Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art [Hardcover]

Deloris Tarzan Ament (Author), Mary Randlett (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2002

In and around Seattle in the 1930s and 1940s, there emerged a group of artists who came to be known informally as the Northwest School. With no manifesto and no sense of group identity, they had little in common beyond poverty and the drive to make art in a way that was true to their inner being and their environment. Despite their denial that they constituted a school, their response to Northwest light and to the world around them created a distinctive style that continued to evolve over the next sixty years. In Iridescent Light, the distinguished art critic Deloris Tarzan Ament profiles twenty-one of these artists who lived and worked in Washington State during formative periods in their careers. In essays adorned by nearly one hundred photographs taken over half a century by Mary Randlett, also profiled here, the author blends discussion of their work with commentary on the obstacles they faced and the influences they brought to bear on one another, showing not only how artistic visions were shaped but also how the encouragement of a few farseeing patrons enabled the very survival of these artists. Their sources were the unique cultural mix of the Northwest together with the land itself as it appeared in the region's characteristically diffused light. They tended to work small, using a subdued palette indigenous to Northwest nature and achieving their effects with delicacy, on an intimate scale. Although their art defied easy classification, its figures seemed imbued with cosmic meaning, its landscapes fractured by a light that appeared to come from all directions, bathing objects in luminosity and minimising shadow. This inner light was matched by an outer light, brought by Asian immigrants whose approaches to life and art seemed refreshing and exotic to the region's Scandinavians and transplanted Midwesterners. This generation of Northwest artists found inspiration in the gestural symbolics of Asian calligraphy, enjoying access not just to prints but also to Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean artists themselves, whom they could watch at work, question, and engage in the exchange of ideas. The Northwest School-the school whose members denied its existence-is alive and well today, encompassing a wide range of styles and media, with works still permeated, regardless of style, by a shimmering light, a reflection of luminous Northwest mist.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Former Seattle newspaper art critic Ament profiles a series of 20 artists active in Washington State during the formative periods of their careers, moving from the 1930s forward. Beginning with painters Mark Tobey (1890-1976) and Morris Graves (1910-2001) and including many lesser-known artists, the works of this loosely defined Northwest School reflected the area's isolation, marine landscape, and diffused light. After a brief introduction, Ament provides appreciative chapters on the artists, only a minority of whom won recognition outside the region. (Randlett, whose photographs illustrate much of the book, is one of those profiled.) Based on firsthand knowledge and interviews, the book provides a real feeling for the individual artists; Ament writes in clear, appreciative journalistic prose, focusing on the artists and the challenges they faced more than the art itself. For regional collections and strong American art collections. Jack Perry Brown, Art Inst. of Chicago Lib.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Deloris Tarzan Ament served as art critic for the Seattle Times from 1971 to 1995. She lives in Seattle.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: University of Washington Press (January 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0295981474
• ISBN-13: 978-0295981475
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Iridescent Light, February 20, 2002

By 

Kathleen Pigg (Tempe, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art (Hardcover)

I loved the pictures in this book and the wonderful stories that go with them. I especially loved learning more about Helmi Juvonen. It is wonderful to see an artist of her calibre receiving this kind of recognition and to see such an excellent overview of Northwestern art. Wes Wehr's drawings, particuarly the Aztec High Priestess with the sparkplugs in her headress, are quintessential examples of his droll part-kachina, part-insect, part-outer-space "Little Monsters". I highly recommend this volume to anyone interested in experiencing the unique qualities of Northwestern art.