Painters of the Northwest: Impressionism to Modernism, 1900-1940

A groundbreaking exhibition focusing on the work of a variety of early modern artists active primarily in Washington and Oregon during the period 1900-1940.

This exhibition consists primarily of original art works that are illustrated in the recent publication, Painters of the Northwest: Impressionism to Modernism: 1900-1930 written by Cascadia Art Museum board member, John Impert. Painters of the Northwest shows for the first time how a spectacular natural environment, one that conformed aesthetically to nineteenth-century ideals of romanticism and transcendental reverence, combined with an emphasis on subject over style to create a body of work far more concerned with the natural environment than with the socioeconomic issues that occupied city-bound artists of the day. 

The exhibition extends the parameters to include an additional decade of production.

Thematically, the exhibit will follow the trajectory of painting styles in the Northwest from Realism through Impressionism and finally to Modernism as inspired by antecedents in Europe.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Edgar Forkner (1867-1945), Fishing Boats at Ballard, circa 1925

Whether or not you go, the companion publication, Painters of the Northwest: Impressionism to Modernism, 1900–1930, introduces readers to the rich and varied array of artists and works of art that defined the region’s artistic transition from a nature-bound impressionism to the arrival of modernism. Focusing on nine artists—Paul Morgan Gustin, C. C. McKim, Clyde Keller, J. Edgar Forkner, Clara Jane Stephens, Dorothy Dolph Jensen, Eustace Paul Ziegler, Mark Tobey, and C. S. Price—art historian John Impert organized the book around the landscapes, people, and city scenes they painted, identifying the influence of impressionism, in particular the singular way in which each artist's biography, style, and iconography contribute to a distinctive northwestern sensibility. Establishing a chronology, history, and art historical canon for this little-studied place and time, this book is a long-overdue foundational history of early twentieth-century painting in the Pacific Northwest.

Select Painters of the Northwest: Impressionism to Modernism, 1900–1930 to learn more, or to place this book in your Amazon shopping cart. Your Amazon purchase through this link generates a small commission that will help to fund the ArtGeek.art search engine.