Mark Tobey

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<i>Desert Town</i> (Wild City), 1950 oil and gouache on card mounted on masonite 43 x 27 ⅛ in. (109.2 x 68.9cm) signed and dated lower right: <i>Tobey 1950</i>
Desert Town (Wild City), 1950
oil and gouache on card mounted on masonite
43 x 27 ⅛ in. (109.2 x 68.9cm)
signed and dated lower right: Tobey 1950
<I>Double Horizon</I>, 1945 tempera on paper 6 ¾ x 10 ¾ in. (17.2 x 27.3 cm)
Double Horizon, 1945
tempera on paper
6 ¾ x 10 ¾ in. (17.2 x 27.3 cm)
<i>Arena of Civilization</i>, 1947 Tempera on board painted on recto and verso 14 x 19 ½ in. (35.6 x 49.5 cm) Signed and dated lower left: <i>Tobey 47</i>
Arena of Civilization, 1947
Tempera on board painted on recto and verso
14 x 19 ½ in. (35.6 x 49.5 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: Tobey 47
Ancient Images, 1954 tempera on paper 14 ⅛ x 11 ¾ in. (36 x 30 cm) signed and dated lower right: Tobey 54
Ancient Images, 1954
tempera on paper
14 ⅛ x 11 ¾ in. (36 x 30 cm)
signed and dated lower right: Tobey 54
Above the Earth IV, 1956 gouache on paper 11 ¾ x 17 ¾ in. (30 x 45 cm)
Above the Earth IV, 1956
gouache on paper
11 ¾ x 17 ¾ in. (30 x 45 cm)
Aerial City, 1950 watercolor on paper 16 ⅛ x 18 ¾ in. (40,9 x 47,6 cm ) signed and dated lower right
Aerial City, 1950
watercolor on paper
16 ⅛ x 18 ¾ in. (40,9 x 47,6 cm )
signed and dated lower right
Untitled, 1965 monotype on rice paper 39 ⅛ x 20 in. (99,38 x 50,8 cm)
Untitled, 1965
monotype on rice paper
39 ⅛ x 20 in. (99,38 x 50,8 cm)
A little piece of magic or nothing, 1959 tempera on primed paper 3 ¼ x 2 ½ in. (8,3 x 6,4 cm)
A little piece of magic or nothing, 1959
tempera on primed paper
3 ¼ x 2 ½ in. (8,3 x 6,4 cm)

Artist Bio

Mark Tobey (1890-1976)


1890
Born in Centerville, Wisconsin, 11 December to George
Baker Tobey, a carpenter, bricklayer, and farmer, and Emma Jane Tobey.
Mark is the youngest of four children.

1894
Family moves to Trempealeau, Wisconsin, where Tobey spends his
childhood and adolescence.

1906
Family moves to Hammond, Indiana. Attends classes at the Art Institute
of Chicago. His father falls ill and Tobey gives up academic and artistic studies.

1909
Family moves to Chicago. Tobey works as an apprentice in a fashion
house and a fashion designer for a publishing house.

1911
Moves to Greenwich Village in New York City, hoping to succeed as a fashion designer. Works for McCall's Magazine. Moves back to Chicago
at the end of the year.

1913
Attends the Armory Show at the Art Institute, Chicago, influencing his
views on art.

1913-17
Continues working as a fashion designer in New York and Chicago.
Begins painting portraits.

1917
Knoedler, New York holds an exhibition of his portraits. Begins work as an interior decorator.

1918
Becomes a member of the Baha'i community.

Discovers William Blake's work at the Pierpont Morgan Library. Earns his living as a caricaturist; his caricatures appear in the New York Times. His marriage dissolves after one year. Meets Marcel Duchamp. Moves to Seattle.

1922-25
Teaches at the Cornish School, Seattle. Befriends Teng Kuei,
a Chinese student from Washinton University, who introduces him to
East Asian painting and spirituality.

1925
Visits Paris; meets Gertrude Stein.

1926
Travels in Barcelona, Athens, Istanbul, Cairo, and Beirut. Becomes
interested in Arabic and Persian calligraphy.

1928
Creates the Free and Creative Art School in Seattle with Edgar Ames.
First solo exhibition of his work at the Arts Club of Chicago.

1929
Invited by Alfred Barr, Jr. to take part in a 1930/31 exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1930
Asked to teach at the Dartington Hall School in Devonshire, England, run by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhurst; accepts the position and moves to
England.

1931-37
Tobey is "resident artist" at Dartington Hall. Meets Pearl S. Buck, Aldous Huxley, Bernard Leach, Rabindranath Tagore, Rudi Shankar and
Others interested in the link between western and eastern cultures.

1932
Travels to Mexico, Europe and Palestine.

1934
Travels to China with ceramic artist Bernard Leach, passing through
Paris, Rome, Naples, Colombo, and Hong Kong. Visits Teng Kuei
and his family in Shanghai. Discovers the Nô and Kabuki theater.
Spends a month in a Zen monastery near Kyoto where he studies Zen
philosophy and painting, calligraphy, and meditation, inspiring his
"white writings". Returns to the United States.

1935
At Dartington Hall, paints 'Broadway norm', 'Broadway' and
'Welcome here', the painting which marked the beginnings of his
"white writings".

1936
Spends the summer teaching in Tacoma, Washington.

1937
Teaches in Seattle that summer.

1938
Tobey gives up teaching at Dartington Hall; has trouble readjusting
to life in Seattle.

1939
Befriends Pehr Hallsten.

1940
Awarded the Baker Memorial Award, Northwest Annual Exhibition,
Seattle Art Museum.

1941
Begins taking lessons in piano and music theory.

1942
During the exhibition 'Artists for Victory' at the Museum of Modern Art,
his painting 'Broadway' is sold.

1944
First solo exhibition at the Willard Gallery, New York with favourable
press reviews. His work begins to receive national acclaim.

1945
Julia and Lyonel Feininger write the text for the catalogue of Tobey's
exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Oregon. Exchanges
work with Feininger, starting a lasting friendship until Feininger's death
in 1956.

1948
Participates in the Venice Biennale.

1951
Josef Albers invites Tobey to spend three months at the Yale University
Art Department. Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of Art in
New York.

1952
'Mark Tobey: Artist', made in 1951 by Robert G. Gardener with
sound and script by Tobey, is shown at the Venice and Edinburgh
film festivals.

1954/dt>
Spends productive period in New York from February to June.
Begins work on the 'Meditative Series'. Meets Michel Tapié and Georges
Mathieu in Paris.

1955
Visits Basel, Bern and the south of France. A retrospective exhibition is held at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London.

1956
Takes part in the collective exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London,
entitled 'American Painting' with Kline, de Kooning, Motherwell, Pollock, Rothko and Still. Tobey is made a member of the National
Institute of Arts and Letters; receives the Guggenheim International
Award. Participates in the Venice Biennale.

1956-57
Period of Zen literature and philosophy (Suzuki). Paints the
'Sumi' ink paintings.

1958
Receives the Great International Award at the Venice Biennale.

1959
Completes the mural created for the Washington State Library, Olympia. Takes part in the Documenta II in Kassel.

1960
Refuses membership to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Moves to a house in Basel in the St. Alban-Vorstadt with Pehr Hallsten
and Mark Ritter, leading a quiet life of painting, music, and friends.
As a representative of the United States, takes part in "East-West", a congress in Vienna organized by the Association of Plastic Arts.

1961
Awarded first prize at 'The 1961 International Exhibition of
Contemporary Painting and Sculpture' at the Carnegie Institute,
Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Retrospective at the Musée des arts
décoratifs in Paris.

1962
Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1964
Completes the mural for the Seattle Opera House. Participates in the Venice Biennale.

1968
Awarded 'Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' in Paris.

1970
Retrospective entitled "Tobey's 80" at the Seattle Art Museum.

1974
Exhibition entitled 'Tribute to Mark Tobey' at the National Collection
of Fine Arts, Washinton.

1976
Dies 24 April in Basel.

Past Gallery Exhibitions

BERLIN
Mark Tobey
Selected Works 1944-1970
April 29 - July 29, 2011
NEW YORK
Lyonel Feininger & Mark Tobey
Years of Friendship 1944 - 1956
October 12 - November 24, 2004
Detail Image