Marni Muir wants to make sure people know that some of this state’s most historically famous artists have a connection to Snohomish County, and Edmonds and Woodway in particular.
The 1968 Edmonds High School graduate is mounting a special juried exhibition of paintings by 20th century masters Morris Graves, Guy Anderson, Mark Tobey and Kenneth Callahan and their friend Helmi Juvonen.
The show is set to open Nov. 3 and remain up through Dec. 12 at the Frances Anderson Center in Edmonds.
Muir, the curator, has been working for months to put the exhibit together. Many of the paintings are on loan from people who live in Edmonds and Woodway.
After the Seattle Art Museum announced this past spring that its big summer show would focus on this local group who inspired the modern art movement in the Northwest, Muir became even more confident that now is the time for such an exhibit in Edmonds.
Anderson, Callahan, Graves and Tobey garnered international fame in the years leading up to Life magazine’s story in 1953 about the “Mystic Painters of the Northwest.”
Though they eschewed the idea that they formed a so-called “Northwest School of Art,” these painters significantly influenced what we consider Northwest art, even today.
An artist, designer and former art dealer, Muir has been a fan of Northwest abstract expressionism since she was a kid.
“It’s a big deal to me that these artists have a connection to my hometown,” Muir said. “That these fabulous people lived here.”
The exhibit showcases the intersection of local culture, weather, topography, Coast Salish and Asian art and Eastern religions, Muir said.
“As I selected pieces (for the exhibit), I was struck by the Northwest School artists’ relationships with each other,” she said. “I was amazed at how close to the earth these artists lived.”
Kenneth Callahan and his wife spent many years near Granite Falls. Guy Anderson was born and raised in Edmonds. Morris Graves had a home in Woodway (then called Woodway Park) where he was visited by Mark Tobey. Helmi Juvonen and other artists also lived in Edmonds.
“I would love for there to be a major plaque at the center of Edmonds recognizing these people,” Muir said.
As for Graves in Woodway, a relatively new book about the artist is “Morris Graves: His Houses, His Gardens” by Richard Svare and published in association with the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner.
It includes his manor home in Ireland and his final garden spot in Loleta, California. The books opens with a chapter on Graves’ primitive first home, called The Rock, at Lake Campbell on Fidalgo Island in Skagit County.
However, the book is especially focused on the comparatively palatial place he built, called Careläden, in Woodway.
Careläden was Graves’ home from 1947 to 1957.
The house and its owner are well-documented by Graves’ neighbor and friend, the photographer Mary Randlett, who went on to photograph all of the well-known Northwest artists of the time.
Randlett, in fact, recently had a book of her work released. The University of Washington Press book “Mary Randlett Portraits” by Frances McCue and Randlett, is a beautiful collection that includes photos of Graves, Juvonen, Tobey, Callahan and Anderson, as well as Paul Horiuchi, George Tsutakawa, Jacob Lawrence, Gwendolyn Knight and many others.
Randlett shot portraits of people who advocated for these artists, such as Seattle Art Museum founder Richard Fuller and Betty Bowen, and Northwest poets and writers including Theodore Roethke, Carolyn Kizer and Tom Robbins.
Another new book from the University of Washington Press comes from former Seattle Post-Intelligencer arts writer R.M. Campbell.
“Stirring Up Seattle: Allied Arts in the Civic Landscape” is about the development of the arts and culture in the region, including an interview with Alice Rooney, former director of the Pilchuck Glass School northeast of Stanwood.
Muir is right, it’s a good time to celebrate these people who added so much to our county and our region’s culture.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
Northwest Artists show, through Dec. 12 in the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation Gallery, Frances Anderson Center, 700 Main St., Edmonds. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. A reception will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, at the gallery.
For more about Graves, Anderson, Tobey and Callahan, visit the Seattle Art Museum, First and Union streets, Seattle; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday. SAM has an extensive, rotating collection of their works. See www.seattleartmuseum.org.
These artists also have ties to Skagit County and a great collection is available for viewing at the Museum of Northwest Art, 121 1st St., La Conner; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. More at www.monamuseum.org.
Cassera Gallery across the street from MoNA has Guy Anderson paintings displayed.
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