Sea Bear

1990

American, born 1947

Walking along a beach after giving birth to her son, Sherry Markovitz cites all her senses being called upon to take a quiet turn and observe. Here, she has adapted the trophy head form into a guardian form: a bear emerging from the sea. Tiny seed beads become fur, and a necklace of driftwood is accented with pearls, also from the sea. Recently asked about her sense of water, Markovitz responded, “Water is life sustaining. It is everything. Water mirrors emotion—sometimes calm, sometimes raging, always present. Water quiets my mind and opens my eyes to beauty.”

Wood, beads, shells, fabric, paint, papier-mâché

25 x 17 x 29 in. (63.5 x 43.18 x 73.66 cm)

Gift of Terry Hunziker

90.3

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Views and Visions in the Pacific Northwest, June 7 - Sept. 2, 1990.

Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, The Ubiquitous Bead II, Apr. 27 - June 23, 1996.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Collection Highlights: 1945 to the Present, Sept.12, 1996 - June 1, 1997.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Weird and Whimsical: Northwest Art from the Permanent Collection, Jan. 4 - Oct. 14, 2001.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Contemporary Art: Made in Seattle -- A Northwest Summer, May 4 - July 23, 2006.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

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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