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age of 82. In the collection, these two works appear in relation to paintings by other American painters, such as Mark Rothko or Jackson Pollock. Did Tobey himself ever remark upon these relationships?
Tobey admired Mark Rothko very much. He also valued De Kooning and Pollock a great deal. He said that he knew from New York that his own 1935 Broadway paintings had been a great influence upon Pollock at the time. This fact, which Tobey was aware of, was never mentioned in New York, however.
As I well recall, your wife, Hildy Beyeler, once spoke about Tobey’s last stay in the hospital, where you yourself often went to see him. Can you still remember anything in particular that the painter said during these last encounters?
Tobey felt that he had finished his work — that he actually had nothing more to add. Two of his last important works are Oncoming White (1972, today in the collection of the Fondation Beyeler), which has already been mentioned, and Beyond Sound, dating from 1970-75, which is also a large-format canvas. Tobey spent a rather long time working on this last picture in a big storeroom at the gallery, where he finished it. I often visited him during this long work phase. |
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An exception is: Wesley Wehr, ”Mark Tobey in Basle,” The Accidental Collector (University of Washington Press, 2004) p. 277-313. The American musician, painter, paleontologist, and author was a long-time friend and confidant of Tobey’s.
Paul Haßler, pastor of the St. Alban church, who lived in the church parsonage located right next door to Tobey’s house, was a friend of the Beyelers’. Over the years, he was also a trusted conversational partner of Martin Heidegger’s. Across from the parsonage is the house where Jacob Burckhardt lived. For more on this, see Heinrich Wiegand Petzet, Auf einen Stern zugehen. Begegnungen mit Martin Heidegger 1929-1976 (Frankfurt am Main: Societäts-Verlag, 1983) p. 132 ff.
Tobey lived in the house with his old friend and companion, Pehr Hallsten, and his secretary, Marc Ritter.
Arnold Rüdlinger, director of the Kunsthalle Bern at the time, regarded Tachism as a common, equal, American-European direction. In this particular show, its European representatives were Bryen, Mathieu, Michaux, Riopelle, Tancredi, and Wols, and the Americans were Tobey, Pollock, and Francis.
Evidently, Martin Heidegger was also among the visitors. See Petzet. p. 177, 205 (note 3).
For more specifics as well as general comments on Tobey’s problematic reception in the USA after World War II, see: Judith S. Kays, ”Mark Tobey and Jackson Pollock: Setting the Record Straight”, Mark Tobey – A Retrospective, Kosme de Baranano / Matthias Bärmann, eds., catalog accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Madrid/Barcelona 1977 (p. 91-114); as well as Matthias Bärmann, ”Between Worlds - Mark Tobey, der Verborgene unter den großen Modernen,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung (November 11, 2000). |
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