How does our context shape us? I believe its primary textures waft over our developing consciousness like a brisk, sometimes welcome, but seldom avoidable breeze. I myself am one of that apparently rare breed: the Seattle native. If my emotionally broken parents did one thing at least partially right, they inspired me to love the Northwest landscape and the arts. But the ensuing contradictions cropped up quickly. Though our panoramic view of the Olympics was stunning, the Northwest Modern house from which I viewed it felt like a dangerous cage. And though my parents purported to be art lovers, their concept of personal expression was largely absent.
Whether they’re conscious of it or not, all artists as well as non-artists reflect their times, experiences, influences and perceptions. Seattle has long been a city of manipulation and makeover – a breeding ground for conflicting orientations toward aspiration, escape and survival. My parents had all this in spades, and I inherited it. Had I had somewhere further away to escape to, I would have gone there. But my treehouse on the back lot served as a sufficient temporary sanctuary, and the writing I did there at least allowed me some chance at personal expression.
I’ve been awed by nature’s visual “expression” for as long as I can remember, but as a child, I was more taken with stories than images. However, in my late 20s, I discovered Surrealism. The work of Dali and Ernst seemed immediately and pointedly relevant. Suddenly I’d discovered the visual equivalent of the way I’d seen the world all my life: a strange mixture of beauty and darkness where meaning could potentially be construed through an evocative, yet completely open series of possible stories. I began making and attempting to exhibit Surrealist work myself, undoubtedly as a way to express the many contradictions of living in a gorgeous and complex landscape where its residents still haven’t figured out who they are or how to live with each other, and in practical terms, aren’t so much even living with the land as seeing it as a for-profit place and a playground. Of course, these kinds of contradictions aren’t limited to Seattle. But I think one can make the case that Seattle is a good example.
The “mysticism” of the four artists first labeled as the Northwest School in a 1951 Life article perhaps overlaps somewhat with Surrealism. But they weren’t the first Surrealists to attract my attention. I would describe the general work they’re associated with as a “softer” form, often described as a combination of natural reflection, spiritualism and inner consciousness. My sense is that if they had been “pure” or “classic” Surrealists, the resulting edginess would have disqualified them as candidates for Seattle’s budding art scene’s poster children. How preferable to instead take credit for an art form that promotes both landscape and the kind of higher spiritual essence that transcends the ever-present commercial energy that was everywhere in the Northwest then and is even more so now. But because you can only capitalize on this sort of thing for so long (especially since there were only four artists involved), it’s now apparently become necessary to go “beyond mysticism” to prove that Seattle was also in the vanguard in other ways; i.e., to illustrate the fact that Northwest artists are represented in many other movements and styles, including (surprise!) Surrealism — finally appropriate to promote, as long as it’s mixed in with a bunch of other “isms.” But make no mistake, with its history of edging its way onto the stage like a renegade provocateur, sometimes re-branding itself by different types of sub-labels in order to circumvent the fact that it may not fit current trends, Surrealism has been around even before it was given a name, and isn’t leaving anytime soon.
I like to think I can see beyond these brands. For me, a Surrealist work, with its transcendently macro view, has the most layers to unpack – or, like a complex piece of music, is the most rewarding to simply take in by absorbing its essence. And in this show, knowing that its more obviously Surrealist artists have probably stared at the same mountains and shorelines I look at every day – whether or not they’re actually depicted in the work — gives my own unpacking an extra layer.
To its credit, SAM has placed most of the Surrealist work in a room labeled “Landscape” with an “ecocritical” emphasis; i.e., “an understanding of the natural world that runs counter to scientific industrialization” and/or the kinds of sacrifices that come with “progress.” However, even the Surrealist work meanders into different rooms in different contexts, often including work by Surrealists who may not even have visited the Northwest – though whose work some of the local Surrealists were likely to have seen.
This show is educational for any members of the general public with a good short-term memory who are motivated to run all over its various rooms in order to try to put a bunch of disparate geographical and art history pieces together. The Surrealist artists from elsewhere include: Dali, Tanguy, Ernst, De Chirico, and Peter Blume. The “pure” Surrealist artists who primarily lived and worked in the Northwest include Margaret Tompkins, her husband James H. Fitzgerald, Leo Kenney, Louis Bunce, and Malcolm M. Roberts. The Northwest artists who merely dabbled in Surrealism include: Mark Tobey, George Tsutakawa, and Morris Graves. Then there’s Rothko — in a class by himself, since he originally lived in Portland, but quickly moved to New York where he only then began to do some Surrealist work. Then there are plenty more local and non-local non-Surrealist artists distributed throughout the various sections of the show which include “The City and Industry,” “Nature,” “Totem Poles,” “Abstract Impressionism – a Pacific Perspective?” and some miscellaneous Pike Place Market-themed and nightclub-themed sections.
This show will be most appealing to “pure” Surrealist artists and/or Surrealism fans whose eyes will light up at seeing Dali’s original Shades of Night Descending, and who will perhaps feel a sense of kinship with Malcolm M. Roberts, whose Northwest-inspired landscapes and seascapes are in my opinion the most direct expressions of Northwest-tinged classic Surrealist art ever, and whose Drift No. 2, a haunting view of a mast-pierced boat beached on an ominously shadowy piece of broken driftwood, turns out to be the promo piece for the show. Breaking news! Surrealism can be a crowd-pleaser and still have complex depth! (This piece reminds me of one of my own early works that depicted a beached rowboat in the foreground and a bloody cloth-draped rock in the background.)
I was also delighted with Metamorphosis by Margaret Tompkins, another “pure” Surrealist, who was influenced by Ernst, Tanguy, and Masson, and in her words, moved to Seattle to become “a citizen of the Northwest as a painter.” And it was especially moving and wonderful to see some of Leo Kenney’s best work: Third Offering and The Inception of Magic. Touchingly, Kenney apparently worked at his uncle’s restaurant in Pioneer Square in order to save up enough money to buy a copy of The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.
Of the four original Northwest School artists, it was a pleasant surprise to see some of their more Surrealist work. Morris Graves was given lots of real estate, and there were some nice pieces by Tobey that were supposedly influenced by Tanguy, though to me looked closer to Blake.
The issue of what and how artwork should be preserved, exhibited, and named has historically existed in all “art worlds” like a kind of ugly stepsister. Whether themed, regional, big picture, cutting edge or traditional, artists are inevitably thrown into the categorizing position of where or how their work’s perceived to fit in. The modern “Northwest” has by now molded itself into a major tech seat. Does this mean that it’s forgotten to think about art? Perish the thought! In this show, it’s as if SAM has dug deeper than ever into its own genealogy in order to lay ownership to as many tendrils as possible on its Northwest family art tree.
But I can’t help but wonder how the original Northwest School artists – some of whom rejected their assigned label from the get-go – might have responded to this show. If they were still alive, they might have by now been making something completely different.
