Parnassus

1963

Mark Tobey

born Centerville, Wisconsin, 1890; died Basel, Switzerland, 1976

Oil on canvas

82 1/16 x 47 3/8 in. (208.5 x 120.3 cm)

Gift of the Virginia Wright Fund

74.41

Provenance: [Willard Gallery, New York, by 1966 (as Composition)-1970]; sold (as Parnassus) to Virginia Wright, for the Virginia Wright Fund, Seattle, Washington, by March 1970; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1974

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryHannover, Germany, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Mark Tobey, May 19 - June 26, 1966. Cat. no. 113 (as Composition, 1963; 214.5 x 127 cm, lent by Marian Willard Johnson).

Dublin, Ireland, Royal Dublin Society, National Museum of Ireland, ROSC ’67: The Poetry of Vision—An International Exhibition of Modern Painting and Ancient Celtic Art, Nov. 14 - Dec. 31, 1967. Cat. no. 124 (as Composition, 1963).

Dallas, Texas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Mark Tobey Retrospective, Mar. 20 - Apr 21, 1968. Text by Merrill C. Rueppel. Cat. no. 109 (as Composition, 1964, lent by Willard Gallery).

Osaka, Japan, Expo '70, Washington State Pavilion, Mar.15 - Sept.13, 1970. {No catalogue?}.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Tobey’s 80: A Retrospective, Dec. 3, 1970 - Jan. 31, 1971. Text by Betty Bowen. Cat. no. 77, reproduced n.p. (as Parnassus, 1963).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, Mark Tobey and Northwest Masters, July 9-Sept. 5, 1971. {No catalogue?}.

Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, Mark Tobey, Oct. 6 - 31, 1972. No cat. no.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, American Art: Third Quarter Century, Aug. 22 - Oct. 14, 1973. Text by Jan van der Marck. Cat. no. 70, pp. 13, 102, reproduced p. 13 [lent by Virginia Wright Fund].

Washington, D.C., National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Art of the Pacific Northwest From the 1930s to the Present, Feb. 8-May 5, 1974 (Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, July 12-Aug. 25, 197; Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Sept. 17-Oct. 13, 1974). Text by Rachael Griffin and Martha Kingsbury. Cat. no. 121, p. 130, reproduced p. 131 [lent by Virginia Wright Fund].

Miami, Miami-Dade South, The Art Gallery, Mark Tobey, 1930-1967: A Selection of Works from the Seattle Art Museum, Dec. 1, 1975 - Jan. 29, 1976. Cat. no. 23, pp. 8-11, reproduced p. 3.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Vancouver Art Gallery, The Seattle Art Museum Lends, Mar. 13 - Apr. 11, 1976. No cat. no.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Traditions, June 29 - Dec. 10, 1978. Text by Martha Kingsbury. No catalogue no., pp. 54, 106, reproduced p. 54.

Miami, Florida, Center for the Fine Arts, In Quest of Excellence: Civic Pride, Patronage, Connoisseurship, Jan. 14 - Apr. 22, 1984. Text by Jan van der Marck et al. Cat. no. 192, p. 212, reproduced p. 200.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Views and Visions in the Pacific Northwest, June 7 - Sept. 2, 1990. No catalogue.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Light, Shadow, and Gesture: Paintings by Northwest Artists, Aug. 14, 1997 - Aug. 2, 1998. No catalogue.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, International Abstraction: Making Painting Real, May 2, 2003 - Feb. 29, 2004. No catalogue.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Modern in America, July 8, 2004 - Feb. 27, 2005. No catalogue.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical, June 19 - Sept. 2, 2014. Text by Patricia Junker. No cat. no., p. 6, reproduced pl. 1, n.p.

London, England, Royal Academy of Arts, Abstract Expressionism, Sept. 24, 2016 - Jan. 2, 2017 (Bilbao, Spain, Guggenheim Museum, Feb. 3 - June 4, 2017). Text by David Anfam et al. Cat. no. 116, p. 264, reproduced.

Published ReferencesVoorhees, John. “Art Fund Provides $1 Million for Area,” Seattle Times, Sunday, March 15, 1970: p. C8.

Voorhees, John. “’Parnassus’ Preview at September Affair II,” Seattle Times, September 15, 1970: p. 47.

Vorhees, John. "Tobey Shows: Real Celebration," The Seattle Times, December 13, 1970: n.p.

“Seattle’s Pride.” Apollo 92 (December 1970): p. 492.

Voorhees, John. “Three ‘Parties’ for Mark Tobey,” Seattle Times, December 1, 1970: p: 24.

Voorhees, John. “Tobey Show a ‘Proud Moment’,” Seattle Times, December 3, 1970: p. 51.

"Mark Tobey and Other Northwest Masters Will Share Exhibit in Seattle Center." The Shoreline Journal (July 7, 1971): n.p.

Voorhees, John. “Tobey—and Friends—At Art Museum Pavilion,” Seattle Times, August 8, 1971: p. 31.

Voorhees, John. “Let’s Hear it for the P.N.A.C.,” Seattle Times, July 11, 1972: p. 15.

“A Toast for Pacific Northwest Art Center’s Aims,” Seattle Times, July 12, 1972: p. 33, reproduced.

Annual Report of the Seattle Art Museum, 1972-1973. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1973; reproduced p. 30.

Tarzan, Delores. “New Curator has Bright Plans,” Seattle Times, March 14, 1975: p. 67.

Tarzan, Deloris. “Seattle’s Art ‘Establishment’,” Seattle Times, January 18, 1976: p. 151.

Visions of Inner Space: Gestural Painting in Modern American Art. Los Angeles: Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, 1987; p. 11, reproduced fig. 1.

Selected Works. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 125, reproduced.

Fairbrother, Trevor. The Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press, 1999; p. 39.

Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures. London: Scala Publishers Ltd., 2007; p. 17, reproduced p. 16.

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