Northwest Art Collection
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.
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Pioneer Courthouse on 700 block of SW 5th Ave. in Portland, ca. 1900
View of buildings on 700 block of SW 5th Ave. in Portland between SW Yamhill St. and SW Morrison St. The Portland Hotel is at the left, followed by the Pioneer Courthouse in the center (listed as the Post Office in the photograph) and the Goodnough Block at the right. The Oregonian Building can be seen in the background to the left of the courthouse.
Identifier: spl_ap_00057
Date: 1900?
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Invitation from the Lumbermen of Seattle to ball honoring delegates to the National Lumber Manufacturers Association at the Washington State Building, July 13, 1909
Printed invitation to the reception and ball to be held on Tuesday evening.
Identifier: mohai_ayp_2006.3.46.17
Date: 1909-07-13
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Print
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_T552Pr
Date: 1961
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Bungalow Magazine, v. 1, no. 2, Sept. 1912
George W. and Martha E. Trimble home at 3814 E John St, Seattle, WA 98112 featured on pages 7-16. Walter J. and Augusta A. Levenhagen home at 2736 32nd Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98144 featured on pages 35-37.
Identifier: spl_bm_531811_1912_1_2
Date: 1912-09
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Winter dance time
Helmi Juvonen was born in Butte, Montana on January 17, 1903. She worked in many media including printmaking, painting and paper-craft. She attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where she met artist Mark Tobey with whom she was famously obsessed. Although she was diagnosed as a manic-depressive in 1930, she gained wide appreciation in the Northwest for her linocut prints depicting Northwest Indian people and tribal ceremonies. She worked with a number of artists on the Public Works of Art Project including Fay Chong and Morris Graves. Over the years, her mental health deteriorated and in 1960 she was declared a ward of the state and was committed to Oakhurst Convalescent Center. She was much beloved and had many friends and benefactors (including Wes Wehr) and was able to have exhibitions despite the confinement. She died in 1985.
Identifier: spl_art_J989Wi
Date: 1946
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Spanish hunt Olympic elk
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_16.154
Date: 1955
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Beaver family totem pole and buildings in Wrangell, Alaska, ca. 1899
The photo caption reads "Bear family totem pole" but actually shows the Beaver family totem pole. A second totem pole, possibly the Raven totem pole appears to the right.
Identifier: spl_ap_00076
Date: 1899?
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Seattle's Coming Retail and Apartment-house District, 1917
Map depicting recent Denny Regrade and listing prominent buildings in the downtown area.
Identifier: spl_maps_2449659
Date: 1917
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