SEATTLE ART MUSEUM

Founded in 1933 by Richard E. Fuller, this museum has occupied since 1991, whose rather massive exterior appearance designed by the architect Robert Venturi is attenuated by the vertical lines that line the façades and the coloured marble frieze framing the openings. The motifs are reminiscent of Native American art on the Northwest Coast and this building is easily identifiable thanks to the giant metal kinetic silhouette of the Hammering Man, the gold digger with his ice axe designed by artist Jonathan Borofsky, who is moving on the square! The collection includes 23,000 objects from African, European, Mediterranean, American, Australian, Oceanian, Asian, and Indian art. In 2007, the museum opened new galleries after acquiring more than 1,000 works dedicated to contemporary art. In 2019, the museum will refurbish its European and Asian galleries.

The rooms of the permanent collection are not too crowded, but temporary collections attract many people, they are international and exciting. On the ground floor you will find the small coffee shop with some healthy sandwiches and juices for sale. But also an interesting shop to bring back small artistic gifts.

Native American Art: We can focus particularly on the part devoted to Aboriginal art with masks, protective house posts, everyday objects, rare, but interesting to discover and quite gigantic!

Modern and contemporary art. We can mention Robert Rauschenberg and his impressive Manuscript canvas, some works by Masson, Picabia, Delaunay, Basquia. There is an Elvis Presley painted by Andy Warhol.

Asian art. The great Wave (1830) by the Japanese Katsushika Hokusai, a huge woodcut of the famous ukiyo-e current during the Edo period. The work is the first of Hokusai's famous series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji", and the most famous by the artist Hokusai. There is also a huge sculpture of the Korean Do-Ho-Suh.