ALDEN MASON: FLY YOUR OWN THING | BELLEVUE ARTS MUSEUM
From left Roger Hull, Regina Hackett, Greg Kucera, and Phen Huang at the opening of Alden Mason: Fly Your Own Thing at Bellevue Arts Museum
ALDEN MASON: FLY YOUR OWN THING
May 14 - October 10, 2021
Bellevue Arts Museum
Alden Mason’s first comprehensive museum exhibition Alden Mason: Fly Your Own Thing is now on view at Bellevue Arts Museum. Organized by the Museum in partnership with the Alden Mason Foundation, Fly Your Own Thing offers a clear overview of Mason’s diverse body of work. Beginning with his earliest paintings and following his artistic trajectory, styles vacillate broadly; matte, linear mid-century pieces give way to moody landscape studies, vibrant celebrations of paint lead into the complete abstraction of his burpee series, and fluid, rhythmic squeeze-bottle paintings ground the latter part of his career.
Divided by the most significant of the artists’ styles of working, the exhibition allows for a widening of ones understanding of the significance of Mason’s oeuvre. The works also serve as a beautiful reflection of the times during which they were created, and the world as Mason saw it.
As a painter, Mason was willing to take daring risks in his own work, changing his processes and explorations deftly and without restraint. Success with a certain style of painting did not, for Mason, dictate a loyalty to a singular approach; Fly Your Own Thing invites viewers to witness the artist’s evolving fascinations and better understand the machinations of his mind.
The exhibition was curated by author Roger Hull, professor emeritus of art history at Willamette University. Hull is also the lead essayist of the first collective monograph on Mason and his work, Alden Mason: Paintings, produced in tandem with the exhibition. The publication also includes essays by art critic Regina Hackett, and writer Robert Ayers.
Foster/White Gallery was pleased to loan works from the Gallery on behalf of the Alden Mason Foundation for inclusion in the exhibition, including Gumball Tower, imaged below.
Left, Alden Mason, Gum Ball Tower, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36.75 inches and right, Alden Mason, The Farmer's Wife, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 inches, both on view now as part of Alden Mason: Fly Your Own Thing at Bellevue Arts Museum.
The Alden Mason Foundation and Foster/White Gallery are also pleased to present an exhibition of selected work created by Mason’s art students in June.
Also on view will be an array of Mason’s artwork, ranging from large scale paintings to smaller works on paper.
Greg Kucera Gallery will be showing a selection of Mason's painting and drawing from June 3, - July 10, 2021, as well as watercolor paintings by Ray Hill, Mason’s instructor and mentor.
Alden Mason held a BFA and an MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle. He had his first solo exhibition in 1946 at Henry Art Gallery, and his work has been shown extensively, including at Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA; Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA; and San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA to name a few. His paintings are part of dozens of Museum and University collections including San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL; and Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue WA.
Mason passed away in February, 2013. He was 93.
To learn more about Alden Mason, and to see available works please visit fosterwhite.com.