Paying Homage To A Beloved Artist -- Local Favorite Mark Tobey's Work On Display Through End Of Month

Mark Tobey, paintings, monotypes and drawings, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Opening 5:30 to 8 p.m. tomorrow (to Jan. 28), at the Foster/White Gallery, 311 1/2 Occidental Ave. S. 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Here in the Northwest, where work by Mark Tobey has the sentimental tug of a Mack truck, his work is more in demand, and commands higher prices, than in New York, it is said.

The special niche he occupies is based on more than the visual appeal of his work. At a time when Seattle was smarting under judgments that it was a ``cultural dust bin,'' Tobey gave us cultural legitimacy. He lived here, off and on, for more than 30 years, exhibiting his work in New York and Europe, and ultimately winning first prize for painting at the XXIX Venice Biennale in 1958 - the first American to do so since James McNeill Whistler.

As John Russell said of him in 1984, in The New York Times, ``He seemed not only the very model of an old-fashioned American gentleman, but a painter whose work was both delicate and profound, subdued and seraphic.'' He died in Basel, Switzerland, April 24, 1976, at age 86.

In joint celebration of the 100th anniversary of Tobey's birth (almost a year early, since Tobey was born Dec. 11, 1890), and its own 17th anniversary, the Foster/White Gallery has assembled 80 paintings, prints, and drawings by Tobey, plus memorabilia, for a special exhibition.

The piece that won the Biennale, an abstract oil and tempera on paper, titled ``Delta,'' is included in the show - a colored energy field, with short bursts of golden white and blood red brushed in thick, pulsing strokes.

Approximately 50 of the works at Foster/White are for sale. Other pieces have been borrowed from private collections, and the Henry Art Gallery.

The most surprising aspect of the show is a number of pieces which are being deaccessioned from the Seattle Art Museum. A few years ago, when SAM contemplated deaccessioning some of its Tobey holdings, it occasioned such rancorous infighting on the museum board that the plan was dropped. Now, it would seem, the plan to slim down the Tobey holdings was not so much dropped as postponed.

``Owl's Light,'' a 1969 painting included in the Foster/White show, never was officially part of SAM's permanent collection, according to SAM registrar Gail Joice. It was a gift in support of the capital campaign to build an endowment and construct the new downtown museum, from the SeaFirst Bank collection. A piece which SAM calls ``crewelwork'' and the Foster/

White Gallery lists as a rug, was manufactured from a design by Tobey, and was part of his estate at the time of his death. It passed to SAM as part of the Tobey memorabilia.

The remaining six Tobey paintings and drawings from SAM which are included in the Foster/

White offerings were deaccessioned after six months of reviewing the Tobey collection last year by the Northwest subcommittee of SAM's collections committee. Members John Hauberg, Marshall Hatch, Martha Kingston, Robert Sarkis, David Mendoza, and Tracy Savage met with advisers Tom and Ann Barwick, and art historian Barbara Johns, to evaluate SAM's Tobey holdings.

``We have roughly 80 paintings, 40 drawings, and 50 prints by Tobey in the permanent collection,'' said Johns. ``We decided to deaccession these six pieces because we felt they don't represent the artist in his strength. In each case, we had many better examples of his work from the same period.''

Money realized from the sale of works other than ``Owl's Light'' - which will benefit the capital campaign - will go into SAM's acquisitions fund, earmarked for purchase of 20th century Northwest art. Johns said it was possible more works by Tobey would be deaccessioned, but ``not right away.''

Over the course of his career, Tobey worked in a wide range of styles. One of the pleasures of the Foster/White show is the diversity of his work on view. It is filled with unexpected pieces, such as a portrait of his late companion Pehr Hallston, done as a classical study in pastels, with Pehr in a rigid frontal pose.

One of the earliest pieces in the show, a soft watercolor that dates from 1918, illustrates the dramatic shift represented by Tobey's mature style. Titled ``Conflict of the Satanic and Celestial Egos,'' it depicts a vast god hovering with spread arms over human forms twined into a pillar which reaches up to him. It easily could pass for a painting by William Blake, in both style and in the spiritual strife it illustrates. It exemplifies Russell's vision of his work as ``delicate and profound'' - words which equally describe Tobey's life and his influence on Northwest art.