Images(2)

The Flux

Date1955

Maker Frank Okada American, 1931- 2000

Label TextFrank Okada was a leading exponent of abstract painting in the Northwest during the second half of the twentieth century, first making gestural, allover compositions such as this while a student at the Cranbrook Academy in Michigan, and two years later, spending more than a year living among New York School artists where he found further inspiration and camaraderie. Through the subsequent years, Okada's work became more and more expansive, eventually arriving at pure distillations of color and gesture.

Object number55.200

Provenancethe artist; purchased by the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1955

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, 41st Annual, 1955. Valparaiso, Indiana, Sloan Galleries, Art of Northwest Coast, 1962. Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, What It Meant to Be Modern: Seattle Art at Mid-Century, October 15, 1999 - January 23, 2000. La Conner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, Frank Okada: The Shape of Elegance, October 8, 2005 - January 8, 2006. Published ReferencesArt of Northwest Coast. Valparaiso: Sloan Galleries, 1972; no. 17. Younger Washington Artists. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 1963. Conkleton, Sheryl et al. What it Meant to Be Modern: Seattle Art at Mid-Century. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, 2000; illus. p. 30 (b&w). Nakane, Kazuko. Frank Okada: The Shape of elegance. La Conner, WA: Museum of Northwest Art in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2005. Exh. cat. of an exhibition held at the Museum of Northwest Art, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 8, 2006. pp. 16.

Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection

Dimensions24 3/4 x 43 1/4 in. (62.9 x 109.9 cm)

MediumOil on board