1971.88 Calligraphy in White

Prior to the emergence of abstract expressionism, the Wisconsin-born artist Mark Tobey had begun to develop his own abstract style as early as 1918. At that time he converted to Baha'i, a monotheistic faith originating in Persia that believes in the spiritual unity of mankind. His beliefs exerted significant influence on his life and work. Tobey was also influenced by East Asian calligraphy. A year after his move to Seattle, Washington, in 1922, he studied Chinese calligraphy with the painter Deng Kui, with whom he would again study in Shanghai in 1934. In 1930, Tobey moved to England where he remained until 1938. During this time he regularly traveled throughout the world. He spent a month studying meditation at the Zen monastery Enryaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan, in 1935. Following his return to England, he began to create paintings using a technique he called "white writing," evident in Calligraphy in White, which is executed in tempera on paper. Emerging into a field of intricate, autonomous line drawing, the painting expresses Tobey's religious conviction that space is as vital with spiritual and physical energy as solid matter.

 

DMFA Newsletter with 1968 Mark Tobey Retrospective exhibition info - attach to object or to exhibition somehow?  12052453: UMO; also catalogue for exhibition in library 759.13 T552d 

n.d.: Mark Tobey (1890-1976)

1965: Mr. and Mrs. James H. Clark, Dallas, Texas, purchased from Otto Seligman Gallery, Seattle, Washington

1971: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, gift from above [1]

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the object record card in the Collections Records object file (1971.88).

[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1984.

Apply to objects where number equals 1971.88