Tobey, Mark, 1890–1976, American painter, b. Centerville, Wis. An avid traveler, Tobey visited China and Japan in 1934. He then developed his celebrated "white writing," in which he attempted to symbolize the human spirit by applying principles of Eastern calligraphy to the rhythms of Western civilization. An exciting sense of motion and lyric treatment of light and color are revealed in his San Francisco Street (1941; Detroit Inst. of Arts) and Fountains of Europe (1955; Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston). In 1923, Tobey settled in the NW United States; much of his work is exhibited at the Seattle Art Museum. Transit (1948; Metropolitan Mus.) is characteristic of the East Asian influence in Tobey's art.

Bibliography

See catalog by W. Seitz (1962).

Tobey, Mark

(born Dec. 11, 1890, Centerville, Wis., U.S.—died April 24, 1976, Basel, Switz.) U.S. painter. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1918 he converted to the Baha'i religion and his work became inspired by Asian art and thought. In the 1930s he achieved notoriety with his “white writing” paintings, consisting of a web of calligraphic marks painted in white on a gray or coloured ground (e.g., Broadway, 1936), which soon displaced his representational work. His style is distinguished by his use of the small format and a refined execution in watercolour, tempera, or pastel. In the 1950s he exerted much influence abroad, especially on French Tachism.

Tobey, Mark (1890–1976) painter; born in Centerville, Wis. A self-taught artist, he moved to New York (1911) and became a commercial artist and portraitist. He converted to Bahá'í (1918), a Near Eastern-based religion, which influenced his "white writing," a calligraphic technique used in his abstract tempera and gouache paintings, such as Broadway (1936). He traveled widely and lived in Seattle, Washington, and Switzerland.