You can see this crazy Mark Tobey movie at the Frye Art Museum.

The whole movie is 19 minutes long. Made in 1952 (with the filmmaker Robert Gardner), it's not only a kooky portrait of the artist, it's also great to see what the city of Seattle looked like back then.

The house you see is Tobey's own house, I believe in the U District. Here's the poem spoken by the solemn voice-over as Tobey first appears at his house:

"Why are you, artist?
Why the chasm between us?
Your beard gives me the willies.
How does it feel to be tolerated, more or less?
Who offends who?
Do you know the why of what, the how of where?

And so on.

The opening scene reveals the film as a piece of artistic anxiety as well. Voices in a museum chatter like birds, and we hear snatches from here and there: "I understand he's what is known as a museum painter." "He's so Northwest." "Why does he have to be so derivative?"

See more recommended art shows right here.