The Descent

Date1950

Maker George Tsutakawa born 1910, Seattle, Washington; died 1997 Seattle

Label TextThe paired paintings Ascent and Descent recall late Cubism in their layering of flat planes, their use of thin dark lines, and the textured blocks of color designating non-representational forms. The interplay of ink lines with multiple flat planes of color also evokes the Japanese woodblock print of the 18th and 19th century. Japanese prints, imported to Europe and the United States beginning in the 1800s, were a frequent source of influence for Impressionists, Post-impressionists and Cubists. Such cross-cultural borrowings were becoming increasingly common, almost to the point of inevitability, by the mid-20th century.

Object number65.174

Photo CreditPhoto: Scott Leen

Exhibition HistoryOlympia, Washington, State Capitol Museum, Governor's Festival Of The Arts, 1968. Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, Eternal Laughter: A Sixty-Year Retrospective Of the Work Of George Tsutakawa, Sept. 15 - Nov. 2, 1990. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Views and Visions In The Pacific Northwest, June 7 - Sept. 2, 1990. Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, What It Meant to Be Modern: Seattle Art at Mid-Century, Oct. 15, 1999 - Jan. 23, 2000. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Modernism: Four Japanese Americans, Mar. 20, 2021 - June 5, 2022.

Credit LineGift of Sidney and Anne Gerber

Dimensions29 3/8 x 20 1/4 in. (74.61 x 51.44 cm)

MediumOil on board