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Notwithstanding its complete abstraction, Tobey’s Transfiguration, with its lace-like network of lines, demonstrates the impact of Oriental calligraphy, which the artist had studied beginning in 1923. The serigraph, printed on a buff-colored handmade Japanese paper, has an overall gray tonality, which is alleviated with touches of deep red and ochre. At the center, the pattern is more open, revealing light gray and white in the interstices, making the sides and corners appear darker by contrast.
The title, Transfiguration, derives from the episode recounted by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the New Testament; Jesus and three apostles go to a mountain where Jesus is surrounded by rays of light and Moses and Elijah appear. In Christian theology, the narrative symbolizes the role of Jesus as the spiritual bridge between heaven and earth, old and new. As an active Bahá’í, Tobey believed in the correlation of all religions, and his trademark “white writing” can be viewed as a means to connect disparate visual elements. Here the writing is no longer white, but rather a somber charcoal gray. This is perhaps a reflection of notan, the Japanese study of tonal values, which Tobey encountered on his visit to Japan in 1934. And the light that appears to emanate from the center relates to Bahá’í emphasis on God as the source of illumination. [1]
Tobey’s good friend and colleague Lyonel Feininger understood the significance of his approach: “His highly sensitive technique captures something of the fleeting values of our life; it is an expression adequate for times like ours, where old-accustomed stability has given way to changed concepts of space, where boundaries are almost nonexistent, and in which time itself has acquired new definitions; in which the intricacies of existence overlay the fundamentals of life and man as never before has to struggle for a way out.” [2]
Tobey willingly admitted his affinity with the work of Paul Klee, whose small paintings rely on a delicate visual language of lines, color layers, and a sense of deep space. The similarity at times between the work of Tobey and Klee was so great that it led the noted critic Clement Greenberg to label Tobey a “product of the Klee school.” Like Klee, whose images are often childlike, Tobey invented his own style in part to escape the temporal and attain something more spiritual: “I paint to evoke a changing language of symbols, a language with which to remark upon the qualities of our mysterious capacities which direct us toward ultimate reality. I paint to rest from the phenomena of the external world—to pronounce it—and to make notations of its essence with which to verify the inner eye.” [3]
Notes:
[1] See Arthur Dahl, et al, Mark Tobey: Art and Belief (Oxford, England: George Ronald, 1984).
[2] Feininger, Mark Tobey (New York: Willard Gallery, 1945) quoted in Betty Bowen, Tobey’s 80, A Retrospective (Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum and University of Seattle Press, 1970), unpaginated.
[3] Andrew Kagan, “Paul Klee’s Influence on American Painting: New York School,” Arts Magazine, June 1975, 57, and Tobey, http://www.cmt-marktobey.net/Texts_from/Tf-22/tf-22.html.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
2007
Abstract/Object
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/27/2007 - 6/17/2007)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Transfiguration
Artist
Mark Tobey
(1890 - 1976)
Date1975
Mediummulti-color serigraph on handmade Japan paper
DimensionsFrame: 31 7/16 x 24 1/4 in. (79.9 x 61.6 cm)
Paper: 27 1/4 x 20 in. (69.2 x 50.8 cm)
Image: 15 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (39.4 x 29.2 cm)
SignedTobey
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
Copyright© 2021 Estate of Mark Tobey / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object number1983.2.31
DescriptionThe art of the Orient has long inspired western artists, from James A. M. Whistler and Edouard Manet to Mark Tobey and Morris Graves, two artists associated with the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes the influence has been purely formal, while for other artists the appeal has been more profound and almost spiritual. Notwithstanding its complete abstraction, Tobey’s Transfiguration, with its lace-like network of lines, demonstrates the impact of Oriental calligraphy, which the artist had studied beginning in 1923. The serigraph, printed on a buff-colored handmade Japanese paper, has an overall gray tonality, which is alleviated with touches of deep red and ochre. At the center, the pattern is more open, revealing light gray and white in the interstices, making the sides and corners appear darker by contrast.
The title, Transfiguration, derives from the episode recounted by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke in the New Testament; Jesus and three apostles go to a mountain where Jesus is surrounded by rays of light and Moses and Elijah appear. In Christian theology, the narrative symbolizes the role of Jesus as the spiritual bridge between heaven and earth, old and new. As an active Bahá’í, Tobey believed in the correlation of all religions, and his trademark “white writing” can be viewed as a means to connect disparate visual elements. Here the writing is no longer white, but rather a somber charcoal gray. This is perhaps a reflection of notan, the Japanese study of tonal values, which Tobey encountered on his visit to Japan in 1934. And the light that appears to emanate from the center relates to Bahá’í emphasis on God as the source of illumination. [1]
Tobey’s good friend and colleague Lyonel Feininger understood the significance of his approach: “His highly sensitive technique captures something of the fleeting values of our life; it is an expression adequate for times like ours, where old-accustomed stability has given way to changed concepts of space, where boundaries are almost nonexistent, and in which time itself has acquired new definitions; in which the intricacies of existence overlay the fundamentals of life and man as never before has to struggle for a way out.” [2]
Tobey willingly admitted his affinity with the work of Paul Klee, whose small paintings rely on a delicate visual language of lines, color layers, and a sense of deep space. The similarity at times between the work of Tobey and Klee was so great that it led the noted critic Clement Greenberg to label Tobey a “product of the Klee school.” Like Klee, whose images are often childlike, Tobey invented his own style in part to escape the temporal and attain something more spiritual: “I paint to evoke a changing language of symbols, a language with which to remark upon the qualities of our mysterious capacities which direct us toward ultimate reality. I paint to rest from the phenomena of the external world—to pronounce it—and to make notations of its essence with which to verify the inner eye.” [3]
Notes:
[1] See Arthur Dahl, et al, Mark Tobey: Art and Belief (Oxford, England: George Ronald, 1984).
[2] Feininger, Mark Tobey (New York: Willard Gallery, 1945) quoted in Betty Bowen, Tobey’s 80, A Retrospective (Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum and University of Seattle Press, 1970), unpaginated.
[3] Andrew Kagan, “Paul Klee’s Influence on American Painting: New York School,” Arts Magazine, June 1975, 57, and Tobey, http://www.cmt-marktobey.net/Texts_from/Tf-22/tf-22.html.
ProvenanceTo 1983
Barbara B. Millhouse, New York, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. [1]
From 1983
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Barbara B. Millhouse on December 29, 1983. [2]
Notes:
[1] Deed of Gift, object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1976
Twentieth Century American Print Collection opening
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (12/3/1976)
2007
Abstract/Object
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/27/2007 - 6/17/2007)
Published References
Status
Not on view