Born in Centerville, Wisconsin, 1890
Lived and worked in Los Angeles and New York
EDUCATION
1934
Travelled to China and Japan; spent time in a cloister of the Zen-Buddhism and studies Zen-painting and calligraphy
1926
Traveled to Akka and Haifa; studied Persian and Arabian literature
1922-1925
Studied calligraphy and composition under Teng Kwei, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1906-1908
Studied under Frank Zimmerman and Professor Reynolds at the Art Institute of Chicago, IL
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2004
Galerie Pudelko, Bonn, Germany
2002
Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Mark Tobey - Bilder von 1940 bis 1975, BAUKUNST GALERIE, Cologne, Germany
2001
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany
Galerie Carzaniga + Uecker, Basel, Switzerland
Hachmeister Galerie, Munster, Germany
Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany
2000
Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle, WA, USA
Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
1999
Galerie Carzaniga + Uecker, Basel, Switzerland
Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle, WA, USA
1998
Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle, WA, USA
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, Germany
1991
Valley Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, USA
1990
Galerie Jeanne Bucher, FIAC, Paris, France
1977
Mark Tobey Retrospective, Ruth S. Shaffner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
1967
Willard Gallery, New York, NY
1966
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1962
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1952
Tobey Mark: Artist debuted in the Venice Film Festival and Edinburgh Film Festival
1945
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, USA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2009
Synchronies: Undercurrrents in Postwar European and American Abstraction, Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2008
Auktion 27, Lehr, Auktionshaus und Galerie, Berlin
Künstler der Galerie - Zeichnungen, Bilder, Skulpturen, Fotografien, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
2007
Contemporary, Cool and Collected, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, USA
Le Corps et son double, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, France
The Passionate Gesture, Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Jan Bouman Collection, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands
Shining Spirit: Westheimer Family Collection, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Pathways and Parallels: Roads to Abstract Expressionism, Hollis Taggart Galeries, New York, NY
American Modernists, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY, USA
2006
La Tentation de l'Orient, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, France
Künstler der Galerie, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
Wilfrid Moser/Mark Tobey, Galerie Carzaniga GmbH, Basel, Switzerland
Night Sounds: Nocturnal Visions of Mark Tobey and Morris Graves, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA
Inner Worlds Outside, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
Collection 1, NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Japan
2005
Internationale Zeichnungen, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
Light Space, Hachmeister Galerie, Munster, Germany
Peintures et Sculptures, Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne, Switzerland
Little Treasures from the Permanent Collection, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL, USA
2004
An American Odyssey, 1950-1980 - Debating Modernism, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Spain; Kiosco Alfonso, La Coruna, Spain
Onbegrensd – Unbegrenzt - Roger Raveelmuseum, Machelen, Belgium
Chine - Occident ou l'aventure du signe. Michaux, Tobey, Degottex, Zao Wou-Ki, Shan Sa - Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris, France
Künstler der Galerie, Galerie Biedermann, Munich, Germany
El Expresionismo Abstracto Americano en las Colecciones Españolas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
The Edge of Tomorrow - Tobey, Price and Graves from the 1940’s, Museum of Art, University of Oregon; San José Museum of Art, CA, USA
2003
Unaussprechlich schön - Das mystische Paradies in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts - Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany
Two Friends - Lyonel Feininger, Mark Tobey, Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York, NY
Northwest Mythologies - The Interactions of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan and Guy Anderson, Tacoma Art Museum, WA, USA
La collection Jean Planque, Salle St. Jean, Hotel de Ville, Paris, France
Separated Colours of Hachmeister, Hachmeister Galerie, Munster, Germany
Acquisitions Nouvelles, Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne, Switzerland
Abstract works on paper, autour de Mark Tobey, Galerie Darthea Speyer, Paris, France
2002-2003
Mark Tobey - Smashing Forms and Mark Tobey and Friends, Seattle Art, WA, USA
2002
Tobey – Price – Graves, University of Oregon Museum of Art, OR, USA
Klänge des Inneren Auges. Mark Tobey – Morris Graves – John Cage, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany; Museum Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, USA
2001-2002
Da Kandinsky a Pollock: La vertigine della non-forma, Museo Cantonale d'Arte Lugano, Switzerland
2001
The spirituality of the void, Fundacion Bancaja, Valencia, Spain
Asian Influences I, Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle, WA, USA
Hue, Schmidt Bingham Galleries, New York, NY
2000 Zen und die westliche Kunst, Museum Bochum, Germany
Native American Influences on 1930s & 1940s Modernists, David FIndlay Jr. FIne Art, New York, NY
Cross-Currents in Modern Art, Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York, NY
1998-1999 Closeness of Distance, Khmer Skulpturen und Mark Tobey Bilder, Emil Mirzakhanian, Milan, Italy, Hachmeister Galerie, Munster, Germany
1996
Luhring Augustine, New York, NY
1992-1993
Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, Germany
1991-1992
Galerie Lea Gredt, Luxemberg
1974
Retrospective, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian, Washington, DC, USA
1968
Retrospective, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, TX, USA
1961
Retrospective, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, subsidiary of the Louvre, Paris, France
1951
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA, USA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
AWARDS
1968
Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Paris
1961
First Prize for Painting, Carnegie International, Pittsburgh
1958
First Prize for Painting, Biennale, Venice
1957
Fine Arts Medal, American Institute of Architects
1956
Guggenheim International Award
Honorary Member, National Institute of Arts and Letters
1942
Artists for Victory Prize
The painting 'Broadway' was honoured and purchased by the Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY
1940
Katherine Baker Memorial Award, Seattle Art Museum
BOOKS
2004 Heiner Hachmeister (ed.), Mark Tobey Light Space, Muenster
1991 Heiner Hachmeister (ed.), Mark Tobey Werke / Oeuvres 1945