Still on view through September 7, SAM’s all-native show Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical focuses primarily on what I call the Big Four: Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson. We do see an important selection of their work, including some recent acquisitions on view for the first time. What Tobey and company brought to national attention during the war years and after was a fresh regional awareness and reverence for place. This meant not simple landscapes, but a deeper appreciation for the spiritual aspect of nature, traces of Native American culture, and currents from across the Pacific—including Eastern religion and Asian art. We also see the Big Four’s spiritual heirs in the show’s final gallery—figures like Paul Horiuchi, Tony Angell, and Leo Kenney.

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