Angles Out, Tangents, and Source

Margaret Tomkins

King County Courthouse

Like many of Margaret Tomkins’ later paintings, these large geometric abstractions use soft lines with nearly translucent acrylic color. Angles Out can currently be seen as the King County District Court’s Redmond Courthouse and Source is on view at the King County Courthouse. 

Throughout her almost 60-year art career, Tomkins showed a consistent interest in form and line, making work that explored energy and light. She rose to prominence in 1940s with dream-like works in color, then shifted her focus to black, white, and gray in 1960s. She later returned to color with soft pastel hues, a palette she continued to use for the remainder of her career. Though she was at the forefront of abstract painting in the Northwest, she did not associate herself with the Northwest School of painters who were her contemporaries and did not consider herself a regional artist. 

Angles Out, Tangents, and Source were commissioned as part of the Honors Program, which recognizes visual artists who have made significant contributions to our region through the sustained production of high-quality artwork.

Born in Los Angeles, Tomkins (1916 – 2002) moved to Seattle in 1949 to teach art at the University of Washington, where she met sculptor James Fitzgerald, who became her husband. She kept a studio perched on a rocky cliff on Lopez Island in the Puget Sound, working there in the summers until she moved there fulltime after her husband’s death in 1973. Tomkins’ work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, and many others.