter 1965 haute couture collection. ©Fondation Pierre Bergé –
Yves Saint Laurent, Paris / Alexandre Guirkinger. Exploded Film Quilt, 2015, Jennifer
West, American, 70mm filmstrips treated with dye, bleach, oysters, vanilla, Plexiglas,
thread, 96 x 42 1/8 inches. ©Jennifer West, image courtesy of the artist. The Migration
Series, Panel no. 3: From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel
north, between 1940 and 1941, Jacob Lawrence, American, 1917–2000, casein tempera
on hardboard 12 x 18 in., Acquired 1942, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. © 2016
The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York. Birch Forest, 1903, Gustav Klimt, oil on canvas, 43 ¼ x 43 ¼ in. Paul G.
Allen Family Collection. Installation view of the artist’s studio. © Denzil Hurley, Photo:
Catharina Manchanda. Installation view of Infinity Mirror Room–Phalli’s Field at
Castellane Gallery, 1965 ©Yayoi Kusama. Braids, 1979, Andrew Wyeth, American, 1917–
2009, tempera on panel, 16 1/2 x 20 1/2 in., Private Collection. An Oasis in the Badlands –
Sioux, 1905. Hooded cape, 19th century, Japanese, Wool cloth, silk cloth, leather, and
gold gilt, 40 3/4 x 31 3/4 in., Gift of the Christensen Fund, 2001.422. Installation view of
Mood Indigo at the Asian Art Museum, 2015. © Seattle Art Museum, Photo: Natali
Wiseman. Crows, early 17th century, Japanese, pair of six panel screens; ink and gold on
paper, 61 9/16 x 139 5/16 in., Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection, 36.21.2. Installation view
of Blue Sun, 2016, Victoria Haven, American, b. 1964, acrylic, 57 x 14 ft., Seattle Art
Museum, 2016 Commission, Photo: Natali Wiseman. Tamako Thiel: Concept sketch for
Anthropocene Gardens, 2016, Tamiko Thiel, American, born 1957. ©Tamiko Thiel, image
courtesy of the artist. Spencer Finch: Installation detail of Following Nature, 2013, at the
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Spencer Finch, American, born 1962. ©Spencer Finch,
image courtesy of the artist.
ABOUT SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
As the leading visual art institution in the Pacific Northwest, SAM draws on its
global collections, powerful exhibitions, and dynamic programs to provide
unique educational resources benefiting the Seattle region, the Pacific
Northwest, and beyond. SAM was founded in 1933 with a focus on Asian art. By
the late 1980s the museum had outgrown its original home, and in 1991 a new
155,000-square-foot downtown building, designed by Robert Venturi, Scott
Brown & Associates, opened to the public. The 1933 building was renovated
and reopened as the Asian Art Museum. SAM’s desire to further serve its
community was realized in 2007 with the opening of two stunning new
facilities: the nine-acre Olympic Sculpture Park (designed by Weiss/Manfredi
Architects)—a “museum without walls,” free and open to all—and the Allied
Works Architecture designed 118,000-square-foot expansion of its main,
downtown location, including 232,000 square feet of additional space built for
future expansion.
From a strong foundation of Asian art to noteworthy collections of African and
Oceanic art, Northwest Coast Native American art, European and American art,
and modern and contemporary art, the strength of SAM’s collection of more
than 25,000 objects li305es in its diversity of media, cultures and time periods.