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When we consider Mark Tobey's many journeys to various continents and his active interest in things other than painting, such as music, literature, religion, and philosophy, then it becomes clear that Tobey was one of the few of his generation of American artists who actually opened a door to still broader experiences. His work shows an important influence on European and American painting. Morris Graves, working near Seattle, used Tobey’s white writing to add a mystic level to his animalistic figures. Italians Tancredi and Mario Deluigi openly yet superficially imitated Tobey. In the degree of abstraction, the compositional schemes, and the all-over notion of Tobey’s paintings, Jackson Pollock recognized an opportunity to move beyond the discourse surrounding the Surrealists who had emigrated from Europe to North America — a step that would lead him to his action paintings. Without the impulse provided by Tobey’s moving focus and all-over concept, works by Richard Pousette-Dart and Lee Krasner, and the early works of Sam Francis and Piero Dorazio would have been inconceivable.
The description of one of Tobey's short stays in New York in 1956, written by his longtime friend, Wesley Wehr, in With Mark Tobey in New York provides a lively introduction to Tobey’s inexhaustible thirst for knowledge and visual experience, his wide network of friendships, and at the same time, a few remarkable insights into his work and works by other artists of his time, such as Piet Mondrian. In his text, Between Worlds, Matthias Bärmann uses the striking, multifaceted term ”nomadic pattern” to describe the actions and deeds of Mark Tobey, determines the position of Tobey's work in the American modern art, especially during the Cold Culture War, and explains the artistic relationship between Tobey and Pollock. In his text, Ductus, Stroke and Graphics in Tobey's Work, Kosme de Barañano demonstrates that, as a symbol for multifacetedness, Tobey’s writing was not limited to fine, white structures, but that the many different kinds of phenomena each have their own correspondent in the many different types of writing and color used in painting. In Some notes on some works by Mark Tobey Heiner Hachmeister explains different aggregate states of related works and their different tenors, comments Tobey's late work and debates his paintings on Styrofoam.
The illustrations in color concentrate only on Tobey's abstract work. Beginning with the firstly illustrated 1944 white writing tempera Written Stone, the book presents further masterpieces from the 40ies and 50ies like Promenaders (1945), Central (1949) or New Crescent from 1953 and Meditative Series VIII (1954). Important paintings from the 60ies like one of Tobey's rare oil paintings Untitled (1965), the series of Night Celebrations from 1969 – 71 or the large sized Ecstasy of Growth(1967) show the high-aged artist's powerful exposition of his calligraphic painting. Full-paged illustrations of details from early and late works allow to study Tobey's virtuosity which let painting become light and space. |
