Mark Tobey

Mark George Tobey (1890–1976) was an American painter renowned for his densely structured compositions inspired by Asian calligraphy, resembling Abstract Expressionism but driven by philosophical and spiritual motives.[1][2] A founder of the Northwest School alongside artists like Morris Graves and Kenneth Callahan, he was mostly self-taught after early studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and founded the art department at The Cornish School in Seattle in 1921.[1][4] His work gained international acclaim, including the 1958 International Grand Prize for Painting at the Venice Biennale, and he settled in Basel, Switzerland, in 1960.[3][4]