born on the 11th of December in Centerville, Wisconsin

childhood and youth in Trempealeau, a small town at the Missisippi

his family moves to Hammond near Chicago; visits courses at the Art Institute, Chicago

works as a fashion-designer in Chicago

moves to New York, still working as fashion-designer

lives in New York and in Chicago; autodidactic artistic studies; has
success as a portrait painter

converts to the ‘Bahá’i-World-Faith’; meets Marcel Duchamp

moves to Seattle; teaches painting at the Cornish School; discovers the Cubism and the Japanese colour woodcuts; studies the art of the Indians; friendship with the Chinese painter Teng Kuei, gets to know the spirituality and the techniques of East-Asian painting and calligraphy

travels to Europe

travels to Akka and Haifa (ISR); studies Persian and Arabian literature

lives alternately in Seattle, Chicago and New York

moves to South-England in order to work as an art teacher at the Dartington Hall School in Devonshire

travels to Mexico

travels to China and Japan; spends some time in a Buddhist cloister and
studies Zen-painting and calligraphy

trips to Seattle and New York; back in South-England he creates the first “white writing” paintings

moves back to Seattle; teaches painting in his studio, acquaintance with
John Cage

first prize of the “Northwest Annual Exhibition”, Seattle Art Museum; studies music (flute, piano, composition); friendship with Lyonel Feininger

Tobey’s painting ”Broadway“ is decorated and purchased by the Metropolitan Museum, New York; he receives several other prizes

premiere of the film “Mark Tobey: ‘Artist’” (1951 from Robert G. Gardener,
music and script from Mark Tobey) at the filmfestival in Venice and Edinburgh

travels to Sweden and New York; begins to work on the ’meditative series‘

travels to Paris, England, Basel and Bern

receives the “Guggenheim International Award” and is elected as “Permanent Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters”, Paris; in winter 1956/57 he creates the ”Sumi inks“

receives the first prize for painting at the XXIX. Venice Biennale;
travels to England, Italy and Switzerland

paints a mural for the Washington State Library, Seattle; travels to Paris

moves to Basel

first prize in the “International Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Exhibition at the Carnegie Institute”, Pittsburgh

travels to Haifa and Madrid

lives and works in Basel; nearly the whole graphic oeuvre comes into being

dies at the 24th of April in Basel

“Mark Tobey”, Galería Cayón, Madrid

“Mark Tobey – Originals”, Baukunst Galerie, Cologne
“Mark Tobey, Poetically abstract”, Galleria Agnellini Arte Moderna, Brescia (I)

“Mark Tobey, Light Space”, Galerie Hachmeister, Münster (D)

Baukunst Galerie, Cologne

Galerie Pudelko, Bonn

Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles

“Mark Tobey. Bilder von 1940 bis 1975”, Baukunst Galerie, Cologne

“Mark Tobey – Inneres Betrachten”, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle
Galerie Biedermann, Munich

Galerie Carzaniga + Uecker, Basel
Linden-Museum, Stuttgart (D)
Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle

Galerie Biedermann, Munich
Galerie Döbele, Dresden (D)
Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot (D)
Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (D)

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Baukunst Galerie, Cologne
Kunstverein Villa Wessel, Iserlohn (D)

Luhring Augustine, New York

Baukunst Galerie, Cologne

Kurt Lidtke Galleries, Seattle
Galería Jorge Mara, Madrid
Yoshii Gallery, New York
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)

Schloß Cappenberg, Selm (D)

Baukunst Galerie, Cologne

Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)

Galerie Lea Gredt, Luxembourg

Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Valley Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner (USA)
Philippe Daverio Gallery, New York

Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne (CH)
Galerie Jeanne Bucher, FIAC, Paris
Stadtmuseum Siegburg (D)
Galerie Siegert, Basel
Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford (USA)

Museo d’arte, Mendrisio (CH)
Museum Folkwang, Essen (D)
Galerie Beyeler, Basel

Cheney Cowles Museum, Spokane (USA)
Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)

Baukunst Galerie, Cologne
Galerie Giancarlo Apicella, Bonn (D)

Erker-Galerie, St. Gallen (CH)

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Galerie Jacqueline Schotland, Basel
Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf

Galleria del Naviglio, Venice

M. Knoedler & Co., New York

National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
City Art Museum, St. Louis (USA)

Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld (D)
Galerie Ursus-Presse, Düsseldorf

Martha Jackson Gallery, New York
Galerie Beyeler, Basel (CH)
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati

Baukunst Galerie, Cologne
Galleria Il Fauno, Turin (I)
Galleria dell’Ariete, Milan
Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne (CH)
Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt a. M.
National Academy of Design, New York
Willard Gallery, New York
Galerie Marbach, Paris
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Galerie Beyeler, Basel

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle

Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford (USA)
University of Nebraska Art Galleries, Lincoln (USA)
Roosevelt University, Chicago
The Art Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara (USA)
Museum of Fine Art, Dallas
Hanover Gallery, London
Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris

Willard Gallery, New York

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover (D)
Kunsthalle Bern
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (D)
Galerie Beyeler, Basel

Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne (CH)
Willard Gallery, New York
Otto Seligman Gallery, Seattle

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
AFA Galleries, Carmel (USA)

MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland (USA)
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Konstsalongen Samlaren, Stockholm
Konstmuseum, Gothenburg (S)

Otto Seligman Gallery, Seattle
The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris
Whitechapel Gallery, London
Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels

Galerie Beyeler, Basel
Royal S. Marks Gallery, New York

Kunsthalle Mannheim (D)

Frederic Hobbs Fine Art Gallery, San Francisco

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Portland Art Museum, Portland (USA)
Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Colorado Springs (USA)
Pasadena Art Center, Pasadena (USA)
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco

Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
St. Albans School, Washington D.C.

Galerie Stadler, Paris

Otto Seligman Gallery, Seattle
Willard Gallery, New York
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria/British Columbia, Victoria (CDN)

Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston

Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris
Art Institute, Chicago
Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco
Paul Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston
Otto Seligman Gallery, Seattle

Willard Gallery, New York

University of Chicago, Renaissance Society, Chicago
Zoe Dusanne Gallery, San Francisco

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco,
University of Washington/Henry Gallery, Seattle,
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara
Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston

Willard Gallery, New York

Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston
Willard Gallery, New York

Willard Gallery, New York

Portland Art Museum, Portland (USA)
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco
Arts Club, Chicago
Willard Gallery, New York
Detroit Institute of Arts, Alger House, Detroit

Willard Gallery, New York

Seattle Arts Museum, Seattle

Arts Club, Chicago

Stanley Rose Gallery, Hollywood

Seattle Arts Museum, Seattle

Cornish School, Seattle
Contemporary Arts, New York
Harry Hartman/Bookstore and Gallery, Seattle
Beaux Arts Gallery, London

Romany Marie’s Café Gallery, New York

Arts Club, Chicago

Galerie M. Knoedler, New York

“50 Jahre - Years documenta 1955 - 2005”, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel
“Le grand Geste!”, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf

“The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia: 1860-1989”,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York;
Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City (USA)

“Gipfeltreffen der Moderne. Die Großen Sammlungen XVIII: Kunstmuseum
Winterthur, Schweiz”, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland, Bonn
“Bilderträume. Die Sammlung Ulla und Heiner Pietzsch”, Neue
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
“Divine Abstractions: Spiritual Expressions in Art”, Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery, Lincoln (USA)
“L'Artista viaggiatore, da Gauguin a Klee, da Matisse a Ontani”, Museo d\'Arte
della Citta di Ravenna, Ravenna (I)
“The Roundhouse of International Spirits: Arp, Benazzi, Bissier, Nicholson,
Richter, Tobey, Valenti in the Ticino”, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (GB)
“The power of place”, Museo comunale d’arte moderna, Ascona (CH);
Pinacoteca Casa Rusca, Locarno (CH)
“Themes and Variations”, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
“Abstracta”, Galleria Torbandena, Trieste (I)
“Synchronies: Undercurrents in Postwar European and American
Abstraction”, Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco
“Italo Valenti, Jean Arp, Julius Bissier, Mark Tobey”, Galerie Une, Auvernier-
Neuchâtel (CH)

“Notation. Kalkül und Form in den Künsten”, Akademie der Künste, Berlin;
Zentrum für Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe (D)

“Surreale Welten – Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg”, Nationalgalerie,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
“Die Hände der Kunst”, MARTa Herford (D)
“DruckStelle. Graphik von Chillida bis Uecker”, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden (D)

“Shining Spirit: Westheimer Family Collection”, Oklahoma City Museum of
Art, Oklahoma City (USA)
“From Riot to Structure – Writing in Informel Art”, Gustav Lübcke-Museum,
Hamm (D)
“Gäste aus dem Museum Folkwang Essen”, Josef Albers-Museum,
Bottrop (D)

“Laboratorium Lack. Baumeister, Schlemmer, Krause 1937-1944“,
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (D)

“La tentation de l'Orient“, Galerie Jeanne-Bucher, Paris

“Inner Worlds Outside“, Fundacion La Caxa, Madrid;
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London;
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
“Plane / Figure, Amerikanische Kunst aus Schweizer Sammlungen“,
Kunstmuseum Winterthur (CH)
“Verrückte Liebe - Von Dali bis Bacon“, BA-CA Kunstforum, Vienna

Galerie Carzaniga, Basel (CH)
“50 Years documenta 1955-2005“, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (D)
“Schrift. Zeichen. Geste. Scriptorale und Gestische Kunst im 20.
Jahrhundert“, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (D)
“Shanghai Modern“, Kunsthalle Kiel (D)

“An American Odyssey, 1954-1980 - Debating Modernism“, Circulo
de Bellas Artes, Madrid;
Centro de Arte de Salamanca (E);
Kiosco Alfonso, La Coruna (E);
QCC Art Gallery, The City University of New York
“Shanghai Modern“, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich

“Chine - Occident ou l'aventure du signe. Michaux, Tobey, Degottex, Zao
Wou-Ki, Shan Sa“, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, Paris
“Onbegrensd – Unbegrenzt“, Roger Raveelmuseum, Machelen (B)
“Künstler der Galerie“, Galerie Biedermann, Munich
“Africa – Beauty and Disaster”, Galerie Beyeler, Basel

“The Edge of Tomorrow - Tobey, Price and Graves from the „1940’s”, San José Museum of Art, University of Oregon (USA)
“El Expresionismo Abstracto. Americano en las Colecciones Españolas”,
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia (E)
“The Spirit of White”, Galerie Beyeler, Basel

“Two Friends - Lyonel Feininger, Mark Tobey”, Achim Moeller Fine Art,
New York
“Northwest Mythologies - The Interactions of Mark Tobey, Morris Graves,
Kenneth Callahan and Guy Anderson”, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma (USA)
“Seperated Colours of Hachmeister”, Hachmeister Galerie, Münster
“Unaussprechlich schön. Das mystische Paradies in der Kunst des
20. Jahrhunderts”, Kunsthalle Erfurt (D)

“Mark Tobey - Smashing Forms and Mark Tobey and Friends”, Seattle Art
Museum, Seattle (USA)

“Tobey – Price – Graves”, University of Oregon Museum of Art, Oregon
“Klänge des Inneren Auges. Mark Tobey – Morris Graves – John Cage”,
Kunsthalle Bremen (D); Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington (USA)
Karin and Uwe Hollweg Collection, Bremen
“Durch 150 Jahre in Schwarz-Weiss”, Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)
“Acquisitions Nouvelles”, Galerie Alice Pauli, Lausanne (CH)
“Visite”, Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)

“Mark Tobey. Maria Zgraggen”, Carzaniga + Uecker, Basel
“Mark Tobey. Georg Fritzsche”, Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)
“Künstler der Galerie“, Galerie Biedermann, Munich
“The spirituality of the void”, Fundacion Bancaja, Valencia (E)

“Zen und die westliche Kunst”, Museum Bochum (D)
“Sam Francis. Mark Tobey”, Galerie Döbele, Dresden (D)
“Native American Influences on 1930s & 1940s Modernists“, David Findlay
Jr. Fine Art, New York
“Cross-Currents in Modern Art“, Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York

“Kunst und Demokratie. Widerstand und Freiheit”, Galerie Carinthia,
Klagenfurt (D)
“Closeness of Distance”, Emil Mirzakhanian, Milan (I);
Hachmeister Galerie, Münster (D)

“Drei Amerikaner”, Galerie Iris Wazzau, Davos (CH)

“The Exhibition of Swiss Private Collections”, Hokkaido Museum of Art,
Sapporo, tour to and Nagasaki, Kyoto and Tokio

“Dream of the Absolute – From Malevich to Ryman”, Galerie Beyeler,
Basel

“Monets 'Seerosen' und Pollock, Tobey, Joan Mitchell”, Orangerie, Paris

“Kunst als Grenzbeschreitung – John Cage und die Moderne”,
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

“Jahrgang 1890. El Lissitzky / Mark Tobey”, Kunstmuseum Basel

XXX. Venice Biennale
Documenta III, Kassel (D)

Documenta II, Kassel (D)

XXIX. Venice Biennale
World exhibition, “50 ans d’art moderne” in Brussels

“American Painting” (with Kline de Kooning, Motherwell, Pollock, Rothko, and Still), Tate Gallery, London
XXVIII. Venice Biennale

“Tendences Actuelles”, Kunsthalle Bern (CH)
Sao Paulo Biennale (BRA)

Sao Paulo Biennale (BRA)

XXIV. Venice Biennale

“Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans”, MoMA - Museum of Modern
Art, New York

“19 American Painters”, MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York