White Umber
Artist
Margaret Tomkins
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions78 x 108 in. (198.1 x 274.3 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift to the City of Seattle from Mr. and Mrs. Manfred Selig of Seattle, WA
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Manfred Selig
Tomkins was born in Los Angeles, received her M.F.A. from the University of Southern California in 1939 and moved to the Northwest in 1940 to become a faculty member at the University of Washington. She married painter/sculptor James Fitzgerald with whom she shared a life of art-making. Her paintings were made in independent isolation in the studio they constructed in 1948 in the San Juan Islands. Here she continued her painting pursuits long after the death of her husband.
“The Northwest in the 1940-50s was a dead end for the exhibition of strong, abstract paintings produced nationally or regionally. The focus was on a so-called ‘mystical art’ or regional realism. Modern art shows at the Seattle Art Museum and the few galleries in the Northwest were minimal in number and quality. The recent decades have opened a new Northwest passage of freedom and independence for the artist, with unique, more personal statements dominating exhibitions.
“The span of my life work moved from the early egg tempera paintings that revealed an abstract metamorphosis of man and nature, to the large oils of the 1960s, which were energized by the tensions of line, shape and space. In 1999 a studio fire destroyed all of my work prior to that year. After a period of European travel in 1961, I returned to painting. Since the 1970s my acrylic paintings have involved the changing substance of light, line, and color.” – artist statement for 50 Northwest Artists, Bruce Guenther
Tomkins was born in Los Angeles, received her M.F.A. from the University of Southern California in 1939 and moved to the Northwest in 1940 to become a faculty member at the University of Washington. She married painter/sculptor James Fitzgerald with whom she shared a life of art-making. Her paintings were made in independent isolation in the studio they constructed in 1948 in the San Juan Islands. Here she continued her painting pursuits long after the death of her husband.
“The Northwest in the 1940-50s was a dead end for the exhibition of strong, abstract paintings produced nationally or regionally. The focus was on a so-called ‘mystical art’ or regional realism. Modern art shows at the Seattle Art Museum and the few galleries in the Northwest were minimal in number and quality. The recent decades have opened a new Northwest passage of freedom and independence for the artist, with unique, more personal statements dominating exhibitions.
“The span of my life work moved from the early egg tempera paintings that revealed an abstract metamorphosis of man and nature, to the large oils of the 1960s, which were energized by the tensions of line, shape and space. In 1999 a studio fire destroyed all of my work prior to that year. After a period of European travel in 1961, I returned to painting. Since the 1970s my acrylic paintings have involved the changing substance of light, line, and color.” – artist statement for 50 Northwest Artists, Bruce Guenther
Margaret Ahren Sahlstrand
