Preview up to 100 items from this collection below. Prints, drawings and paintings by artists Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Helmi Juvonen, Robert Cranston Lee and others celebrate the Northwest. Many pieces hail from the 1934 Public Works of Art Project.
Rhythm in colors
James Winston Washington Jr. was born in Mississippi in 1909. He moved to the Pacific Northwest in the 1940's where he studied at the University of Washington Extension Program with painter Yvonne Twining Humber and printmaker Glen Alps. He also studied briefly with Mark Tobey. Washington exhibited in the Northwest Annual in 1948 and was curator for annual art shows at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington. He was a frequent lecturer at universities and colleges and earned an honorary doctorate from the Center for Urban Black Studies, Berkeley, California in 1975. He died in 2000.
Identifier: spl_art_W276Rh
Date: 1950
View this itemMartinez seizes Colnett's ship
Parker McAllister, born in 1903 in Massachusetts, was a Seattle Times artist from 1924 to 1965. McAllister started his career as an illustrator at 14 for a Spokane publication; he joined the art staff at the Seattle Times in 1920. His first Sunday magazine cover was a poster-type illustration celebrating the University of Washington crew races in spring 1924. During McAllister's career, he created illustrations depicting “local color” events and situations now routinely handled by photographers. As the technology improved, he expanded his repertoire - he illustrated articles, drew covers for special sections and the weekly Seattle Sunday Times Magazine, and drew diagrams, comics, cartoons, and portraits for the Times’ editorial page. In 1956, an exhibition of his watercolor and oil paintings of Pacific Northwest scenes and historical incidents - including some paintings from the “Discovery of the Pacific Northwest” series - were exhibited at the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma. He was also a member of the Puget Sound Group of Men Painters. McAllister retired from the Seattle Times in 1965; he passed away in Arizona in 1970.
Identifier: spl_art_291985_16.149
Date: 1955
View this itemS. Jackson St. west from Occidental St. S., May 14, 1982
Photograph shows the Herman and Blumenthal Building on the corner with the Jackson Building visible behind it.
Identifier: spl_dor_00033
Date: 1982-05-14
View this itemCaptain Duncan at Tatoosh Island
Parker McAllister, born in 1903 in Massachusetts, was a Seattle Times artist from 1924 to 1965. McAllister started his career as an illustrator at 14 for a Spokane publication; he joined the art staff at the Seattle Times in 1920. His first Sunday magazine cover was a poster-type illustration celebrating the University of Washington crew races in spring 1924. During McAllister's career, he created illustrations depicting “local color” events and situations now routinely handled by photographers. As the technology improved, he expanded his repertoire - he illustrated articles, drew covers for special sections and the weekly Seattle Sunday Times Magazine, and drew diagrams, comics, cartoons, and portraits for the Times’ editorial page. In 1956, an exhibition of his watercolor and oil paintings of Pacific Northwest scenes and historical incidents - including some paintings from the “Discovery of the Pacific Northwest” series - were exhibited at the Washington State Historical Society Museum in Tacoma. He was also a member of the Puget Sound Group of Men Painters. McAllister retired from the Seattle Times in 1965; he passed away in Arizona in 1970.
Identifier: spl_art_291985_15.143
Date: 1955
View this itemIllustrations for lecture, Feb 26 1948 (7 of 7)
Mark Tobey was born in Centerville, WI in 1890. Beginning his career as an illustrator, Mark Tobey was a deeply religious man, converting to the universalist Baha'i faith in 1918, which would in some way influence all of his works. After extensive traveling, including a period of time at a Zen monastery in Japan, Tobey taught art and philosophy at Dartington Hall in England until 1937. He then developed his "white writing" technique, painting white cursive writing on dark canvas, a technique which he (and many other Northwest artists) would use extensively until his death. He was one of the four painters LIFE magazine described as "Northwest Mystics". The others were Guy Anderson, Morris Graves and Kenneth Callahan. He died in 1976 in Basel, Switzerland.
Identifier: spl_art_T552il7
Date: 1948
View this itemMannequin parts in loading dock, undated
Other items on loading dock include a white sink and old gas pump.
Identifier: spl_dor_00028
View this itemPencil sketches of CCC camps: recreation hall - Captain Gray's orchestra; Lake Cushman, Wash.
Identifier: spl_art_N779Pe04
Date: 1934
View this item