Object of the Week: Forgive Us Our Debts

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 20 2023

In honor of Black History Month, Object of the Week will feature artworks from SAM’s collection that explore Black art and artists. Black lives matter every day of the year, but this month is a particular opportunity to celebrate the …

Object of the Week: Hair Portrait #20

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 3 2023

In honor of Black History Month, Object of the Week will feature artworks from SAM’s collection that explore Black art and artists. Black lives matter every day of the year, but this month is a particular opportunity to celebrate the …

Object of the Week: Kali

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 19 2022

This week’s SAM Object of the Week was written by University of Washington student Ji In following a presentation given by SAM Assistant Curator of South Asian Art Natalia Di Pietrantonio to the class “Gender and the Hindu Goddess” in …

Object of the Week: The Creation of Eve

Seattle Art Museum on Aug 13 2022

Fra Bartolomeo's "The Creation of Eve" depicts the religious story from the book of Genesis in a manner different from other Christian artists in 16th century Italy. Learn how and why in a new Object of the Week from guest contributor and Art History Ph.D student, Gloria de Liberali.

Object of the Week: Indian Warrior

Seattle Art Museum on Jun 3 2022

Alexander Phimister Proctor was an American artist renowned for his bronze sculptures depicting the western frontier. Toward the end of 1896, he received the prestigious Rinehart Scholarship to practice in Paris on a three year contract. The scholarship committee commissioned …

Object of the Week: Kurtal

Pam McClusky on May 14 2022

An azure blue circle becomes a stop sign in this canvas now on view in Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water at SAM through May 30. Read up on "Kurtal," our SAM Object of the Week, on SAM Blog.

Object of the Week: Oil Spill #5

Pam McClusky on Apr 29 2022

Edward Burtynsky's "Oil Spill #5" documents the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Learn how this work epitomizes our species' desecration of water on SAM Blog.

Object of the Week: Coulee Dam Construction

Seattle Art Museum on Apr 22 2022

In "Coulee Dam Construction: Skip Way and Grout Shed," artist Z. Vanessa Helder captures the dam’s evolution in its final years of construction in her bold precisionist style. Read about this work from SAM Emerging Museum Professional Curatorial Intern Kari Karsten—it's our SAM Object of the Week!

Object of the Week: Sea Bear

Seattle Art Museum on Apr 1 2022

Crafted of wood, beads, shells, fabric, paint, and papier-mâché, Sherry Markovitz "Sea Bear" is a celebration of peace and gentleness while highlighting a species historically honored as a dynamic part of a balanced ecosystem. Read up on this beautiful work now on SAM Blog—it's our SAM Object of the Week!

Object of the Week: The Studio

Seattle Art Museum on Feb 18 2022

life living and working in Seattle, serving as a professor at the University of Washington's School of Art. His 1977 work, "The Studio," depicts the artist in the attic of his Seattle studio. Read about this SAM Object of the Week and it's ties to his hometown of Harlem on SAM Blog now.

Object of the Week: Me and Pops

Elisabeth Smith on Feb 11 2022

 An artist whose work defies easy definition, Aaron Fowler’s “memoiristic, maximalist bricolage” sculptures are comprised of carefully sourced found materials and second-hand objects that have the “feel of human in them.”1 Taking compositional cues from American history painting, religious iconography, …

Object of the Week: Distant Echoes of Dreams

Pam McClusky on Feb 4 2022

What if you turned on the faucet in your bathroom and no water flowed out? In partnership with WaterAid, artist Aida Muluneh created a photo series meant to shed light on the extreme inequities in access to clean water. Learn about one of these photographs, "Distant Echoes of Dreams," on SAM Blog—it's our SAM Object of the Week!

Object of the Week: Monday, March 16, 2020

Elisabeth Smith on Jan 28 2022

Since 2005, Fred Tomaselli has developed a body of work in which he uses the front page of The New York Times as the starting point for fantastic and at times surreal or psychedelic collages. Check out SAM Blog to read about, "Monday, March 16, 2020," documenting the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Object of the Week: Kali (I’m a Mess)

Seattle Art Museum on Jan 7 2022

Dr. Chila Kumari Singh Burman's neon artwork disrupts the mundane with a roar of color. Check out SAM Blog to learn about her recently acquired work "Kali (I'm a Mess)," our SAM Object of the Week, and see it on view in "Embodied Change: South Asian Art Across Time" at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Object of the Week: Kifwebe

Pam McClusky on Dec 16 2021

This week's SAM Object of the Week serves two purposes: to discuss the Congolese mask "Kifwebe" and to remember African art historian Robert Farris Thompson following his recent passing on November 29, 2021. Learn about this important work and Thompson's remarkable influence in the art world on SAM Blog now!

Object of the Week: Liminal Objects #5

Seattle Art Museum on Dec 9 2021

During the 1990s, contemporary art saw a “cinematic turn,” with a proliferation of large-scale video projection within the gallery space. Seattle artist Gary Hill was among the first to explore this new concept. Read more about his groundbreaking work, "Liminal Spaces #5," our SAM Object of the Week, on SAM Blog.

Object of the Week: Feast Dish

Seattle Art Museum on Nov 24 2021

Crafted out of wood, paint, and opercula shells, Calvin Hunt's monster Feast Dish, is a testament to the importance of food, community, and potlatch culture to the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples of British Columbia. Read more about this SAM Object of the Week on SAM Blog!

Object of the Week: Night Watch

Elisabeth Smith on Nov 18 2021

"Night Watch" by Lee Krasner is part of a body of work often referred to as her “Night Journeys.” Grieving the loss of her husband, Jackson Pollock, and her mother, Krasner found herself in a challenging and painful emotional space. Read up on this SAM Object of the Week on #SAMBlog!

Object of the Week: Focal Point

Traci Timmons on Nov 11 2021

This week's SAM Object of the Week: "Focal Point [Imogen Cunningham]." Read about this broadside created by Tacoma artists Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring which honors 20th-century photographer Imogen Cunningham on SAM Blog.

Object of the Week: Nguzu Nguzu

Pam McClusky on Nov 4 2021

Dire predictions of rising sea levels and fresh water scarcity are two issues of importance at SAM as curators prepare for our upcoming exhibition, "Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water." Read about one of the works that will be on view in the exhibition, "Nguzu Nguzu," our SAM Object of the Week, on SAM Blog.

Object of the Week: Dawn Shapes

Elisabeth Smith on Oct 29 2021

Considered the progenitor of Color Field painting, Helen Frankenthaler made waves as one of the first women to show Abstract Expressionist art in the United States. Her painting, "Dawn Shapes," SAM's Object of the Week, exemplifies her pioneering soak stain technique—find out how on SAM Blog!
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