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

Echo Tides

Echo Tides

1991

Barbara Earl Thomas

American, born 1948

Evocative iconography appears throughout Echo Tides, a title the artist derived from looking into a tide pool where the water moves and what was once there is suddenly gone. Such fleeting transitions are expressed in the houses Thomas depicts, which tip and rock in waves that suggest a place where chaos is "shaking the foundation." Two icons manifest stability--a chicken signifies the gift of premonition, the ability to sense the oncoming disaster which "allows you to survive," and two open books reveal the artist's fascination with the ways in which memories and relationships are bound together over time.
Tempera on paper
22 3/4 x 49 3/4 in. (57.79 x 126.37 cm)
Northwest Acquisition Fund
94.101
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryBellingham, Washington, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, "One-person exhibition", 1994 (1994 - 1994)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Northwest Acquisitions", March 1 - November 10, 1996.

Seattle, Washington, Seafirst Gallery, "Neddy Artist Fellowship Exhibition", May 21 - June 26, 1998 (05/21/1998 - 06/26/1998)

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Africa in America", December 18, 2004 - January 1, 2006

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Black Art", March 25, 2008 - November 9, 2008 (3/25/2008 - 11/9/2008)

Bainbridge Island, Washington, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Barbara Earl Thomas: Heaven is on Fire, June 24 - October 2, 2016. No cat. no., p. 56, reproduced pp. 20-21.
Published ReferencesHackett, Regina. "SAM's selectivity reflected in 'Recent Acquisitions' show," in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 8, 1996

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