The Ascent
1950
When he was seven years old, Seattle-born Tsutakawa went to live with his highly cultivated maternal grandparents in Fukuyama, Japan. Under their tutelage, he learned the traditional arts of Kabuki and Noh drama, ikebana (the art of flower arrangement), tea ceremony, and calligraphy. When he returned to the United States as a teenager, he enrolled at the University of Washington to study painting with Walter Isaacs, Ambrose Patterson, and visiting professor Alexander Archipenko. After serving in the army during World War II, he re-entered the university with the help of the G.I. Bill and earned his MFA in sculpture and a place on the faculty. He taught art and architecture there for three decades.
Although best known for his sculpture and his many public fountains, Tsutakawa began his career as a painter. In examples such as this one—as well as The Descent, hanging nearby—he brought his early education in Japanese calligraphy to the flattened perspective, interlocking forms, and uninhibited line he absorbed from his later training in American modernism.
Oil on canvas board
21 x 30 in. (53.34 x 76.2 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Dwight E. Robinson
54.153
Photo: Scott Leen
