[Mountain Landscape]

1957

born 1910, Seattle, Washington; died 1997 Seattle

Through all his years of creating large-scale fountains and abstract sculptures, Tsutakawa continued to paint small, unpretentious pictures in sumi ink and watercolor. He often captured the mountains of the Pacific Northwest in expressive strokes of black ink highlighted by playful washes of blue, yellow, green and red. Although this work has received less attention than Tsutakawa’s magnificent water sculptures, it reveals a different and more intimate side of the artist, who found inspiration in the natural forms of nature, from tiny pieces of seaweed to monolithic stone slabs.

Ink and watercolor on Japanese sumi paper

11 x 25 in.

Gift of Robert Kaplan and Jane Kaplan from the collection of Charles and Lillian Kaplan

2010.32.2

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Published ReferencesSivanesan, Haema. In the Present Moment: Buddhim, Contemporary Art, and Social Practice. Exh. Cat. Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 2022; p. 22, reproduced fig. 20 [not in exhibition].

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.

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