Seattle Art Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Seattle Art Museum’

Have you seen it yet?

Reserve your tickets online now before it’s gone.

You don’t want to miss this truly exquisite collection from the 1st Earl of Iveagh’s bequest to Great Britain—an extraordinary gift from Edward Cecil Guinness, heir to his namesake’s brewery. Many of these artworks have never left Europe before, and they’re only on view for a limited time before heading back to London. The exhibition closes on May 19. “Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough” reflects the tastes of the Belle Époque with "big paintings, big dresses and big hair" and is "appropriately grand," according to The Seattle Times. It’s a must see!

Cutting edge, up-to-the-minute video installation you must see at the Seattle Art Museum downtown. It’s hard to pay close attention  when you’re driving and have your eyes on the road, so I suggest you park your car and walk around the museum’s entrance at First and Union so you can get a really good look. The huge LED screen  wraps around the northwest corner and mirrors the movements and constantly changing environment in our area.

First Wednesday

Wallingford Art Walk, 6pm-9pm, from May-October. Call 206.547.5177 or visit info@oasisinseattle.com

First Thursday

Gallery Walks in Pioneer Square and the Seattle Art Museum area, 6pm-8pm.

Downtown Museum and Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park are free all day on First Thursdays. Maps: www.firstthursdayseattle.com

Second Friday

Greenwood-Phinney Art Up Art Walk, 6pm-9pm, along Greenwood Ave. North from 67th-87th St. Visit http://artupgreenwood-phinneyblogspot.com/

Kirkland Art Walk 6-9pm

Second Saturday

Ballard Art Walk, 6pm-9pm. Call Ballard Chamber of Commerce at 206.784.9705. www.centraldistrictartwalk.com/.

Central District Art Walk from 1pm-5pm. at various locations around 23rd Ave & E Cherry St.

Georgetown Art Attack, 6-9pm. Visit www.georgetownartattack.com

Port Angeles Art Walk, 5-8pm. Visit www.portangelesdowntown.com/

Poulsbo Art Walk from 5-8pm. http://poulsboartwalk.com/default.aspx

March 6

The Neddy At Cornish presents the 2013 Ned Behnke Annual Lecture: A Conversation with Oliver Herring and Susan Robb moderated by art historian Ken D. Allan. Held at 7pm in the Playhouse at Seattle Center, 201 Mercer St. in Seattle.

March 8

Explore celebrity, fame, and fortune in Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London at the Seattle Art Museum downtown from 8-12pm.  Featuring music spun by DJs J-Justice and Jaymz Nylon, burlesque performances by the Atomic Bombshells, DIY fascinators, live performances by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, drawing from live models, and much more.

Opening today at the Seattle Art Museum downtown Seattle is “Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London.“ On view through May 19, the exhibition is part of an exclusive four-stop tour through the United States. Featured are major works by Gainsborough, Hals, Reynolds, Romney, Turner, and Van Dyck.   Among other treasures, this exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see Rembrandt’s late Portrait of the Artist (ca. 1665), which has never left Europe before. A companion exhibit, “European Masters: The Treasures of Seattle,” showcases paintings from seven local collections which complement the main show. Photo: Mrs. Musters as “Hebe,” 1782, Joshua Reynolds, English, 1723–1792, oil on canvas, 94 x 58 1/4 in., Kenwood House, English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest (88028806), Photo courtesy American Federation of Arts

Second Thursday

Blitz, Capitol Hill’s Art Walk from 5-8pm. More information and maps: www.blitzcapitolhill.com

West Seattle Art Walk, 6pm-9pm, Visit www.westseattleartwalk.blogspot.com.

Third Friday

Port Orchard Art Walk from 4-7pm. May through October

Third Saturday

Everett Art Walk, 4pm-7pm. Visit www.everettartwalk.org.

LaConner Art Walk, 4pm-8pm. www.laconnerchamber.com/

February 15

Dr. Susan Jenkins, Senior Curator for English Heritage and curator of the exhibition Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London at the Seattle Art Museum in downtown Seattle, speaks on the neoclassical Kenwood House in London and the exhibition of internationally important Old Master paintings on view in Seattle for the first time. 7pm.

On July 13 from 5-6pm the TASTE Restaurant, located at the Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Avenue in downtown Seattle, is sponsoring an opening reception for Warren Dykeman and Richard Hutter whose work is featured in a new exhibit on view from June 13 through October 7. Refreshments will be served. Shown: Sensu I by Richard Hutter.

Early Masters, an art school in Seattle whose primary focus is art history, showcases the work of its young students in an exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in conjunction with the “Gauguin & Polynesia” show. Children (ages 7-12) were led through an exploration of Paul Gauguin’s colorful art that included slide shows and discussions of Gauguin’s nomadic career and his time spent in Polynesia. Their final projects included creating their own paintings in response to artworks in ”Gauguin & Polynesia.” 100 paintings produced by the children are downstairs in SAM’s community corridor. Shown at the right: one of the budding artists.

The only U.S. stop for “Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise,” a landmark show presenting nearly 60 of Gauguin’s brilliantly hued paintings, sculptures and works on paper, opens on February 9 at the Seattle Art Museum downtown. Gauguin’s art is displayed alongside 60 major examples of Polynesian sculpture that fueled his search for the exotic. The show is comprised of works on loan from some of the world’s most prestigious museums and private collections. Get your exhibition tickets early as this show, on view through April 29, should be a blockbuster. Gauguin scholar Richard Brettell, of the University of Texas, Dallas joins Chiyo Ishikawa, Deputy Director for Art at SAM, at 7pm on opening night  in a conversation about Paul Gauguin’s placement in the pantheon of his peers. The first 100 people in line wearing yellow get in free on opening day. Also, anyone who joins SAM or renews an existing membership, will be entered to win a 7-night cruise to Tahiti. SAM is really going all out for this exhibition.

Experience Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise and Theaster Gates: The Listening Room during a special evening of performances, tours, dancing and more at this late-night creative explosion. No two Remix events are the same! Event ticket includes time ticketed entry to Gauguin & Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise. Seattle Art Museum  members enjoy priority access and a special members-only bar at Remix. Must be 18 or over. Starts at 7:30pm and ends at 12:30am on February 24.

“Gauguin and Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise” opens .February 9 and is expected to be a blockbuster. Tickets to Gauguin are $23 each for the general public—but as a Seattle Art Museum member, you can reserve your tickets NOW with prime dates and times—free.  This will be very important as SAM expects to see a similar response to last year’s Picasso exhibition, which sold out to record crowds. Shown: Arearea no varua ino (Reclining Tahitian Women), 1894, Paul Gauguin

October 25

International Artist Day honors artists and the contributions they make in our lives. It is also Picasso’s birthday.

October 26 – November 13

The Seattle Art Museum celebrates Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Visit a tapete (sand painting) inspired by Oaxaca’s beautiful traditions for celebrating Día de los Muertos. The display will include FREE drop-in art activities and a family friendly artist reception with live performances on Friday, November 4, 6 – 8 pm.

October 27

Cuba Slide Show and talk at the Francine Seders Gallery, 6701 Greenwood Avenue North in Seattle from 6-8pm.  Gallery artist Juan Alonso shows slides from his recent trip to Cuba.

Each month specially trained museum educators and gallery guides lead a discussion-based tour highlighting works of art from the Frye Art Museum exhibitions. Conversation creates an exchange of ideas without relying on short-term memory or recall of art historical information. Tours also include in-gallery hands-on activities. Pre-registration is required for each tour. Space is limited. (206) 432-8211 or herenow@fryemuseum.org

Frye Art Museum at 6:30pm Tim Coombs discusses the impact of Charles Darwin and Friedrich Nietzsche on Max’s later paintings, with particular emphasis given to the role of animals in their works

October 27 – 29

Seattle Weaver’s Guild  Annual Show and Sale in Bloedel Hall on the lower level of St. Mark’s Cathedral, 1245 10th. Avenue. Shown at the left: one of the pieces in the show.

October 28

At the Tacoma Art Museum from 10:30 am- 4pm, get a “sneak peek” of the exhibition “Folk Treasures of Mexico: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection from the San Antonio Museum of Art” before it opens on October 29. Join Nancy Fullerton, Assistant Curator of Latin American Art from the San Antonio Museum of Art, to learn more about this fine collection of Mexican folk art and the artisans of these exceptional works. Free with museum admission.

SAM Remix – Experience “Luminous: The Art of Asia” at the Seattle Art Museum from 8pm til midnight during a special evening of performances, talks, dancing and more at this late-night creative explosion. No Remix is the same! Featuring burlesque by The Shanghai Pearl, Inga Ingenue and Polly Wood; global beats by DJ Aanshul; electro-acoustic sounds by Das Dhoom; performance art by Keeara Rhoades; bhangra by Pratidhwani Dance; Thriller classes with Dance Belt and much more!  SAM  members enjoy priority access and a special members-only lounge at Remix.

October 29

From 9:30-11am at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in the Stimson Auditorium, Professor Melissa McCormick of Harvard University will introduce the tradition of Genji pictures in conjunction with the exhibition, “A National Treasure: Japan’s Twelfth-Century Genji Scrolls.”  She will focus on the
most famous scroll—the sections of the text in calligraphy with paintings that have survived since the 12th century, the earliest extant ‘picture scroll’ of Japan.

October 30

Día de los Muertos Free Community Festival at the Tacoma Art Museum from 10am-4pm. Celebrate the lives of deceased love ones in this ancient Latin festival with art-making, performances, and exhibitions of community altars and two large tapetes.

“Painting Seattle: Kamekichi Tokita and Kenjiro Nomura,” opens at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on October 22.  Known in 1930s for their American realist style of landscape painting, the painters shared the cultural legacy of Japan and the active cultural life of Seattle’s Japantown. Tokita and Nomura were the most prominent of a group of first-generation Japanese-American painters in the 1920s and ’30s in Seattle. Guest curator and art historian Barbara Johns will join a tour of the galleries at noon and lecture on the exhibition in the Stimson Auditorium at 2 pm. The exhibition will be on view through February 19. A book signing follows the lecture. Shown: Alley, ca. 1929, Kamekichi Tokita

On view at the downtown Seattle Art Museum through January 8 is “Luminous: The Art of Asia,” showcasing the  jewels of Seattle Art Museum’s (SAM) famed Asian collections, featuring 160 of the museum’s masterpieces including paintings, screens, sculpture, ceramics, stone, wood, lacquer and metal ware. The collection dates back to the museum’s founding by Richard E. Fuller in 1933. Both Dr. Fuller and his mother had a passion for exceptional Asian Art. Many of the works he collected, including Crows (ca. 1650), a pair of six-paneled Japanese screens, (purchased not long after the museum’s 1933 opening), became the core of the museum’s founding collection and are still  popular with visitors. Internationally-recognized artist Do Ho Suh  has created a new multimedia installation for the exhibition. In addition, his observations pepper the text panels throughout the show, offering insight, adding perspective and provoking further questions. Curated by Japanese art historian Catherine Roche, the objects in Luminous range from 1,500 year-old Buddhist fragments, dazzling golden screens and bold ink paintings to rich Tibetan mandalas, sumptuous Japanese kimonos and gossamer Korean bojagi.

Opening September 8 from 5-7pm at the Seattle Art Museum Art Sales and Rental Gallery, 1220 Third Avenue, is “Autumn Introductions,” a group show featuring Matt Cosby, Leanne Grimes, AJ Power, Robin Siegl, Laura Thorne and Jacqueline Will along with photographs by Frank Huster and Jennifer Stanton.”Knitting Meditation for Peace” by Christen Mattix is a new installation in the gallery’s University Street window. Shown: Port Boardwalk #1 by Jennifer Stanton.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the passing of one of the greatest art benefactors here in the Pacific Northwest, Bagley Wright. While I knew him only in passing, it is through my daughter Stacey, who babysat for his grandchildren,  that I came to know him best. She has the highest regard for him as a loving grandfather and remembers fondly their Christmases when Bagley personally went out and bought individual and special presents for each of his grandchildren. Those kids grew up thinking he was the greatest thing since peanut butter. The prayers of our family are with the whole family at this very difficult time. Services will be held at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle on Tuesday, July 26 at 3 p.m.  Shown Bagley Wright in 1981: Photographed by Bruce McKim , the Seattle Times