Beyond Mysticism: The Modern Northwest.

Social Realism focused on the visible world—ordinary people, working lives, and the rapidly changing communities of the Pacific Northwest. Surrealism turned toward the invisible, exploring dreams, symbols, and the strange poetry of the subconscious mind, while Abstract Expressionism pushed even further into mood, gesture, and inner experience. In this tour of SAM's new show, I'll share with you these different impulses in the work of celebrated figures like Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Guy Anderson, and Morris Graves, alongside under-recognized artists such as Malcolm Roberts and Kenjiro Nomura. Together they tell the raw story of 20th-century Seattle—artists responding to the tension between natural beauty and a rapidly industrializing city, and using the language of modern art to capture both the outer landscape of the Northwest and the inner one of the human imagination.