'Re Building' celebrates MoNA's permanent collection

The Museum of Northwest Art’s permanent collection takes center stage in the exhibit “Re Building: Celebrating the Role of the Permanent Collection in Building Up MoNA’s Significance, Past and Present.” That mouthful of a title identifies the 40 year commitment to “building up and cementing the reputation of the institution as a remarkable repository of the modern and contemporary trajectory of Northwest art” as the website states.

Through September visitors can view a sampling of over 2,400 artworks ranging across all media and spanning from the early 1900s to the present. The “core of the collection is the seminal work of the ‘Big Four:’ Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves and Mark Tobey, who, inspired by the landscape and unique quality of the light of the Skagit Valley, between the 1930s-1950s created works of lyrical beauty – as well as the work of a cadre of younger artists who felt (their) mystique,” the exhibit summary notes.

The directors who made the collection possible through acquisitions and curating, Art Hupy at the founding and then Susan Parke, are also heralded.

The exhibit summary notes that collecting priorities the last 15 years have been influenced by factors from world events to our evolving cultural and social values due to the accelerating interconnectedness between the regional art scenes and global realities.”

See for yourself. The galleries are open daily. Information: monamuseum.org.

Source: MoNA