Muse/News: Meeting Ourselves, New Leader, and Pirate Myths

SAM News

Author and speaker Jodi-Ann Burey writes for ARTE NOIR about spending “an afternoon with Jacob Lawrence” at the Seattle Art Museum. A 13-work exhibition of the modern artist, Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller, is now on view.

“Why does one painting call us more than others? What parts of ourselves, buried or thriving, known or unknown, does art draw out? What does it mean to stand in front of a Jacob Lawrence painting and think only of my mother? I make a mental note to call her on my way out.”

“An Uproarious Survey in Seattle Brings Together the West Coast’s Artist-Heretics”: Art historian  Patricia Failing reviews Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture for ARTnews. You’ve got one month left to see it at SAM!

“Wrapping together art-historical revisionism and kid-friendly displays, the Seattle Art Museum’s new exhibition, “Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture,” flashes back to artistic rebellions of the 1960s and ‘70s associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement, Funk art, and Northwest studio ceramics.”

Local News

The latest weekly newsletter of Cascade PBS’s Brangien Davis features Actualize AiR, the new endeavor in the Coliseum Theater, and mourns the passing of potter Reid Ozaki. BTW: Did you know that Davis has launched a new video series, Art by Northwest? It broadcasts on Friday nights and streams the following Mondays.

Here’s Jas Keimig for South Seattle Emerald with another helpful “Arts in the South End Roundup” for the month of August. 

Big news via Tat Bellamy-Walker of The Seattle Times: “Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum picks Brandon Bird as CEO.”

“Bird doubled down on the need for the museum to be ‘anchored and grounded’ in reflecting its mission to be a family-focused institution that uplifts the experiences of all Black people, particularly those in the Pacific Northwest.”

Inter/National News

Via Brian Boucher for Artnet: “Snoop Dogg Paid an After-Hours Visit to the Louvre. Zaniness Ensued.”

Andrew Russeth for The New York Times on Pacita Abad’s first retrospective, which opened at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis last year and is now on view at MoMA PS1.

Maev Kennedy for The Art Newspaper on the conservation of a rare pirate flag for an upcoming exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in London. 

“The exhibition will demolish cherished myths about pirates, including walking the plank and maps of buried treasure. It will also reveal that some kept disappointingly pragmatic rules on board—Bartholomew Roberts, better known as Black Bart, insisted on lights out by 8 pm.”

And Finally

Celebrating James Baldwin’s 100th birthday through his sentences.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Photo: Chloe Collyer.

Muse/News: Reimagined museums, reflective art, and the many rhythms of Cuba

SAM News

Last week, SAM announced that the Asian Art Museum will reopen to the public on February 8 and 9 with two free 12-hour days of programming, reflecting the 12 themes of the dramatically reimagined collection. The Seattle Times broke the news.

Natalie Ball: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Snake is reviewed by Bean Gilsdorf in Art in America. It’s also the cover story in this week’s edition of Real Change, with a feature review by Lisa Edge inside.

“Ball’s creations are freighted with symbolic messages, composed in a language that conjures both ancestral tradition and contemporary identity.”

“While audiences may not understand all the references she’s included, she wants them to connect with it emotionally. ‘I want them to feel it,’ Ball said. ‘I want it to pull or tug.’”

Building bridges! Centering joy! Priya Frank, SAM’s Associate Director for Community Programs, is one of Puget Sound Business Journal’s annual “40 Under 40” leaders.

Local News

Last week, we shared coverage of an internal battle at Intiman Theatre. This week, the organization has agreed on a plan for its future.

Seattle Met’s Stefan Milne has some thoughts on the five gallery shows to see this month.

The Stranger’s Jasmyne Keimig gets reflective in Carrie Yamaoka’s recto/verso at the Henry Art Gallery.

“It’s representation in the purest of senses, in that you can literally see yourself in her work—not an abstracted label of your body, say, or your identity, but your body and your identity.”

Inter/National News

The new MoMA opens on October 21, and press have had their sneak peek. Here’s thoughts from the New York Times and Vulture; CBS Sunday Morning will visit this week.

Can he collect it? Yes he can! Artsy chats with Q-Tip about his art collection, now on view at Bonham’s in New York.

It’s one of those beautiful New York Times interactives, this time taking us on a road trip across the many rhythms of Cuba.

“Cuban music is often described as a tree, with various primary roots that supply life for many branches. But separating the island’s music into distinct genres is an inherently flawed task — they intertwine and cross.”

And Finally

A swan song (or 10) from Jessye Norman.

– Rachel Eggers, SAM Associate Director of Public Relations

Muse/News: Art News from SAM, Seattle, and Beyond

Welcome to our newest blog series, Muse/News—your weekly recap of what’s happening in art news at the Seattle Art Museum and across the world. Check back Mondays for updates on the artists and events making headlines around the world. With the Seattle Art Fair come and gone over the weekend, there’s plenty to digest and our PR Manager, Rachel Eggers delivers the scoop here in a perfect bite size. Enjoy!

All was fair in the city this past week as the Seattle Art Fair breezed into town for the third year in a row. What initially seemed an ambitious experiment is quickly becoming a welcome mainstay of the Seattle cultural calendar.

SAM News

Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM’s Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture (phew!) has been named Best Curator in Seattle Weekly’s annual readers’ poll. We’re glad everyone loves her as much as we do. Congrats, Chiyo!

Loved this substantial dive into the tensions of “selfie obliteration” in the Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibition by Erin Langner for ARCADE.

“…Kusama’s inclination to control and present her own image in the 1960s seems well ahead of its time. Accepting the way images are consumed, she chose to control the construction, proliferation, and obliteration of hers rather than allowing someone else to do so. Some of her true self was left out in the fiction of the performance. But, she also ensured the performance was conveyed the way she envisioned it. To this end, maybe taking selfies, in an Infinity Mirror Room or elsewhere, can have meaning when done with similar intent—when they give us the chance to perform and let go of ourselves at the same time.”

Local News

Emily Pothast of the Stranger offered compelling thoughts on the fair and offered her five don’t-miss highlights.

SAM staff got out and about this weekend; check out tips for the Seattle Art Fair from SAM’s Chiyo Ishikawa in Crosscut and David Rue in CityArts.

Michael Upchurch of the Seattle Times recently reviewed the Henry show on local sculptor Doris Totten Chase (looks groovy!).

Inter/National News

Are you “here for the right reasons”? The New York Times visits a rose-filled one-night show. After the recent casting call here, maybe we’ll see a Seattleite embark on the “journey” next season (ugh, you know you’ll watch again).

Artist Julie Mehretu, represented in SAM’s collection, is working on a monumental commission for the San Francisco MoMA; her paintings “are trying to make sense of where we are in our country right now.”

“What should one do when faced with images of violence?” That’s the question writer and critical theorist Sarah Sentilles took up this week for the New Yorker. She appears tonight at Elliott Bay Book Company to discuss her new book, Draw Your Weapons.

– Rachel Eggers, Manager of Public Relations

Photo: Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM’s Susan Brotman Deputy Director for Art and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture, dresses the part while considering Kusama’s multiverse.
SAM Stories