Graphic Masters

Rembrandt self-portrait with his (little) wife Saskia

We went downtown yesterday to see the new Graphic Masters exhibit at SAM.  We got there early and had the galleries pretty much to ourselves.  The hundreds of prints on display are small and would be hard to see in a jostling crowd, like you usually have to fight at SAM openings.

It was nice if you like prints, cartoons and drawing, but I wonder if this exhibit is flashy enough to have wide appeal.  It was unusual that photographs were allowed inside, and instead of shooing you away from the framed art, the museum provided magnifying glasses for a close look. 

There was a large collection of Picasso etchings.

No matter what you think of his later art, that man could draw and conveys so much with just a few fine lines.

The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Goya

 There were dozens of bizarre and lurid prints by Hogarth and Goya. 

The Book of Genesis

Robert Crumb

And if you were around in the 1970's, you remember the cartoonist R. Crumb (Fitz the Cat, Keep on Truckin', etc.)  In 2009, he illustrated the entire The Book of Genesis in a literal (not ironic) comic book form.  The entire thing (hundreds of framed pages) was on display.  Whew. By the time we got through the first chapter of the Old Testament, we had worked up an appetite for lunch and walked to PF Chang's.

PF Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This is my favorite dish.  They give you a head of crispy iceberg lettuce to pull apart and make extremely messy "tacos" with the filling.

John had the more dignified spicy chicken with rice.

After lunch, we said "let's stroll through the Pike Place Market on the way back to the car."
Ha. So crowded with tourists on Sunday morning was impossible to move, much less shop. These days the Pike Place market attracts 10 million annual visitors.  The old laid-back Seattle is long gone.  We headed back home for a peaceful afternoon in our Urban Village.