The Tacoma Art Museum

We visited the new Tacoma Art Museum for the first time this weekend, and I’ll admit I was a little disappointed to discover that I had missed the inaugural exhibition of Northwest Mythologies, an exhibition of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson, because we’d gotten so involved in moving this summer.

Still, one of the benefits of living in this part of Tacoma is that we’re a mere ten minutes from downtown with its waterfront, museums and restaurants. If I’m going to move into the city, I’m certainly going to take advantage of all its benefits. And though this museum isn’t as large as either the Seattle Art Museum or the Portland Art Museum, I’ll guarantee you that I’ll be visiting this one much more than I ever visited the other two.

What we did get to see was Dale Chihuly’s Mille Fiori and an exhibit by Nathan Oliveira, a California artist I’ve never had a chance to see before. While many of his early existential works did not particularly impress me, his more optimistic later works took on a certain resonance they might not have had when seen within the context of his life’s work.

Unfortunately, visitors were restricted to taking pictures of Dale Chihuly’s work, both his current show, Mille Fiori, and his permanent works. Though I’m sure many visitors were impressed by:

As spectacular as this display was, and a roomful of colorful, plant-like glass in brilliant colors is certainly spectacular, personally I preferred his earlier works, as represented by:

Perhaps exposure to new works merely serves to remind us what we really like.