For seven decades, the Seattle Art Museum has been a leading visual arts institution in the Pacific Northwest. When the museum opened its doors in 1933, its collection focused primarily on Asian art. The museum moved to a downtown location in 1991 with a new building designed by architect Robert Venturi. Its original location was renovated and reopened as the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Together these museums have matured into a world-class arts institution with a global perspective and a collection that numbers approximately 23,000 objects. In 2004, the museum began a major expansion of the downtown museum, which opened in Spring 2007.
The Seattle collection contains 3,139 objects of African and Oceanic art, 61 Indonesian pieces, and 951 Ancient and Native American objects. The museum’s distinctive collection of African art has its foundation in the holdings of the late Katherine White. Her selection of masks and sculpture from many regions of Africa was balanced by an innovative taste for more personal art forms such as textiles, jewelry, furniture, and household objects of East, Central and West Africa. Additional collections of specialized strength include the Christensen Foundation’s representation of Kuba art in many media and Simon Ottenberg’s selection of Igbo masks. Oceanic holdings are less distinguished but are growing in the area of Philippine and Australian Aboriginal art.
The guiding principle of the installation of Northwest Coast Native art will be the use of Native voices to provide remembrances of past art traditions and art practitioners, an analysis of change, a discussion of the legacy of the older masters, and commentary on the recent “renaissance” of Northwest Coast art.