Cascadia Art Museum continues to surprise and challenge the art community to expand its definition of Northwest Art and artists.
During the January opening for “A Legacy Rediscovered: Northwest Women Artists, 1920-1970,” founder Lindsey Echelbarger and curator David Martin expressed gratitude for the continued support of the community for this special museum, with 2023 being a ground-breaking year for the museum as it rebuilt after the pandemic, as well as the continued recognition of art collectors with gifts to the museum.
“There is a clear theme running through this year’s exhibitions,” said Echelbarger. “2024 is the year of women at Cascadia Art Museum.”
He and Martin spoke with anticipation about this year and these remarkable artists.
“When I started researching the great artists of the Pacific Northwest,” said Martin, “I found that most of them were women.”
For this show, the Gateway Gallery presents a variety of subject matter, style, and medium, making the show one of the most compelling in recent Cascadia history.
The work of important Northwest women artists from the early to mid-20th century was nearly lost, but thanks to Martin, most of this art that had rarely been seen before now demonstrates how these important artists played a key role in the region’s cultural development despite being overshadowed by their male counterparts.
“These artists were all born before women even earned the right to vote,” said Martin, so it is no surprise that their art was not maintained with the same regard.
Several family members – children, grandchildren, etc. – of the women artists featured at Cascadia were in attendance and were grateful to see these works receiving deserved recognition.
Several of the paintings on display were recent gifts to Cascadia’s permanent collection, as well as many on loan from family and private collections.
Featured artists include Louise Crow (1891-1968), Doris Totten Chase (1923-2008), Margaret Tomkins (1916 – 2002), as well as Roselyn Buck Pape (1925-2020) and Elsa Thoresen (1906-1994), a leading figure in European Surrealism who settled in Seattle after World War II.
Martin told the story of how he “discovered” Thoresen.
“In old library scrapbooks, I found pieces from an artist that really intrigued me. I found out that Thoresen exhibited in seminal surrealism shows in Paris in the 1930s and 1940s, but he heard that she had died, penniless and childless so thought he could not learn more.
“When I went to Paris and went to a show of women surrealist artists, I discovered Thoresen indeed had a daughter, Alice, and had led a full, artistic life there.
“Despite being forgotten in her home, Thoresen was successful and, after Martin found Alice, the family left Cascadia several works that will begin an American retrospective in 2025.”
“A Legacy Rediscovered: Northwest Women Artists, 1920-1970” will remain on display for the entire year, accompanying a range of other impressive exhibitions by women artists of the Pacific Northwest throughout 2024.
One of the many benefits of the exhibit running a full year is that Cascadia’s growing education program through the Edmonds School District benefits from a consistent curriculum for multiple classes.
If the students are not going to miss this exhibit, make sure you don’t either!
The museum’s website highlights a number of special programs for students and patrons. Martin has scheduled more Coffees with the Curator as they tend to fill up fast. Keep an eye out for those, as well, since you can learn even more about the artists and their inspiration.
