Self-Portrait

Modernism in the Pacific Northwest

While President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated the 1933 New Deal to spur the economy by putting people back to work, the doors to the new Seattle Art Museum were flung open. Dr. Richard Fuller, the founder of SAM, worked closely with Graves and his close friends in Seattle’s rising art scene. He collected their art for the museum and had a great impact on their works and careers. During this time Dr. Fuller became very close to Morris Graves and gave him his own solo exhibition shortly after SAM opened.