Artwork copyright Alden Mason. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Table for Three, 1993

Alden Mason
(American, born 1919, died 2013)

Location: Mount Baker Middle School, Auburn

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Table for Three is a stylized figurative painting by Alden Mason. This piece is part of a body of bouquet paintings. It references Mason's memory of his mother’s potted plants on her back porch, and features vases decorated with abstract pictographs. He noted, “Growing up in the Skagit Valley, the Tulip became a remembered symbol.” Describing how a viewer can interpret this piece he continued, “Visual appreciation comes from enjoying the artist’s peculiar view of things and not for its skill or representational quality or a substitute for reality.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Auburn School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Northwest artist and teacher Alden Mason (1919-2013) created paintings and murals characterized by their inventive figures and expressive forms. During his life, his style moved from abstract to figurative and back again.

Born in Everett, Northwestern Washington, Mason received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. He went on to teach painting at the University of Washington from 1949 until 1981. His paintings are in many museums, including the Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Northwest Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and Milwaukee Art Museum. He had solo shows at the Seattle Art Museum in 1986 and 2011, as well as a solo exhibition "Alden Mason: Fly Your Own Thing" at the Bellevue Arts Museum in 2021.