Mark Tobey

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May 2 - June 10, 2006

Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
Raissance of a Flower

Mark Tobey was born in Centerville, Wisconsin on December 11, 1890 and first moved to Chicago as a young man to pursue a career as an illustrator by day and attending the Chicago Art Institute by night. In 1911, he moved further east to New York's Greenwich Village and took up portrait painting, lamp decoration and designing ornamental screens. Over the next few years Tobey’s desire for something more led to his discovery and conversion in 1918 to the Baha'i World Faith. This, along with his later study of Zen Buddhism, formed the philosophical basis for most of his work, which would last the rest of his life. In 1923, Tobey moved west to Seattle to teach art and it was there that he was first exposed to the elegance and grace of oriental calligraphy.

In 1928 Emily Carr sought out Tobey as a mentor inviting him to travel to Victoria where he would teach art classes out of Emily’s Studio. Carr was receptive to the principles and practices of Asian art as well as that of the cubists and it was on Tobey’s advice that Emily began to play with flatter more abstract shapes. Tobey also encouraged Emily to look to the forest for inspiration and subject matter. In doing so, changed her entire creative direction. Mark’s painting during his time at Carr’s studio is best demonstrated in his cubist painting entitled Emily Carr’s Studio, which is in the permanent collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

From 1931 to 1938, while artist-in-residence at Dartington Hall, a progressive school in England, he met such intellectual leaders as Aldous Huxley and Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian mystic. In 1934, he journeyed to the Far East, first studying brush painting in Shanghai and then going on to Japan to stay in a Zen Buddhist monastery for meditation and calligraphy study. That sojourn proved to be the turning point in his artistic thinking.

He returned to Seattle convinced that "we have to know both worlds, the Western and the oriental." This experience resulted in the development of his white writing-calligraphy using light paint against a dark field. The lines formed neither letters nor recognizable subjects, yet filled the space with a sense of movement and depth. Like the surrealists, he tried to "penetrate the mind and clear away all rational processes in an effort to get at the inner recesses of experience." Although he was not immediately recognized, Mark Tobey was to become known as the pioneer in blending elements of occidental and oriental art in his calligraphic paintings, which he termed "white writing." For all their quiet unpretentiousness, his works had an impact on much of what followed in modern American art; in particular, the explosive energy of abstract expressionism. As the founder of what is now know as the Pacific Northwest School of Abstract Calligraphic Painting he has a profound influence on a number of important painters from British Columbia most notably Emily Carr, Jack Wise and Lin Chien-Shih.

Once Tobey had found his artistic mode of expression, he never wavered from it. Although many thought him isolated from the mainstream of American art, he was not, and in his later years his influence became more and more apparent not only in North America but the world and is now recognized as one of the most important painters on the 20th century. In 1960, he moved to Basel, Switzerland, living and painting there until his death in 1976.

The works featured in this exhibition act as an introduction to this great artist’s later work. The prints included here were commissioned by Alex Rosenberg who founded Transworld Art in 1968 in New York. His company began publishing original prints, portfolios and multiples featuring some of the world's greatest artists including Alexander Calder, Salvador Dali, Romare Bearden, Henry Moore, and Mark Tobey. These prints were all done between 1974 and 1975 and are among his last works which distill the essence of Tobey’s philosophical and spiritual ideals and are intended to create a desire in the viewer to seek out and discover more of this great artists work.

Raissance of a Flower, 1975
lithograph, ed. EA XIV/L
15 x 10 in.
Collection of Alex Rosenberg, New York

Stained Glass, 1974
lithograph, ed. EA XII/L
15 x 10 in.
Collection of Alex Rosenberg, New York

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		Mark Tobey was born in Centerville, Wisconsin on December 11, 1890 and first moved to Chicago as a young man to pursue a career as an illustrator by day and attending the Chicago Art Institute by night. In 1911, he moved further east to New York's Greenwich Village and took up portrait painting, lamp decoration and designing ornamental screens. Over the next few years Tobey’s desire for something more led to his discovery and conversion in 1918 to the Baha'i World Faith. This, along with his later study of Zen Buddhism, formed the philosophical basis for most of his work, which would last the rest of his life. In 1923, Tobey moved west to Seattle to teach art and it was there that he was first exposed to the elegance and grace of oriental calligraphy. In 1928 Emily Carr sought out Tobey as a mentor inviting him to travel to Victoria where he would teach art classes out of Emily’s Studio. Carr was receptive to the principles and practices of Asian art as well as that of the cubists and it was on Tobey’s advice that Emily began to play with flatter more abstract shapes. Tobey also encouraged Emily to look to the forest for inspiration and subject matter. In doing so, changed her entire creative direction. Mark’s painting during his time at Carr’s studio is best demonstrated in his cubist painting entitled Emily Carr’s Studio, which is in the permanent collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. From 1931 to 1938, while artist-in-residence at Dartington Hall, a progressive school in England, he met such intellectual leaders as Aldous Huxley and Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian mystic. In 1934, he journeyed to the Far East, first studying brush painting in Shanghai and then going on to Japan to stay in a Zen Buddhist monastery for meditation and calligraphy study. That sojourn proved to be the turning point in his artistic thinking. He returned to Seattle convinced that "we have to know both worlds, the Western and the oriental." This experience resulted in the development of his white writing-calligraphy using light paint against a dark field. The lines formed neither letters nor recognizable subjects, yet filled the space with a sense of movement and depth. Like the surrealists, he tried to "penetrate the mind and clear away all rational processes in an effort to get at the inner recesses of experience." Although he was not immediately recognized, Mark Tobey was to become known as the pioneer in blending elements of occidental and oriental art in his calligraphic paintings, which he termed "white writing." For all their quiet unpretentiousness, his works had an impact on much of what followed in modern American art; in particular, the explosive energy of abstract expressionism. As the founder of what is now know as the Pacific Northwest School of Abstract Calligraphic Painting he has a profound influence on a number of important painters from British Columbia most notably Emily Carr, Jack Wise and Lin Chien-Shih. Once Tobey had found his artistic mode of expression, he never wavered from it. Although many thought him isolated from the mainstream of American art, he was not, and in his later years his influence became more and more apparent not only in North America but the world and is now recognized as one of the most important painters on the 20th century. In 1960, he moved to Basel, Switzerland, living and painting there until his death in 1976. The works featured in this exhibition act as an introduction to this great artist’s later work. The prints included here were commissioned by Alex Rosenberg who founded Transworld Art in 1968 in New York. His company began publishing original prints, portfolios and multiples featuring some of the world's greatest artists including Alexander Calder, Salvador Dali, Romare Bearden, Henry Moore, and Mark Tobey. These prints were all done between 1974 and 1975 and are among his last works which distill the essence of Tobey’s philosophical and spiritual ideals and are intended to create a desire in the viewer to seek out and discover more of this great artists work.
*Raissance of a Flower,* 1975 lithograph, ed. EA XIV/L 15 x 10 in. Collection of Alex Rosenberg, New York

*Stained Glass,* 1974 lithograph, ed. EA XII/L 15 x 10 in. Collection of Alex Rosenberg, New York