Untitled (Altar)

1937

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

With the three paintings displayed here, and many others in an extended series, Graves expressed his outrage at what he saw as the accommodation of the Catholic Church to Adolf Hitler. He was clearly deeply disturbed by the papal concordat that had been signed with Hitler, an agreement that protected the Church in the Third Reich but that was also viewed as the Church’s acceptance of the Nazi regime. In this painting, the ploughshare of peace is being sacrificed on the altar of a church that has lost its grounding.

Watercolor, tempera and oil pastel or encaustic on paper mounted on composite board

12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)

Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum

2009.52.12

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySan Francisco, California, Palace of the Legion of Honor, Morris Graves Retrospective, 1948.

La Conner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, Morris Graves: The Early Works, June 25 - Sept. 30, 1998 (Stamford, Connecticut, Whitney Museum of American Art, Mar. 12 - June 3, 1998; Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville County Museum of Art, Mar. 17 - May 16, 1999; Beaumont, Texas, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Sept. 9 - Nov. 30, 1999). Text by Theodore F. Wolff. No cat. no., pp. 30, 68, reproduced p. 31.

Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, Northwest Mythologies: The Interactions of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson, May 3 - Aug. 10, 2003.

Published ReferencesRudnick, Lois P., Cady Wells and Southwestern Modernism (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press); p. 68.

Junker, Patricia. "The Seattle Art Museum and the Northwest School." A Community of Collectors (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2008); p. 214, reproduced pl. 176.

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