Bird in the Night

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Bird in the Night

1943

Morris Graves

born Fox Valley, Oregon, 1910; died Loleta, California, 2001

Our world in the Far West. I lived in a remote and extremely quiet part of the state of Washington. It was all stony hills, scrubby forests, and mountains that deflected every sound. . . The sound carried clearly, intensely. Living alone in that forest—kerosene lights, lamps after dark—you spent a lot of time outside, just listening and hearing what happened in the night.

Morris Graves, 1974

Transparent and opaque watercolor on Japanese paper
23 1/2 x 29 in. (59.7 x 73.7 cm)
Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2005.169
Provenance: [Willlard Gallery, New York, 1943]; Dr. Benjamin Philip Watson (d. 1976) and Angele Hamendt Watson (1886-1980), New York; {probably Willard Gallery, New York, in 1943}; purchased by Marshall and Helen Hatch, Seattle, Washington, by 1971
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryTacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, Morris Graves, Nov. 2-Nov. 30, 1971. Text by Jon W. Kowalek. No cat no., not reproduced [as Bird in Night].

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Morris Graves and Northwest Masters, July 21 - Sept.17, 1972. [Morris Graves work on view until Aug. 13 only. Part of Seattle-wide Festival 1972 arts event.]

Walla Walla, Washington, Olin Gallery, Whitman College, George Tsutakawa and Morris Graves: Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture, Nov. 5 - Nov. 26, 1978. No cat. no., not reproduced.

Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Art in America: Washington Collection, Spiritualism in Northwest Art, July 22 - Aug. 29, 1982.

Fresno, California, Fresno Art Museum, Fifteen Profiles: Distinguished California Modernists, Nov. 7, 1995 - Feb. 7, 1996.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5, 2007 - Sept.9, 2007. No catalogue.

Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, Modernism in the Pacific Northwest; The Mythic and the Mystical, June 19-Sept. 7, 2014. Text by Patricia Junker. No cat. no., reproduced p. 27, pl. 13.

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