Menu

Back to all

The Northwest Mystics : Tobey, Graves, Callahan, & Anderson

About the Exhibition

Showing

October 10, 2023 - November 2, 2023

Visit Us

Paying homage to the “Golden Era of Northwest Art” by the “Big Four” or the “Northwest Mystics”, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan & Guy Anderson at the Woodside Braseth Gallery.

Their artwork became recognized nationally when LIFE magazine published a 1953 feature article on them.  It was the first such broad recognition of artists from this corner of the world beyond traditional Northwest Native American art forms, which had been long recognized as, “Northwest Art”.

This extraordinary exhibition came together very quickly when we were recently contacted by 3 major private collectors and 2 estate collections to sell their treasured artworks.

An honor for the Woodside Braseth Gallery and a wonderful opportunity for our art collectors and art devotees.  One of our longtime clients happened into the gallery last Saturday…came into my office and exclaimed, “This exhibition is like a Museum, except that it’s for sale! ”

These artists combined natural elements of the Puget Sound area with traditional Asian aesthetics to create a novel and distinct regional style, particularly in painting and sculpture, with some drawing, printmaking and photography.  Tobey, Callahan, Graves and Anderson were all immersed in and greatly influenced by the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest’s environment.

Seattle was a common locale, which they all shared at points in their lives, and some of them were closely associated for a time with the Seattle Art Museum in Volunteer Park.  Over time, the influence of the natural setting of Western Washington, especially the flat lands, meandering river channels, and wide-open skies of the Skagit Valley, became a unifying aspect of their art.

There are so many interesting and rare to the market artworks in this short exhibition.  We hope you will take the opportunity to come see this iconic group of artists’ works on view at the Woodside Braseth Gallery, (there is no charge for admission).