Books published by Seattle Art Museum

Seattle art collectors Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis were frequent visitors to New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s when they collaboratively built their collection, filling their home with singular works of art. Their shared legacy and passion for engaging thoughtfully, deeply, and personally with art--and the frisson of excitement that arises with such a connection--are celebrated and echoed in this special exhibition catalogue. Spanning 1945 through 1976, the paintings, drawings, and sculptures in Frisson serve as significant examples of mature works and pivotal moments of artistic development from some of the most influential American and European artists of the postwar period, including Francis Bacon, Lee Krasner, Clyfford Still, Philip Guston, Joan Mitchell, David Smith, and others. Together they represent an inimitable archive of innovation and a cross-pollination of leading artistic positions in the postwar years. With twenty new scholarly essays written by leading experts, Frisson provides the first opportunity for in-depth research into and new insights about nineteen noteworthy artworks recently acquired by the Seattle Art Museum.

Founded in 1933, the Seattle Art Museum is home to a premier collection of Chinese art. Reviewing more than one hundred boxes of museum archives, annual reports, and correspondences, this book provides a nuanced account of Seattle's Chinese art collection, and reconsiders the "golden age" of collecting Chinese art in the early twentieth century.

Few regions of the country produced such a distinctive group of artists with such a particular view on the modern world as did the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s and 1940s. This book presents an overview drawn from SAM's unparalleled collection of the key figures of this generation.

The complexity and confusion of styles and intentions are true characters of modern Chinese art. This book explores the developments of Chinese art in the previous century, applying theories to question and reinterpret concepts that are normally taken for granted. It demonstrates how modern Chinese art history has been - and can be - written.

Celebrates an unprecedented series of gifts to the Seattle Art Museum on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. This work includes essays by nine curators including: Barbara Brotherton, Michael Darling, Julie Emerson, Chiyo Ishikawa, Patricia Junker, Pam McClusky, Marisa Sanchez, Yukuko Shirahara, and Josh Yiu.