The term “art” is a moving target, simply subjective in every sense of the word. Individual taste is everything, and the term “good art” is even harder to pinpoint. One person’s revelation is another’s rubbish. Fortunately for Bellevue Club members, the Northwest has a broad palette from which to sample. From somber turn-of-the-century logging images by Darius Kinsey to thought-provoking multimedia pieces such as Gary Hill’s “Tall Ships,” the Northwest is rich in art born of the topography of the land and culture of the people. But beyond mountain murals of the Cascades and Olympics,
contemporary Northwest art is as far-reaching as Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures and meaningful as Charles Krafft’s satirical ceramics. “There is an attention to materials and being true to craft. Of course, there must be something to say as well,” says Stefano Catalani, curator at the Bellevue Arts Museum. Catalani moved to Seattle from Rome in 2001 and has served as curator since the museum’s reopening in 2005. Recently, Catalani has helped the museum produce notable exhibitions such as ÜberPortrait, a collection of 40 works by local and international artists that examines the portrait in all its facets, and Evolution/Revolution, the first comprehensive look at Lopez Island artist Michael Peterson’s poetic wood sculptures.
“You can see where the inspiration comes from for his work,” says Catalani when discussing Peterson’s art. “The subdued pallete with grays and tans is strongly Northwest—it’s a nurturing relationship with nature.” Working primarily outdoors all year round, Peterson embodies influence from his natural surroundings. Much of his art starts with wet chunks of wood that he carves and hollows with a chainsaw. The pieces then dry and warp, highlighting the wood’s texture and grain patterns. Originated at the Bellevue Arts Museum, the exhibition will be displayed at museums around the country through 2011.
Michael Peterson, Earth and Stones II, 2004, Photo: Rex Rystedt. Photo courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum.
Another noted sculptor, Dan Webb, has been creating ripples recently in the art world with his time-sensitive take on the timeless medium of wood. His haunting work, “Little Cuts,” was also on display at the Bellevue Arts Museum in ÜberPortrait and received mention as one of the “Top 25 Greatest Works of Art Ever Made in Seattle” by The Stranger. This acclaimed piece photographically documents carving a block of wood into a man’s face and its eventual disintegration. It’s completed with an urn-like glass case filled with the sawdust. Catalani says they often try to highlight regional artists alongside their international peers. “One of my main goals is to show Northwest artists,” he says.
John Buck, North of South, 2005, Photo: Strode Photographic. Photo courtesy Bellevue Arts Museum.
At the Seattle Art Museum, the extensive Northwest section of its permanent collection includes works from many notable artists, including Morris Graves, Mark Tobey and others from the “Northwest School” of painters from the 1930s and ’40s. They pioneered abstract expressionism in a distinct Northwest style—heavy on natural elements and Asian aesthetics. For a look at the Northwest’s original artists, the Seattle Art Museum also has pieces from Coast Salish and other Northwest First Peoples cultures stretching from Oregon to Alaska. It’s no secret that the Northwest is also a hot spot for glass art. The Museum of Glass in Tacoma features local artists blowing and shaping molten glass in the “Hot Shop” as well as the traditional galleries. The entire family can enjoy watching art created right in front of them, and the museum has “Family Day” every second Saturday with activities for kids and adults. For ceramic fans, the Bellevue Arts Museum is featuring an exhibition this winter by the famed, late ceramic sculptor
Robert Sperry. Sperry taught at the University of Washington for more than 30 years and is credited with many ceramic innovations before he passed away in 1998. “He definitely stretched the boundaries of what ceramic could do,” Catalani explains. More than 70 of Sperry’s works of art will be on display through Jan. 31, 2010. One of his best-known corporate pieces is the iconic Safeco Corporate Pediment downtown. Catalani especially appreciates the functional aspect of some of Sperry’s work. “He was literally doing pots and plates—with a lot of innovation,” he says. And, like Sperry, Northwest artists continue a legacy of creating meaning in the materials, however you define “art.”
