Skip Ribbon Commands
Skip to main content
Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
menu
Skip Navigation Linksvisit

Northwest Landscape

Northwest Landscape

1934

Kenneth Callahan

American, born 1905, Spokane, Washington; died 1986, Seattle, Washington

Callahan's swirling rugged landscape, stripped of the forest, appears paradoxically bleak compared to Bierstadt's romantic vision of the Northwest. The painter once summed up his personal philosophical conviction underlying his art: "I do not believe that the importance of painting is in aesthetics, nor that it is for decorative purposes. I do believe in painting as a language in its own right, bound by certain rules, through which an individual can express his consciousness of life in its broadest sense.
Oil on board
34 x 47 in. (86.36 x 119.38 cm)
Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
34.137
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, "What It Meant to Be Modern: Seattle Art at Mid-Century", October 15, 1999 - January 23, 2000

Seattle, Washington, Kurt Lidtke Galleries, "Kenneth Callahan: Works from the 1930s", October 31, 2000 - December 30, 2000

LaConner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, "Kenneth Callahan",
July 1, 2001 - October 15, 2001

Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, "Northwest Mythology: The Interactions of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan and Guy Anderson", May 3, 2003 - August 10, 2003

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "The View From Here: The Pacific Northwest 1870-1940", July 1, 2004 - March 27, 2005 (7/1/2004 - 3/27/2005)

Pullman, Washington, Museum of Art, Washington State University, "Kenneth Callahan Paintings", February 10 - March 6, 1987. (02/10/1987 - 03/06/1987)

Evanston, Illinois, Terra Museum of American Art, "Solitude - Inner Visions In American Art", September 24 - December 30, 1982. (09/24/1982 - 12/30/1982)

Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, "Spiritualism In Northwest Art", July 20 - August 29, 1982. (07/20/1982 - 08/29/1982)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Northwest Traditions", June 29 - November 19, 1978. (06/29/1978 - 11/19/1978)

Spokane, Washington, Expo '74, "Our Land, Our Sky, Our Water", 1974. (1974 - )

Renton Creative Arts Festival, WA, Invitational Exhibition, 1967. (1967 - 1967)

Brussels, Belgium, Galerie Georges Giroux, "Exposition Du Peintre American Kenneth Callahan", April 30 - May 14, 1948. Circuit to European cities: 1948-1949. (04/30/1948 - 1949)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Views and Visions In the Pacific Northwest", June 7 - September 2, 1990. (06/07/1990 - 09/02/1990)

LaConner, Washington, Valley Museum of Northwest Art, "Kenneth Callahan: Early Paintings and Early Works by Guy Anderson, Mark Tobey, and Morris Graves", June 17 - September 4, 1994 (06/17/1994 - 09/04/1994)
Published ReferencesKingsbury, Martha and Sarah Clark. "Northwest Traditions." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1978, p. 44

Johns, Barbara. "Modern Art from the Pacific Northwest in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1990, no. 6, p. 9

Kangas, Matthew, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, Washington, "J. Steensma: A Retrospective", March 28 - May 24, 1997, p. 3.

Warren, Dr. James, "King County and Its Emerald City: Seattle", American Historical Press, Tarzana, CA, July, 1997.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM