We are pleased to celebrate Mark Tobey (1890–1976), a profoundly inventive artist, who was born on this day and raised in Centerville, Wisconsin. Known for a style characterized by metaphysical references, allover abstraction, and densely calligraphic markings, he was central to the development of American modernism.

In 1918, Tobey adopted the Baha’i faith, whose emphasis on universal consciousness suffused much of his work. His travels to China and Japan in the 1930s led him to deep exploration of Zen painting, haiku, and calligraphy, sparking what he called the "calligraphic impulse" which defined his later work. By the late 1930s, he had developed his signature "white writing" style, in which networks of dense, overlapping white brushstrokes appear to hover above the surface of the canvas, imbuing his compositions with a sense of dynamism. Tobey expanded this technique in the 1940s, creating delicate, compartmentalized scenes. In Double Horizon, 1945, for example, he divided the composition into tiered planes filled with his “white writing” and a handful of human figures.

In 1962, the Whitechapel Gallery in London held a retrospective of Tobey's work. In the exhibition catalogue, he described his exploratory approach to artmaking: "A much vaster world can be found here than would appear at first glance. The use of many entwining rhythms indicates my search for height depth. One must search while one is contemplating or else there will be no reward."

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Achim Moeller