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PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Art Museum is the only U.S. venue for Venice: The Golden Age of Art and Music, opening on February 15. This stunning exhibition explores the heroic age of art and music in the Republic of Venice, also referred to as La Serenissima or "the most serene."
Between the early 16th century and the fall of the Venetian Republic at the close of the 18th century, the great flourishing of the arts included innovative painters such as Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Canaletto, and Guardi, as well as composers Willaert, Gabrieli, Monteverdi, and Vivaldi who created some of the most beautiful music of the era. This spectacular international loan exhibition explores the important interrelationships of the visual arts and music in the city's elaborate civic ceremonies, festivals, and culture.
The great artists working in Venice not only reveled in depicting the city's processions, concerts, and dance, but many were accomplished musicians themselves. Composers depended on artists for set designs and costumes, and the dramatic stories of popular operas were embraced as subjects by painters and sculptors.
This multidisciplinary exhibition, organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, is the first to explore the interaction between the visual arts, music, and political culture in Venice and will include paintings, prints, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, and sculptures along with original period instruments and early music texts. Period music will be playing in the galleries enhancing the visitor's experience.
The exhibition includes 108 objects from 48 lenders in Europe and North America. It is organized and installed in the following thematic sections:
Basilica of San Marco The exhibition opens with an exploration of the Basilica of San Marco, which symbolized Venetian wealth, power, and piety. The church and the state were closely linked in Venice, with the Doge's chapel at San Marco as the center of religious devotion. This section reflects the rich musical tradition of the cathedral.
Civic Pageantry The Venetian Republic cultivated rituals as an important agent of statecraft. This section explores the splendid festivities and processions staged throughout the year, demonstrating the Republic's grandeur, dignity, and piety to city inhabitants and visitors. Most notable was the drama of the Doge (chief magistrate) of Venice on the great state galley, the Bucintoro, being rowed out to wed the sea on Ascension Day. A vast flotilla of Venetians would accompany the Bucintoro. This event was a popular subject of painters including Canaletto.
The Scuole and The Ospedali The exhibition presents the impact of the scuole (schools) and ospedali (hospital orphanages) on art and music in the city. These two types of charitable institutions made art and music integral to their primary missions to address religious and social needs.
Musicians and Concerts This section looks at the impact and importance of music in Venice—from merchant class to patrician families. Ownership of musical instruments was considered essential to life. Venice was an important center for music publishers, and the city was famous for instrument makers producing instruments distinguished by extraordinary sound and beauty.
Popular Music Popular music resounded through not only the opera theaters and taverns of Venice, but also the streets and waterways where gondoliers, street charlatans, and courtesans performed. The influence of commedia dell'arte and Carnival in providing music-filled activities in the city is explored in this section.
Mythology and Opera Although born in Florence, opera flourished in Venice with resident composers and a host of opera venues. Music-loving tourists flocked to Venice from throughout Europe to see the latest works in the first successful commercial opera houses on the continent. Greek and Roman mythologies were popular subjects for both opera and paintings.
The Museum has produced a mobile audio guide of the exhibition and music of the age, which can be accessed starting February 15 at portlandartmuseum.org/digitaltours
The guide features Dawson Carr, Ph.D., The Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art; Marc Vanscheeuwijck, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Music History, University of Oregon; Faun Tanenbaum Tiedge, Ph.D., Department Chair and Professor of Music, Linfield College; Byron Will, local harpsichord and clavichord builder; Brandon Labadie, Julliard-trained oboist, Portland Baroque Orchestra; Chris Mattaliano, Director, Portland Opera; and more.
The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color publication available in the Museum Shop. An exciting variety of programs will accompany the run of the exhibition, including concerts, lectures, and a workshop on the art of building Italian Baroque musical instruments.
The Museum is collaborating with Cappella Romana, Portland Baroque Orchestra, musicians from the Oregon Symphony, Allora Baroque Ensemble, Arnica Quartet, and others on live musical presentations during the exhibition. Information on all programs is available at portlandartmuseum.org/venice.
Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under the direction of Nathalie Bondil, curated by Hilliard T. Goldfarb, Associate Chief Curator and Curator of Old Masters; host curated by Dawson Carr, Ph.D., The Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art, Portland Art Museum.
Press materials, including high resolution images, are available at portlandartmuseum.org/press
Beginning on January 31, 2014, the Art Councils of the Portland Art Museum will host the Portland Fine Print Fair in the historic Fields Ballroom (1119 SW Park Avenue, Portland, Ore.). In this inaugural year, 21 of the top dealers from across North America will exhibit their finest prints, including Old Master etchings and engravings, Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and work by modern and contemporary artists. Nearly all periods and methods of printmaking will be on display. This fair will be a rare opportunity to have access to such a diverse range of original fine art prints and to the highly knowledgeable dealers who carry them.
"The Portland Art Museum is the home of the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the premier Museum print collection in the Pacific Northwest," said Bruce Guenther, chief curator and The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Museum. "With holdings of more than 26,000 prints, drawings, and photographs ranging from the Old Masters to contemporary artists, the collection is an invaluable resource for scholars, artists, collectors and visitors. It is only fitting that we host the Portland Fine Print Fair as a sign of our long-held commitment to the graphic arts, and to encourage private collecting."
Curator-led tours will be held on Saturday, allowing the public to learn about printmaking, the latest research, and current trends. The Portland Fine Print Fair coincides with the exhibition Feast and Famine: the Pleasures and Politics of Food, a look at food as seen in graphic art drawn from the Museum collection and important private holdings."We are delighted that our public will have the opportunity to browse and buy Museum-quality prints during the fair," said Mary Weaver Chapin, curator of graphic arts. "Prints have always been important to the Museum and to this community, and we look forward to this festive and educational event."The Fair will kick off with a benefit preview and reception on Friday from 6 to 9 p.m., as guests have the first look at the fine prints available and enjoy hors d'oeuvres and wine. Tickets are $25 in advance, $35 at the door—with proceeds going to the acquisition fund of the Museum. Admission is free on Saturday and Sunday.The Portland Fine Print Fair is sponsored by the Art Councils of the Portland Art Museum. Councils bring together Museum members who share an interest in art, culture, and scholarship, and offer behind-the-scenes access to collections, exhibitions, and curators at the Museum. Learn more about the opportunities offered by council membership at www.portlandartmuseum.org/councils.
Portland Fine Print Fair 2014January 31–February 2, 2014Fields Ballroom, Mark Building1119 SW Park AvenuePortland, OR
Benefit Preview and ReceptionJanuary 31, 6–9 p.m.Come see what is available before the fair opens to the public, and enjoy hors d'oeuvres and wine as you shop. The evening benefits the Museum's acquisition fund.Tickets $25 in advance, $35 night of the event. Tickets are available online at portlandartmuseum.orgPortland Fine Print FairFebruary 1, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.February 2, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.Come view the finest prints from 21 of the top dealers from across North America. Free admission.Exhibitors The Annex Galleries Santa Rosa, CA 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century American and European fine prints Armstrong Fine Art Chicago, IL 19th- to 21st-century French prints and drawings The Art of Japan Medina, WA Fine Japanese prints Augen Gallery Portland, OR Contemporary master prints and Northwest Artists Azuma Gallery Seattle, WA Traditional and contemporary Japanese fine art Catherine E. Burns Fine Prints & Drawings Oakland, CA 19th- and early 20th-century original prints and drawings by European and American artists Conrad R. Graeber Fine Art Riderwood, MD American, European, and Japanese prints and drawings Cullom Gallery Seattle, WA Historic and contemporary works on paper by Japanese, American, and European artistsCrow's Shadow Press Pendleton, ORPublishers of Native American and international prints Davidson Galleries Seattle, WA Contemporary and antique prints from Europe, Asia, and the Americas Greg Kucera Gallery, Inc. Seattle, WA Contemporary American prints, artists of the Northwest Jan Johnson Old Master & Modern Prints, Inc. Chambly, Quebec, Canada Old Master prints, 19th- and early 20th-century European and Canadian prints Joel R. Bergquist Fine Arts Stanford, CA 17th- to 20th-century European and American prints and drawings kleinprint Van Nuys, CA Contemporary works of art on paper from Central and Eastern Europe Warnock Fine Arts Palm Springs, CA Contemporary American, European, and Chicano prints M. Lee Stone Fine Prints, Inc. San Jose, CA Prints and drawings by American masters R.E. Lewis & Daughter Original Prints San Rafael, CA Old Master prints, Modern prints, and German Expressionists Susan Teller Gallery New York, NY American works on paper, 1920s-50s including the Urban/Industrial Scene, Surrealism, and Modernism The Tolman Collection Tokyo, Japan Contemporary Japanese prints William P. Carl Fine Prints Durham, NC Prints from 1850 to 1950, emphasizing color woodcuts Worthington Gallery Chicago, IL German Expressionism, Blauer Reiter, modern and contemporary German and American masters
For more information, please contact:
Beth Heinrich Director of Public Relations 503-276-4370
PORTLAND, Ore.—The Portland Art Museum continues the Masterworks / Portland series with the presentation of Three Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon, on view December 21, 2013 - March 30, 2014.
"For some time Chief Curator Bruce Guenther and I have been looking for a modern or contemporary work to present in this ongoing series that brings singular masterpieces to Portland," explained Museum Director Brian Ferriso. "When the collector agreed to our request to exhibit the triptych, we knew that it would be an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our visitors to see this seminal work."
Among the most significant figurative painters of the 20th century, Bacon (British, 1909-1992) gave form to the emotional and psychological landscape of the modern era. Both acclaimed and reviled during his lifetime, the Dublin-born Bacon touched the raw nerve of the post-war era in his art-historically referenced paintings and existentially wrought portraits.
Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969) is considered to be among his finest portraits for its aesthetic resolution and insightful rendering of fellow artist Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud.
Bacon and Freud were close friends and regular companions in post-war London. Their friendship provided an aesthetic sounding board for their exploration of figural expressionism—painting each other on numerous occasions for more than 50 years. Bacon completed more than a dozen different portraits of Freud. Three Studies of Lucian Freud is considered an emotional and painterly summation of their friendship.
Bacon's monumental triptych positions the subject inside a crystalline frame that defines an emotional as well as architectural space. Each panel shows a different viewpoint—left, front, and right.
"Bacon captures the spirit of Freud, rendering him as a tightly coiled mass of energy, ready to spring from the caned bentwood chair positioned in front of a brass bed," said Chief Curator Bruce Guenther. "The expressive, volatile brushwork that delineates Freud's hands and face acts as a brilliant foil to the smooth rendering of the highly abstracted objects and space."
First shown in Italy and subsequently in Bacon's retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris, in 1971-72, the triptych was separated and sold into three different private collections. It disappeared from view for more than 15 years before being reunited by an Italian collector in the 1990s. With this exhibition, this magnificent work comes into public view for a limited time before returning to a private collection.
The Masterworks / Portland series brings internationally significant works to Portland and provides an opportunity to study a single object and artist in depth. Masterpieces featured in the past include Raphael's La Velata, Titian's La Bella, and Thomas Moran's Shoshone Falls on the Snake River.
The exhibition is organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Bruce Guenther, chief curator and The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. This special installation is made possible in part through the support of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
The Trustees and staff of the Portland Art Museum mourn the passing of civic and arts philanthropist Mercedes Hester Eichholz who passed away at her home in Santa Barbara on August 22.
Last year, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation gave $2 million to endow the Museum's curator of modern and contemporary art.
Mercedes Eichholz and her late husband Robert were active supporters of the arts for decades, including connections with the National Gallery of Art and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Mrs. Eichholz lived in Portland with her first husband C. Girard Davidson from the late 1930s to the 1950s and was involved with the Museum during that time. Her son, Michael Davidson, is a Portland resident and a Museum member.
The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation was established to support the arts and is overseen by its trustees, including family members Michael Davidson, his sister Joan H. Davidson of Santa Ynez, California, and her daughter Alexa D. Suskin, Brooklyn.
"Mrs. Eichholz leaves a distinguished legacy of supporting art on the West Coast from Santa Barbara to Portland. The Eichholz endowment at the Museum ensures a strong curatorial presence in modern and contemporary art in perpetuity for our community," said Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director. "Her generosity and leadership has enabled the fulfillment of our mission and strengthened the program of the Portland Art Museum."
For more information:
Beth Heinrich503-276-4370
In celebration of the Museum's popular exhibition Cyclepedia, the Museum presents a Family and Community Day with free admission and special activities in the Museum courtyard and surrounding streets on Sunday, August 4, from noon to 5 p.m.
A highlight of the day will be Clever Cycles' annual "Fiets of Parenthood"—a family cargo bike race and obstacle course in front of the Museum. Learn more at http://fietsofparenthoodpdx.wordpress.com/. Races will begin at 1:30 p.m.
The day will also feature musical performances including an appearance by the Portland Unipiper—he plays his bagpipes atop a unicycle while wearing a kilt and Darth Vader mask! Also appearing will be D.J. Anjali and the Incredible Kid as well as local musician Mo Phillips. Be sure to ride your bike or bring your helmet since everyone will be invited to decorate them with incredible materials provided by SCRAP. Also add your touch to the creation of a collaborative bike sculpture provided by the Community Cycling Center. If you get hungry, enjoy both sweet and savory treats from pedal-powered food carts. And don't forget to head inside the Museum to visit Cyclepedia and admire the beauty of bicycle design through nearly a century of innovations.
Hop in the saddle and enjoy free and easy bike parking.
Family programs are generously supported in part by Sharon L. Miller and Family, the Gordon D. Sondland and Katherine J. Durant Foundation, and the Lamb Baldwin Foundation. Special thanks to our community partners in organizing the day: Clever Cycles, Fiets of Parenthood, Community Cycling Center, Kidical Mass, Rejuiced Bikes, and SCRAP.
Portland Art Museum's popular Shine a Light 2013 once again asks visitors to reconsider what is possible in a museum.
On Friday, May 17, visitors will engage with the Museum in unexpected ways and celebrate socially engaged works of art. They will rethink their relationship to art through a broad array of artist-driven installations, performances, and interventions throughout the Museum, including projects focused on the role of women in art; a geocaching game; mobile dentistry; and even a re-creation of an early Grateful Dead show in the historic Mark Building, among many others. Fabulous food and drink will be available for purchase from local vendors including Tastebud, Salt & Straw, and Captured by Porches.
This year Shine a Light welcomes noted artist and educator Paul Ramirez Jonas, who is helping to shape the experience of the night in partnership with artists and Museum staff.
"We're so pleased to be working with Paul Ramirez Jonas for this year's Shine a Light event," says Stephanie Parrish, the Museum's associate director of education and public programs. "Paul's work explores the exchanges between artist and audience, between an artwork and its viewer. We're fortunate to have him as a creative collaborator for Shine a Light, where artists and the public come together to co-produce museum experiences and adjust our perspective of where art, artists and institutions intersect in our everyday lives."
One of the Museum's most popular annual events since it started in 2009, Shine a Light 2013 marks the fourth collaboration between the Museum and Portland State University's Art and Social Practice program. Focusing on socially engaged art practice, the Master of Fine Arts program blends critical and professional practice, collaborative social engagement, and transdisciplinary exploration to produce an immersive educational environment. For more information about the program, visit psusocialpractice.org.
For the first time, Shine a Light is scheduled to coincide with Open Engagement, an annual international conference at Portland State University that sets out to explore various perspectives on art and social practice and expand the dialogue around socially engaged art making. For more information, visit openengagement.info.
General admission to Shine a Light is $15, or $12 for college students without the Museum's College Pass. Admission is free for Museum members, College Pass holders, and children 17 and under. Advance purchase of tickets online is recommended. For more about Museum membership benefits, visit portlandartmuseum.org/membership.
The Portland Art Museum recently received a gift of art from Blount International, Inc. The gift includes 32 works of Northwest art that will join the Museum's permanent collection of regional art.
"We are pleased that we can help expand the Portland Art Museum's Northwest collection," stated David Willmott, President and Chief Operating Officer for Blount International. "Our gift to the Museum will provide greater access to the collection as well as provide the artwork with the long-term care it deserves."
According to Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art, the gift includes a selection of works that bridge gaps in the Museum's growing collection of Northwest art. The works of art allow the Museum to tell the story of the evolution of art from this region in greater depth.
The donated art includes works by noted Northwest artists including Louis Bunce, Sally Haley, Charles Voorhies, Carl Morris, and Judith Poxson Fawkes. The addition of these works allows the Museum to show the strength of the modernist imperative as it evolved into the region's current contemporary art scene.
This corporate art collection was built by John Gray, who retired as Vice Chairman of the company in 1985 when it was known as Omark Industries,and William "Red" Blount, Founder and past Chairman of Blount International.
"We were delighted to receive the generous gift of art from Blount International," said Laing-Malcolmson. "The collection handsomely demonstrates the love for the best of our region's artists by two dedicated philanthropists."
About Blount International, Inc.Blount is a global manufacturer and marketer of replacement parts, equipment, and accessories for consumers and professionals operating primarily in two market segments: Forestry, Lawn, and Garden ("FLAG"); and Farm, Ranch, and Agriculture ("FRAG"). Blount also sells products in the construction markets and is the market leader in manufacturing saw chain and guide bars for chain saws. Blount has a global manufacturing and distribution footprint and sells its products in more than 115 countries around the world. Blount markets its products primarily under the OREGON®, Carlton®, Woods®, TISCO, SpeeCo®, and ICS® brands. For more information about Blount, please visit our website at http://www.blount.com
About the Portland Art Museum Founded in 1892, the Portland Art Museum is the seventh oldest museum in the United States and the oldest in the Pacific Northwest. The Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions, drawn from the Museum's holdings and the world's finest public and private collections. The Museum's collection of more than 45,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of art of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum devotes 90 percent of its gallery space to its permanent collection. For more information, visit http://www.portlandartmuseum.org
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland has been dubbed "the vanguard of American cycling" making the Portland Art Museum the ideal venue to host an exhibition exploring iconic bicycle design and celebrating bike culture.
Drawn from the collection of Vienna-based designer and bike aficionado Michael Embacher, this special exhibition features some 30 bicycles chosen by Embacher as examples of pivotal moments in the evolution of bicycle design.
Cyclepedia is the third entry in the Museum's design-oriented exhibition series. Preceded by China Design Now and The Allure of the Automobile, Cyclepedia investigates the impact on bicycle design aesthetically and practically. The exhibition includes bikes of all shapes and sizes—from world-class racing bikes to novelty bikes. Also included are bicycles designed for unique purposes including riding in a war zone, across frozen ground, and with more than one person on board. The exhibition and related programming will also explore the impact of bicycles on culture and lifestyle—locally and around the world.
Designed by Embacher, the exhibition will be unique in its presentation. The featured bicycles will be suspended from a frame in the ceiling that will wind its way through the galleries, giving the bikes the appearance of moving through an imaginary landscape of gently rolling hills. This installation technique will allow visitors to experience the bicycles both collectively and individually.
With a personal love of bicycles and a professional expertise in design, Embacher has passionately collected bicycles since 2003. His inquisitive interest in creative, rare, offbeat, and even bravely failed models led to the creation of his unique collection. The Embacher Collection is distinguished by more than 200 functioning bicycles and the rarity of the objects. The collection has been documented and celebrated in the publication, Cyclepedia: A Century of Iconic Bicycle Design, described by the London Sunday Times as the most comprehensive and visually satisfying book of bicycle portraits ever published. An iPad app, rated App of the Week in the UK iTunes store, also explores the collection.
Portland has more cyclists per capita than any other city in America. The Portland Art Museum is pleased to be the only U.S. venue for this exhibition celebrating the best of bicycles.
A Celebration of Portland BicyclesIn addition to exploring bicycles from an internationally renowned collection in Cyclepedia, experience the best of local bicycle collectors and designers. Each week during the summer the Museum will showcase a different bicycle with a local connection. For a complete schedule visit portlandartmuseum.org.
PRESENTING SPONSOR: Provenance Hotels. LEAD SPONSORS: Cycle Oregon, Wells Fargo. PELOTON SOCIETY: Ann and Mark Edlen and Family, Showers Pass, Clever Cycle, West End Bikes, Anonymous.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Born and raised in Portland, Ore., Carrie Mae Weems is internationally recognized for her powerful photography-based art that investigates issues of race, gender and societal class. Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video, opening Saturday at the Portland Art Museum, presents more than 200 photographs, videos, and installations tracing the evolution of Weems' career.
Given a camera on her 21st birthday, she quickly realized its potential to express abstract political and social theories and incite change. For the next 30 years, her work has explored a variety of issues, providing a complex picture of humanity and creating greater awareness and compassion for difference.
About the ExhibitionFeaturing some of her most groundbreaking work, including Ain't Jokin', From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried, Ritual and Revolution, and the recent series Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment; Weems' work will challenge audiences by highlighting issues of power, race, and gender.
The exhibition is organized largely chronologically but several works are placed side by side to show the progression of her work. The exhibition begins with Colored People from 1989 which investigates the beauty and hierarchy found in skin tones within the African American community. The work includes portraits of black children which have been toned a color to correspond to various labels. Colored People is installed next to Untitled (colored People Grid), from 2009, which continues Weems' exploration of "colorism" nearly 20 years later.
In addition to tracing the artist's progression through time, the exhibition is organized around three themes: the construction of identity, the legacy of history, and the power of place.
Visitors will find variety in the exhibition with photographs, videos, and installation works. Ritual and Revolution (1998) is a stunning work of hanging translucent scrims taking the viewer—as they walk through the installation—on a journey around the world and through history exploring the universal struggle for equality and justice.
Weems' hauntingly beautiful images cause viewers to consider challenging issues of identity, gender, race, and power.
This is not the first time that the Museum has featured Weems' photography. In 1994, the Museum presented an early exhibition of the artist's work. This earlier exhibition, Carrie Mae Weems, was organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Opening during Black History Month, this retrospective will engage audiences in discussions of the African-American experience through art. Programs and community partnerships include Portland Center Stage's production of Clybourne Park and the Oregon History Museum's exhibition All Aboard: Railroading and Portland's Black Community.
Organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video was curated by Frist Center Curator Kathryn Delmez. Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography curated its presentation in Portland.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Like a slap in the face, the sculptures of Dutch artist Folkert de Jong have an overwhelming immediacy of materiality and historically reference imagery that is emotionally powerful and strangely sublime.
Part jester, part moralist, de Jong has attracted international attention for his savagely dark figurative sculptures that combine references to art, world history, current events, and popular culture.
The Museum presents two major sculptures and recent drawings that are best understood against the backdrop of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide economic crisis. Unsettlingly raw and lacking decorum, his Styrofoam and polyurethane foam works challenge our assumptions of high art and comfort with the conventions of human depiction in gruesome tableaus like Operation Harmony.
Amsterdam-based de Jong has exhibited internationally since the early 2000s and has been the recipient of a number of awards including the prestigious Prix de Rome for sculpture in 2003, and the Den Haag Sculptuur 'Orange Award,' 2005. His work was most recently featured in a major solo exhibition organized by the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands.
Curated by Bruce Guenther, chief curator and The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sponsored in part by the Miller Meigs Endowment for the Contemporary Arts and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
PORTLAND, Ore. — On Sunday, December 2, hundreds of citizens will gather at the Portland Art Museum to revive the ancient Greek tradition of reading poetry aloud.
From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., 400 individuals of all ages and backgrounds will relive the thrilling story of the Trojan war, participating in a daylong marathon reading of Homer's The Iliad, produced by the international literary organization The Readers of Homer in association with the Portland Art Museum.
Representatives of cultural societies and communities based in Portland, visitors, artists, journalists, professors and teachers, parents and students are expected to join hundreds of citizens who will read or sing their passages, each in their own way and language, one after the other, over the course of 10 hours.
Their common aim will be to add their voices in celebration of the Museum's international exhibition The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece which features Greek and Roman sculpture from The British Museum.
The reading will be coordinated with on-stage projections of archaic and classical images from the Portland Art Museum and The Readers of Homer archives, along with the English version of the epic, a mosaic of segments from Pope's and Fitzgerald's translations and Christopher Logue's Iliad.
TICKETS available now at www.portlandartmuseum.org or www.thereadersofhomer.org
$15 Adults (includes admission that day to The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece)$5 Students$5 Museum MembersFREE for PSU Students and Under 17FREE ENTRANCE FOR NON-READERS
The event is organized with the kind support of the Hellenic Studies Program at Portland State University. Additional support provided by the University of Portland, Reed College, Willamette University, Lewis & Clark College, Portland Community College, Literary Arts, and EllinikoTheatro.
More info: www.thereadersofhomer.org
PORTLAND, Ore. — Selected from the world-famous Greek and Roman collection of the British Museum, the Portland Art Museum presents The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece, a visually stunning and thought-provoking exploration of the human condition seen through ancient Greek eyes.
Opening October 6, the exhibition presents a diverse selection of some 130 objects exploring the Greeks' fascination with the human body and humanity which was pervasive in ancient Greek culture. The development of the human body in art was driven by the ancient Greek lust for life and constant enquiry.
The exhibition is divided into 10 sections:
Visitors will travel back in time to Olympia and the Acropolis, sites that were central to the subject and presentation of Greek art. Olympia and other athletic fields were theaters for the display of the athletic male body. Athletics were central to Greek life and young men engaged in sports to prepare for battle. Even religious festivals included sporting contests, which attracted athletes and spectators from throughout the Greek world. The Olympic festival was the oldest, held every four years from 776 BC in honor of the god Zeus.
The idealized male body was a common subject of Greek art. The earliest images are schematic and emphasize the essential elements of manhood. But by the fifth century BC, the male figure appears relaxed with greater realism. The exhibition traces this artistic evolution from prehistoric simplicity to the realism of the Hellenistic age.
Caring for the body and keeping fit were social obligations in the ancient Greek world and were considered crucial to the raising of male citizens. Athletics were a form of training for warfare and most Greek men could expect to be called to fight for their city-state. Physical perfection was also considered a reflection of inner moral rectitude. Athletes trained and competed naked and victorious athletes gained near heroic status and might be commemorated with statues.
The Discobolus, or discus-thrower, is one of the most important images from the ancient world and one of the highlights of the exhibition. This statute represents the height of the ideal of male beauty and athleticism. It shows an athlete—naked, refined, and eternally youthful— seemingly captured in the moment before releasing the discus. The sculpture is designed to be seen from a single viewpoint. The composition is contained in one shallow plane with the limbs and torso artificially arranged to correspond with Greek ideas of balance and rhythm. The chest faces the viewer while the curvature of the arms intersects with the line formed by the head and spine, evoking the shape and energy of a drawn bow.
This marble statue is one of several copies of a lost bronze original of the fifth century BC. The head on this figure has been wrongly restored, and should be turned to look toward the discus.
While the male body was almost always shown naked, the female body was usually shown clothed. However, fertility cults, sex scenes, and the representations of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, provided opportunities for female nudity. While frequently draped, the Greek artists left little to the imagination in their depictions of the female form.
Openly sexual images were common in Greek art and found on a wide range of artifacts including those for everyday use. The naked human form often represented explicitly sexual context, but the intention was not always to arouse desire but rather to celebrate fertility or the worship of Dionysos, god of wine. However, some images were designed to arouse, including depictions of orgies, exchanges with courtesans, and homosexuality.
Part of the Greeks' humanism was their worship of gods of human form. These gods were distinguished from their human subjects by their immortality and supernatural powers. The idea of a family of gods living on Mount Olympos, a mountain in northern Greece, is first found in Homer's poetry of the eighth century BC. Each deity had his or her own association—Poseidon and the sea, Aphrodite and love, Ares and war, and so on.
The Greeks also celebrated heroes, and the greatest of these was Herakles, the ultimate strongman. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, hated Herakles because he was Zeus' son by a mortal woman. She sent a fit of madness upon him and he killed his wife and children. To atone, he performed 12 labors and was eventually rewarded for his struggles with immortality and a place among the gods. His story was an example of how physical endurance could lead to the rewards of victory. Herakles is the legendary founder of the Olympic Games and a patron god of the gymnasium.
The imaginative world of ancient Greek myth also included a cast of strange monsters. Many combined human with animal parts as symbols of their otherworldliness. For the Greeks, these imaginary outsiders served to contrast with their own civilized society and behavior. Creatures such as satyrs, part man and part horse or goat, are shown behaving in wild ways which express the baser human instincts.
In early Greek art, human differences of age, gender, and ethnicity were represented in general terms. However, through time, the horizons of the Greek experience were expanded leading to greater realism in the portrayal of individuals in art and a demand for portraits of famous men, and the occasional woman.
The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece explores the Greeks' fascination with the human body and humanity which was pervasive in ancient Greek culture. In drama, philosophy, history, scientific medicine, and the natural sciences at large, Greeks were the first to direct the human mind on its modern quest for self-knowledge. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore some of the most important objects from one of the most important periods in the history of Western civilization.
This exhibition is a collaboration between the British Museum and the Portland Art Museum.
Catalogue & Audio GuideThe exhibition is accompanied by a 175-page, full-color catalogue available in the Museum Shop. A free audio guide of the exhibition will be accessible on personal mobile devices or available on the Museum's iPods which can be checked out in the lobby.
ImagesHigh resolution images are available in the Portland Art Museum's online press office.All images © The Trustees of the British Museum 2012. All rights reserved.
Exhibition DetailsThe exhibition is a collaboration between the British Museum and the Portland Art Museum.
Ian Jenkins and Victoria TurnerThe British Museum
Bruce Guenther, chief curatorPortland Art Museum
Portland Art Museum1219 SW Park AvenuePortland, OR 97205-2430
Tues, Wed, and Sat: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.Thurs and Fri: 10 a.m.–8 p.m.Sun: Noon–5 p.m.
Tickets are timed for entry and available at thebox office or online at portlandartmuseum.org
Members: FreeChildren (17 and under): FreeAdults: $20Seniors (55 and older): $17Students (18 and older with ID): $17
PORTLAND, Ore. — Following an international search, Dawson W. Carr, Ph.D., has been appointed the first Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art. As the first full-time European curator in the Museum's 120-year history, he will be responsible for all European painting, sculpture, and drawings prior to 1850. Carr is currently the Curator of Spanish and Italian Paintings 1500-1800 and Head of Display at The National Gallery, London.
"Through the generosity of Janet and Richard Geary, the Museum has attracted an internationally known scholar from a prestigious institution to Portland," said Chief Curator Bruce Guenther. "Carr has a sterling reputation in the field with a distinguished record of exhibitions and publications."
Since joining The National Gallery in 2003, Carr has organized two of its most popular exhibitions: Caravaggio: The Final Years and Velázquez. He also curated Pompeo Batoni, 1708-1787 and Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals, which later traveled to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He was instrumental in two major acquisitions to the distinguished London collection: Annibale Carracci's Montalto Madonna and Giovanni Paolo Panini's The Lottery in Piazza di Montecitorio, Rome.
Carr specializes in Italian and Spanish art of the 16th and 17th centuries, but has worked in a variety of areas. He has published widely in his field from individual catalogue entries to masterwork guides to the collection and monographic exhibition catalogues. He has been a frequent contributor to American and European scholarly journals and publications such as Apollo and Burlington Magazine. His Looking at Paintings: A Guide to Technical Terms, written with conservator Mark Leonard, remains a popular dictionary of the subject.
Prior to his tenure at The National Gallery, Carr served as a curator of paintings at The J. Paul Getty Museum, Calif., and was actively involved in the rapid development of the collection in the decade before the opening of the museum. He created the first major European exhibition at the Getty Center, Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara.
Carr holds doctorate and master degrees from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He trained at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, where as an undergraduate he developed a love for Spanish art.
"Dr Carr will bring fresh scholarship to the Museum's collection and lead a new initiative in the Museum's collecting and exhibitions. His presence in our community will serve to focus the institution and its patrons on the European core," noted Guenther.
Richard and Janet Geary, long-time patrons and trustees of the Museum, endowed this position in 2008. Life Trustee Laura Meier and her late husband Roger S. Meier established an endowment in 2005 to support Museum exhibitions and programs of European Art from the permanent collection and important international loans.
Carr will begin his tenure in Portland in January 2013.
"When I visited Portland to interview for the job, I was completely seduced. I feel very fortunate to be moving to such a beautiful and interesting place, but even more to be assuming a position with such potential. It is evident from past gifts of works of art that the European tradition has long resonated with Portlanders. I hope to explore some old favorites in exhibitions, publications, and lectures, but also to encourage the acquisition of great works of art that will enhance the collection as a source of knowledge and inspiration," said Carr.
About the European CollectionSince the Museum's founding in 1892, European art has been at the core of the permanent collection. Museum founder Henry Corbett gave $10,000, which helped purchase the first acquisitions to the permanent and European collections: 100 plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures. The sculptures were chosen by Museum founder Winslow B. Ayer, who spent several months selecting works for the Museum from galleries and museums in Europe. In 1895, the Corbett Collection, as the casts were known, was installed. An instant success, the collection was considered Portland's most important and popular cultural resource.
Today, the collection occupies a sequence of galleries on the Main Building's second floor allowing visitors to follow the works from the 17th century back to Classical Antiquity or forward to the 19th century. A gallery of classical antiquities displays a selection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan objects, including red- and black-figure vases, small bronzes, and glass drawn from the Sally Lewis Collection donated to the Museum in 1926.
Several important paintings were acquired in the early decades of the 20th century, but it was through two significant bequests, the 1935 Winslow B. Ayer bequest and the 1943 C.F. Adams bequest, that the Museum acquired the French 18th-century Impressionist paintings at the core of the European collection. The 1960s and 1970s brought a significant group of French 18th- century paintings through the generosity of Dr. Edwin Binney, 3rd. The continuing enrichment of the collection into the present has resulted in the Museum's collection being the largest group of old master works available to the public in the Northwest.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Art Museum is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Murawski, Ph.D., as director of education and public programs. Murawski will begin his tenure on October 15.
"This is an important role at the Museum. Our education programs expand and amplify the visitor's experience in the galleries through innovative installations, lectures with leading scholars, and special programs for school children, college students, artists, educators, and adult learners," said Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director. "I am pleased that we have been able to recruit and hire Mike Murawski, one of today's leading thinkers around art museum education."
In his new position, Murawski will be responsible for creating a vision for the Museum's public programs for families, students, and adults and ensuring the highest quality for all education programs.
"I am so excited to step into this new role at the Portland Art Museum and become part of a distinguished institution dedicated to creating compelling experiences for all visitors," said Murawski. "I look forward to working with their exceptional team to further strengthen the Museum's role in the community and help shape the Museum's vision for the future."
Murawski is currently the director of school services at the Saint Louis Art Museum. In this role he directs all school, teacher, and docent programs for the Museum and creates programs, tours, and partnerships for K-12 students, facilitating innovative museum learning. The programs serve approximately 35,000 students per year.
Prior to his work at the Saint Louis Art Museum, he was the coordinator of education and public programs at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University, Saint Louis.
Murawski holds both master and doctorate degrees in education from American University, Washington, D.C. and received a bachelor's degree in art history from Truman State University, Missouri.
"We are confident that Mike will continue to strengthen our existing programs such as Object Stories, Shine a Light, and Artist Talks while creating a vision for the future to help the Museum deliver its important mission in our community," said Ferriso.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Today, the Portland Art Museum announced the finalists for the next Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, an awards exhibition celebrating contemporary art created in the greater Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana). The exhibition will open at the Museum in the fall of 2013.
The Selection ProcessRegional arts professionals, including curators, artists, dealers, academics, and critics were invited to nominate visual artists based on the quality of their work, innovation, relevance to community or global issues in the arts, continuity of vision, commitment to their practice, and level of development in their career. The Museum received 239 nominations and invited the nominated artists to submit application materials. Of the nominated artists, 176 submitted materials for review.
Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art, and guest curatorial advisor Apsara DiQinzio, the newly appointed curator of modern and contemporary art at The Berkeley Art Museum, reviewed the nominees' materials and selected the 28 finalists.
Laing-Malcolmson will visit the artist's studios during the next several months. This fall, she will present her recommendations to the Museum's director and curatorial staff for the final review. The Museum anticipates announcing the award recipients prior to January 2013. These artists will be featured in the 2013 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition opening in September.
About the Contemporary Northwest Art AwardsThe Contemporary Northwest Art Awards honors artistic merit and potential while providing an in-depth and scholarly presentation of work by several promising and/or nationally under-recognized professional contemporary artists living and working in the Northwest. The awards recipients are honored with an exhibition in the Museum's special exhibition galleries, a full-color catalogue, exhibition-related programming, and cash awards. One recipient will be further recognized with the Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the amount of $10,000. The finalists announced today will be recognized in the catalogue.
The Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition, presented by the Portland Art Museum, is funded in part by The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest Art.
About The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest ArtThe Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowments for Northwest Art support the exhibition activities of the Center for Northwest Art including the APEX series, related publications, the curatorial position, and the development of the Museum's growing collection.
From the beginning, the Museum's permanent collection has been shaped by the art and culture of the Northwest. The Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art brings the Museum's regional collections to the forefront and celebrates a history of art making that extends from the late 19th century to the present in the five-state region of the Northwest.
The Center occupies the third and fourth floors of the Museum's Hoffman Wing and presents the collection in rotation as well as APEX, an ongoing exhibition series dedicated to contemporary art of the region.
About the Portland Art MuseumThe seventh oldest museum in the United States and the oldest on the West Coast, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum's holdings and the world's finest public and private collections. The Museum's collection of more than 40,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution, dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum dedicates 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection. The Museum's campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland's cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of over 22,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts. For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503.226.2811 or visit portlandartmuseum.org.
PORTLAND, Ore. — In concert with the Museum's exhibition California Impressionism, the Portland Art Museum will present the Invitational Plein Air Paint Out the first weekend in August.
Celebrate the art of painting outdoors, en plein air, with the region's leading plein air artists. Like their late 19th and early 20th century counterparts, contemporary plein air artists work on location to capture the atmosphere of the moment, including the ever-changing colors, light, and shadows. This event brings together dozens of artists to create new works and exhibit them in the Museum's front yard by turning the South Park Blocks into a lively outdoor studio.
Saturday, August 4All day, invited plein air artists will roam the South Park Blocks and surrounding area to paint many of your favorite landscapes and landmarks with oils, watercolors, and pastels. Artists will begin at first light and paint throughout the day. Visitors are encouraged to watch and talk with the painters as they translate the landscape in front of their eyes to canvas.
Sunday, August 5Wander the Museum courtyard to meet the artists and see a selection of works made the day before. Take advantage of this opportunity to take home a work of art.
Check the Museum website, www.portlandartmuseum.org, for updated information about the weekend.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Art Museum is pleased to present California Impressionism: Selections from The Irvine Museum, opening June 16.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, California artists produced a unique style that combined several distinctive aspects of American and European art. This style—known as California Impressionism or California plein air painting, after the French term for "in the open air"—focused on capturing the special light and color of the state's landscape and helped to define modern landscape painting.
Impressionism was initially embraced by a small group of radical artists working in France during the late 1860s. Their work was greeted with scorn and criticism by the Royal Academy and the public. By the time Impressionism was introduced in the United States around 1885-90, much of the hostility had dissipated and the style was favorably received. Many of America's leading artists studied Impressionism in Paris and brought it back to the United States, invigorating progressive American art. California's majestic landscape was the inspiration for artists who came to the burgeoning turn-of-the-century art colonies in Carmel and Laguna Beach. They created a profusion of light-filled paintings that captured its sublime but fragile beauty, in a Post-Impressionist manner that established a new, distinctive modern style. Just as earlier French artists had captured the colors and light of rural France, this indigenous West Coast school of artists dedicated itself to portraying the brilliant and convincing effects of natural light on the local landscape in a fresh American voice.
This exhibition explores the impact of Impressionism and modernism on American painters from the West Coast and features many of the most important artists of the period, including Franz Bischoff, Emil Kosa, Phil Dike, Edgar Payne, William Wendt, Guy Rose, and Granville Redmond.
Don't miss this stunning collection of 60 paintings from the collection of The Irvine Museum, California.
Organized by The Irvine Museum and host curated by Bruce Guenther, chief curator and curator of modern and contemporary art.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Art Museum has organized two special programs for its exhibition Ellsworth Kelly / Prints (June 16 – September 16, 2012). The programs give visitors the chance to learn more about the artist and the collection featured in the exhibition.
July 29, 2 p.m.The Prints of Ellsworth KellyRichard H. Axsom, Curator, Madison Museum of Contemporary ArtAuthor of the catalogue raisonné and a leading scholar on Ellsworth Kelly, Axsom will present an overview of Kelly's achievements in print media. Exploring his dynamic geometry of squared, angled, and curved forms to great effect in his graphic editions, Kelly's prints, no less than the paintings and sculptures, have their own distinctive voice.
Programs are free for members or with Museum admission. Space may be limited. Advance tickets are recommended and available online or on site.
About the ExhibitionFeaturing more than eighty prints from Jordon D. Schnitzer and his family foundation, Ellsworth Kelly/Prints celebrates the work of one of the most important American artists of the last fifty years. Kelly has redefined abstract art through his bold paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings. The exhibition explores Kelly's use of key formal motifs in his graphic work: chromatic contrast, grids, right angles, and curves.
Organized by the Portland Art Museum with the cooperation of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and curated by Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., Curator of Graphic Arts.
For more information on the exhibition and its programs, visit portlandartmuseum.org.
PORTLAND, Ore. — This weekend The Portland Art Museum opens Ellsworth Kelly / Prints featuring more than 80 prints from Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation. The exhibition celebrates the work of one of the most important American artists of the last 50 years.
"We are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with Jordan on this important project celebrating the work of Ellsworth Kelly," said Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director. "Jordan's collecting breadth has allowed us to provide a unique opportunity for our audiences to understand fully the larger vision of this American master."
Ellsworth Kelly has redefined abstract art through his bold paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings. Born in 1923 in Newburgh, N.Y., Kelly studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn until the age of 20, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. He spent the majority of his military service in Europe. From 1948 through 1954, he lived in France, traveling and studying art and architecture.
French abstraction greatly influenced the young artist, whose style changed drastically during his time in Europe. He abandoned figuration and traditional easel painting, choosing instead to create a vocabulary of simple geometric shapes in pure, vibrant color. Kelly's visual vocabulary is drawn from observations of the world around him—shapes and silhouettes found in plants, architecture, shadows on a wall—and has developed from his interest in the space between places and objects and between his work and its viewer. Kelly has said, "In my work, I don't want you to look at the surface; I want you to look at the form, the relationships."
In the words of catalogue raisonné author Richard Axsom, Kelly's prints "exchange the totemic presence, the tangible physicality and public assertiveness of the paintings and sculptures for the qualities no less genuine in registering Kelly's vision: intimacy, delicacy, and in nearly immaterial veils of shape and color, an unmatched ethereality."
Ellsworth Kelly / Prints was organized in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which recently staged the first retrospective of Kelly's prolific print practice since 1988 and host curated by Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., curator of graphic art.
PORTLAND, Ore. — First shown in Paris in 1977 where it created a sensation when 8,000 people thronged Saint Germain to see the exhibition at the Galerie Claude Bernard, Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror (1976) has spent more than 30 years in a European private collection. Setting a new auction record this spring for the Dublin-born English artist's work, this major Bacon painting will go on view at the Portland Art Museum on June 2.
Considered one of the artist's most significant paintings from the 1970s, the painting is an emotional and painterly summation of Bacon's most important themes of the period. Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror depicts a muscular nude male figure absorbed in the act of writing with rejected sheets of text littering the foreground. Doubled in the mirror, the figure is considered a composite portrait of the artist and his working class lover and muse George Dyer, whose tragic suicide on the eve of Bacon's important retrospective at the Grand Palais, Paris in 1971 was the subject or subtext of much of Bacon's subsequent work. Elegiac and enigmatic, the work presents the dichotomy between vision and language, the figure in front of and inside the mirror.
Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to view this stunning work by one of the most important artists of the 20th century. The painting will be on view through September 2, 2012.
Organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Bruce Guenther, Chief Curator and The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. This special installation is made possible through the support of the Exhibition Series Sponsors.
PORTLAND, Ore. — NACCO Materials Handling Group, Inc. (NMHG), in cooperation with it's local dealer Papé Material Handling, Inc., has donated one of its Hyster® electric reach trucks to the Portland Art Museum. Hyster Company donated the electric reach truck and Papé Material Handling, Inc. donated the battery and charging unit.
The Hyster® electric reach truck will be used in the Museum's storage facility to move and store valuable works of art in the Museum's collection.
"We are grateful to Papé and Hyster Company for this donation," said Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Director. "Thanks to them, we will safely and confidently move and lift precious works of art that we can share with our visitors."
"This is a small token of our appreciation for the contribution that the Portland Art Museum brings to the community of Portland and the people of the Pacific Northwest," said Jonathan Dawley, President of Hyster Distribution.
"Like our friends and partners at Hyster Company, we too are members of this community and are happy to give back," said Shirley Papé. "I am excited to know that it will be Papé products that are helping to share these works of art with members of our community."
About the Portland Art MuseumFounded in 1892, the Portland Art Museum (www.portlandartmuseum.org) is the seventh oldest museum in the United States and the oldest in the Pacific Northwest. The Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions, drawn from the Museum's holdings and the world's finest public and private collections. The Museum's collection of more than 45,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today. The collection is distinguished for its holdings of art of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts. An active collecting institution dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum devotes 90 percent of its gallery space to its permanent collection.
About Papé Group, Inc.Headquartered in Eugene, Ore., The Papé Group Inc. is a holding company for capital equipment dealerships throughout the West. The businesses of The Papé Group sell and service the premier brands of capital equipment used in construction projects, forestry, trucking, warehousing/materials handling and private aviation. The Papé Group businesses are Papé Material Handling Inc., Bobcat West, Ditch Witch Northwest, Engineered Products, Flightcraft Inc., Papé Rents, Papé Kenworth and Papé Machinery Inc. The operations serve seven western states – from Alaska to California. The cornerstone of all Papé Group operations since the first dealership was founded in 1938 has been their commitment to providing high quality products backed by consistent, high quality customer service wherever and whenever needed. For more information about The Papé Group Inc., visit www.pape.com.
About NACCO Materials Handling Group, Inc.A world leader in the lift truck industry, NACCO Materials Handling Group, Inc. (NMHG) designs, engineers, manufactures, sells and services a comprehensive line of lift trucks and aftermarket parts marketed globally primarily under the Hyster® and Yale® brand names. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, NMHG employs approximately 5,300 people worldwide and is a wholly owned subsidiary of NACCO Industries, Inc. (NYSE: NC).
Eichholz Foundation endows curator of modern and contemporary art
The Portland Art Museum is pleased to announce that a gift of $2 million was recently pledged by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation. The gift from the foundation, headquartered in Santa Barbara, Calif., will endow the curator of modern and contemporary art. The position, currently held by Bruce Guenther, will now be known as The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
"We are grateful to Mercedes Eichholz and her family's foundation for this generous and important gift," said Brian Ferriso, The Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Director. "Endowing curatorial positions ensures that the core mission of the Museum is fulfilled."
Mercedes Eichholz and her late husband Robert have been active supporters of the arts for decades, including connections with the National Gallery of Art and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Mrs. Eichholz lived in Portland from the late 1930s to the 1950s and was involved with the Museum during that time. Her son, Michael Davidson, is a Portland resident and a Museum member.
The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation was established to support the arts and is overseen by its trustees, including family members Michael Davidson and daughter Alexa Davidson Suskin. The first installment of the pledged $2 million gift has been received by the Museum with the balance to be paid over the next three years.
"The importance of adding stability to the Museum by funding this curatorial position was key in the decision of the foundation," said Mrs. Eichholz. "I hope that this gift will encourage others to step up and underwrite curatorial positions at the Museum or support the endowment."
During the past five years the Museum has worked to endow all of its curatorial positions. With this gift, the Museum has five endowed curatorial positions and hopes to endow the remaining curatorial positions.
"A strong institutional endowment and endowments for key positions provides financial stability for the Museum's mission in perpetuity," said Ferriso. "This is the second major gift to the endowment in the past six months, following the endowment of the curator of photography in December. This reflects the quality of our curatorial staff, the excellence of the work they are doing in support of the mission, and the generosity and the leadership of donors like Mercedes Eichholz."
About the Modern and Contemporary Art CollectionFrom its earliest days, the Museum has closely followed and supported contemporary art. In 1908, the Museum acquired its first original painting created by the American Impressionist Childe Hassam in the same year. From 1905 through the 1920s, exhibitions of avant-garde art were organized for presentation at the Museum by curator Anna B. Crocker and pioneering collector Sally Lewis, including Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase and other momentous works from the controversial 1913 Armory Show in New York. Important collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist works, including works by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Degas, entered the permanent collection in the late 1920s and 1930s from the estates of founding members of the Museum.
The Museum began actively building a collection of 20th-century art in the late 1940s under the leadership of director Thomas Cole. A 1971 gift of funds in Evan H. Roberts' name allowed a series of major sculpture purchases by artists such as Henry Moore, David Smith, Dan Flavin, and Mark Di Suvero to compliment the Museum's Rodin, Degas, Brancusi, Picasso, and Archipenko holdings. In 2000, the Museum acquired the Clement Greenberg Collection of 159 paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings by some of the most important American artists of the mid-20th century. The acquisition, supported by patrons Tom and Gretchen Holce and Carol and John Hampton, along with a number of major gifts, resulted in a quantum leap in the collection. Today, the collection includes works that chronicle the development of Modernism from Courbet and the Impressionists through the 20th century to the video and digital art of the present worldwide.
The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Sculpture Court is dedicated to exhibiting large-scale works from the Museum's holdings and loaned works by artists like Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, and Bruce Nauman. In 2005, the Museum opened the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art to showcase the Greenberg Collection and accommodate the growing collection. Located on six floors of the Mark Building, the 28,000-square-foot Jubitz Center was established to present rotating selections of more than 400 works from the collection, in addition to special temporary contemporary art exhibitions of artists.
The Jubitz Center is connected to the Main Building by the underground Suwyn Gallery which features dossier contemporary exhibitions from the collection. As visitors exit the Suwyn Gallery and ascend six floors through the Jubitz Center, the installations trace the evolution of Modernism in roughly chronological order. A variety of media are incorporated into this 3 complex presentation, including traditional paintings and sculpture, photography, works on paper, decorative arts, new media, and time-based art such as video and sound works. Since 2005, the Jubitz Center has featured exhibitions from the Miller Meigs contemporary art series, which celebrates new ideas, mediums, and artists such as Sophie Calle, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, and Martin Kippenberger.
About Bruce GuentherBruce Guenther is the Portland Art Museum's chief curator as well as its curator of modern and contemporary art since 2000. He has more than 30 years of museum experience, having served as curator or director at four noteworthy institutions including the Seattle Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Orange County Museum of Art.
Internationally recognized for his work in contemporary art, Guenther is sought after for his expertise as a public speaker, guest curator, juror, writer, and public arts advisor. For his work to promote international fellowship through contemporary art, Guenther was awarded the Officer's Cross in the Order of Merit of the Republic of Austria in 1990.
Statement from Museum Director Brian Ferriso
The trustees and staff of the Portland Art Museum mourn the passing of Brian Booth, past Chairman of the Board (1976-1978), a long-standing trustee who began his tenure in 1971, and a beloved friend to our Museum.
Brian not only served in a leadership role, but also together with his wife Gwyneth Gamble Booth, who also served as a Trustee, supported the Museum in many significant ways, including providing annual donations through membership for more than 30 years and as a patron member for more than 15. Additionally, significant funds were donated by Gwyneth and Brian to purchase several important works of art, including the Museum's C.E.S. Wood Harney Desert painting Untitled (On the Snake River) from 1904-06. Gwyneth and Brian sponsored a number of groundbreaking exhibitions throughout the past 20 years, including the Oregon Biennial (2001), Rembrandt and The Golden Age of Dutch Art (2007), and PNCA at 100 (2009), and donated to every major capital campaign since 1993, including the acquisition of the Masonic Temple (now the Mark Building) in 1993, Project for the Millennium in 1999, and the North Building Campaign in 2005. As part of these campaigns, the Museum's Korean Gallery is named in Gwyneth and Brian's honor. Finally, Brian was critical to the success of our flourishing Northwest Film Center. In fact, it was Brian who led the negotiations of the merger of the Film Center in 1979.
Personally, I will miss Brian's deep commitment and wise counsel. In fact, as an active member of our Chairman's Council, Brian and I would speak often about the history of the Museum, his tenure as Chair and as a trustee, and his love of art, literature, film, and the Northwest. The Portland Art Museum has truly lost a central figure that shaped our history and defined our current success. Brian will be missed greatly.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Mark Rothko, one of the leading American artists of the 20th century, began his life in art in Portland, Ore. Born Marcus Rothkowitz in Russia, he immigrated to Portland with his family as a child. He attended Lincoln High School and first studied art through the Museum Art School outreach, now the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), before going on to Yale, New York City, and beyond.
The Portland Art Museum was the host of Rothko's first museum exhibition in 1933 and is pleased to present this original survey of Rothko's work, the first Rothko painting retrospective to be staged in Portland.
The 45 works in the exhibition trace Rothko's artistic path from the late 1920s until shortly before his death in 1970. Borrowed from the Rothko family, the National Gallery of Art, and private collectors, the exhibition presents Portland's first comprehensive look at the artist's development and the aesthetic issues that shaped his production over the course of his career.
"The exhibition is organized so that the visitor walks with Rothko as he evolves as an artist," explained Chief Curator Bruce Guenther, the curator of the exhibition. "Most people are familiar with where he ended up with the classic color field paintings. This exhibition allows people to see the development that led to that work."
The exhibition moves from his early figurative works influenced by Cezanne, Max Weber, and Milton Avery into the attenuated, isolated figures of his New York subway paintings, through an abstract surrealist phase to the emergence at the end of the 1940s of his mature abstract style of floating, saturated color and transcendent calm.
The exhibition celebrates an artist whose lyrical paintings have created a unique legacy for the world. A variety of public programs have been organized to enhance the experience of the exhibition. Portland's own Third Angle Ensemble will perform Rothko Chapel: A Conversation of Words and Music featuring the music of Morton Feldman and John Cage. The artist's son Christopher Rothko and exhibition curator Bruce Guenther will also lecture on the artist and his impact on painting into the present.
Portland Center Stage will present a production of Red by John Logan. An intense bio-drama inspired by the artist, Red earned critical laurels in its New York run last season. The New York Times described it as "a portrait of an angry and brilliant mind that asks you to feel the shape and texture of thoughts. ... As much as any stage work I can think of, Red captures the dynamic relationship between an artist and his creations."
The exhibition is organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Bruce Guenther, chief curator and curator of modern and contemporary art.
The Museum acknowledges the National Gallery of Art and the Rothko children, Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko, for their support of this effort to bring Rothko's paintings to Portland, and wishes to recognize Arlene Schnitzer and the late Harold Schnitzer for their early advocacy and important support of the exhibition.
For information on visiting the exhibition and program tickets, go to portlandartmuseum.org or rothkopdx.org.
PORTLAND, Ore.—Art, music, poetry, and film come together in John Frame's ambitious project The Tale of the Crippled Boy. The end goal of this ongoing project is a feature-length collection of animated and live film vignettes. Three Fragments of a Lost Tale presents his work on this project during the past five years, including installations of sculptures, stage sets, still photographs, music score, and animated film vignettes.
Since 2006, Frame, a California-based sculptor, has been working toward the creation of a stop-motion animated drama featuring an eclectic cast of fully articulated characters composed of found materials and meticulously carved wood. These figures build upon the distinctive, often theatrical, sculptures Frame has created throughout his career, which have been the subject of two retrospective exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Long Beach Museum of Art, Calif.
The inspiration for this project came to Frame in a semi-dream state in the middle of the night. He knew that the creative material he saw was significant and so he wrote notes and drew sketches of what he had envisioned and the following day he began bringing this world to life.
The exhibition includes the sculptures that have become the cast of characters in Frame's evolving full-length film, as well as the film footage created thus far in this monumental project.
Originally organized by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens; the exhibition is supported in part by McGeady Family Foundation.
Learn more and see part of the film at johnframesculpture.com.
Dear members of the Board of Trustees, staff, and friends of the Portland Art Museum,
I am saddened to share the news of the passing of former Portland Art Museum Director John Buchanan.
Between 1994 and 2005, John led the Museum and is widely credited for reinvigorating the institution and placing the Museum on the international stage. Under his leadership, Museum membership tripled, the endowment grew, and attendance set records during a series of popular international exhibitions from Imperial Tombs of China (1996) to Stroganoff: The Palace and Collections of a Russian Noble Family (2000), and Hesse: A Princely Collection (2005).
John, together with his wife Lucy (who served as Director of Development), led three expansions of the Museum campus including the restoration of the Belluschi building, remodeling of the Hoffman Wing, and renovation of the historic Masonic Temple, now known as The Mark Building. Between 1994 and 2005, John and the Museum's staff raised some $125 million for these major capital projects.
John was also responsible for growing the permanent collection. Working with the curatorial staff, he acquired important works including Van Dyck's Portrait of Cardinal Domenico Rivarola (1623-1624), Cézanne's Quai de Bercy-La Halle Aux Vins (1872), and the personal collection of the late critic Clement Greenberg, which included 155 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by major American abstract artists.
John's leadership positioned the Museum physically and intellectually for future growth and new programs. His legacy of ambitious institutional expansion will be remembered and enjoyed by future generations of Museum visitors.
Personally, I owe much to John. Not only did he leave me with a quality institution to lead, but he also supported my candidacy to be his successor as the Director of the Portland Art Museum. I am extremely grateful and appreciative for his support and backing. Our thoughts are with Lucy in her time of loss. Details about a service will be forthcoming.
Brian J. FerrisoThe Marilyn H. and Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr, Director
PORTLAND, Ore. — Press materials including images are available in the Museum's online press office
The Artist's Touch, The Craftsman's HandThree Centuries of Japanese Printsthrough January 22, 2012A celebration of the Museum's world class collection of Japanese prints with works from the late 17th century to the present day. Many prints are extremely rare and will be on view for the first time.
Chris Burden: Ghost Shipsthrough January 22, 2012Chris Burden: Ghost Ships is a trio of actual sailboats that have been reconfigured and programmed by the artist to periodically unfurl sails, pivot rudders, and simulate navigation. The sailboats will seem to sail through the Museum's sculpture court, with the beauty and innocent pleasure of sailing juxtaposed against the mystery and sinister undertones of unmanned boats sailing to who knows where.
Masterworks | PortlandTitian's La Bellathrough January 29, 2012A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view this exceptional painting by the most celebrated artist of Renaissance Venice. From the Galleria Palantina in Florence, this classic portrait has never travelled to the United States before.
Martin Kippenbergerthrough February 19, 2012A selection of paintings from the last decade of the artist's life and 17 "Hotel Drawings," intimate works created on hotel stationery gathered on his peripatetic travels from 1987 until 1997. The works present an irreverent and ferocious humor that accentuates the late artist's acute sense of moral responsibility to humanity and the history of art.
Manuel IzquierdoPaperworksthrough March 4, 2012A selection of drawings and prints from the artist's estate will be exhibited. Izquierdo was one of the Northwest's foremost sculptors and was also recognized as an exceptional woodblock printmaker and for his lesser-known pastel drawings. This exhibition presents a selection of drawings and prints, many of which have never been exhibited.
APEX: Robert HansonJanuary 7 – April 29, 2012Hanson's drawings of seated female models communicate a sense of humanity that seems simultaneously contemporary and timeless. The exhibition features a selection of recent drawings.
MARK ROTHKOFebruary 18 – May 27, 2012This exhibition of one of the leading artists of the 20th century features 45 works tracing Rothko's artistic path from the late 1920s until shortly before his death in 1970. Rothko grew up in Portland and took his first art classes at the Museum Art School. A restrospective survey of Rothko's work has never been staged in Portland, although his first museum exhibition was at the Portland Art Museum in 1933-34.
John Frame: Three Fragments of a Lost TaleFebruary 18 – May 27, 2012Art, music, poetry, and film come together in John Frame's ambitious project The Tale of the Crippled Boy. The end goal of this ongoing project is a feature-length collection of animated and live film vignettes. This exhibition presents his work on this project during the past five years, including installations of his handmade sculptures, stage sets, still photographs, music score, and animated film vignettes.
Joseph BeuysFebruary 18 – May 27, 2012The second in the Museum's yearlong series of major installation works by important postwar figures, Joseph Beuys features the monumental environmental work, Blitzschlag mit Lichtschein aug Hirsch (Lightning with Stag in its Glare), 1958-1985 along with selected multiples that extend the installation's conceptual framework.
Cornerstones of a Great Civilization: Masterworks of Ancient Chinese ArtFebruary 25 – November 11, 2012After two years of scientific research and conservation, the Museum will reinstall its Money Tree along with three other works reflecting the ideals and values of formative periods in Chinese history.
Emerging: New Photography AcquisitionsMarch 10 – June 17, 2012More than 500 photographs were added to the Museum's extensive photography collection between 2009 and 2011. Emerging, a selection of more than 50 works, celebrates the diversity and breadth of these recent acquisitions and gifts.
Museum HoursMonday: ClosedTuesday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.Friday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Sunday: noon to 5 p.m.
Museum AdmissionMuseum members: FREEChildren (17 and younger): FREEAdults: $15Seniors (55 and older): $12Students (18 and older with ID): $12
Press materials including images are available in the Museum's online press office
PORTLAND, Ore. — Following a national search, the Portland Art Museum has appointed Mary Weaver Chapin, Ph.D., as curator of graphic arts. Chapin is currently the associate curator of prints and drawings at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin. Chapin will be the third curator to head the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Center since its founding in 1993. She brings a rich background of academic scholarship and connoisseurship with wide ranging exhibition interests to the graphic arts program of the Museum.
Chapin is an experienced curator:, in her current position she has curated exhibitions including Framing a Decade: Acquisitions of Prints and Drawings, 2001-2011, Warrington Colescott: Cabaret, Comedy & Satire, and Catesby, Audubon, and the Discovery of a New World: Prints of the Flora and Fauna of America. Prior to her tenure in Milwaukee, Chapin trained at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before working at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she served as research assistant for Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South and co-curated the award-winning exhibition Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre.
While at Milwaukee she was instrumental in the acquisition of important works including the donation of the complete printed oeuvre of Sam Francis, a rare Ludwig Meidner drawing from 1916, and Jacques Callot's monumental etching, Siege of Breda (1628). She also actively grew the membership and activity of the Milwaukee's Print Forum—a group similar to the Portland Art Museum's graphic arts council, Friends of the Gilkey Center.
She was been widely published, including providing an essay in the Portland Art Museum's publication of its important 2008 exhibition The Dancer: Degas, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
Chapin's specialty is French 19th-century prints and drawings and German Expressionism, which are both strongly represented in the Museum's collection. She received her Doctorate in art history and archeology and a Master's Degree in art history from The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her dissertation was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Café- Concert: Printmaking, Marketing, and Celebrity in Fin-de-Siècle Paris. She has a certificate in curatorial studies from New York University and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"I am extremely pleased to welcome Mary to the distinguished curatorial team of the Portland Art Museum," said Museum Director Brian Ferriso. "Her excellent training and years of experience combined with her passion for the visual arts will help the Museum build upon its strong graphic arts traditions while guiding it to new levels of excellence."
Chapin will begin her new position in March and will be responsible for the Museum's collection of more than 21,000 prints. She will evaluate and research objects, recommend acquisitions, and curate exhibitions and installations in the Museum's Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Center.
PORTLAND, Ore. — At its annual trustee dinner in December, the Portland Art Museum announced that it has received an anonymous gift of $2 million to endow the curator of photography position.
Since the donor wishes to remain anonymous, the position will be named in honor of American photographer Minor White who began his career in Portland. Julia Dolan, the current photography curator will be the first to use the title, Minor White Curator of Photography.
The gift means that the position will be supported in perpetuity and will not be impacted in times of recession or budget shortfalls. Part of the Museum's strategic plan is to endow all of the curatorial positions. Before this gift, three curatorial departments were endowed: Asian art, Northwest art, and European art.
PORTLAND, Ore. — This month the Portland Art Museum will unveil a new brand including a new visual identity that will be reflected in signage, advertising, and other materials.
The Museum recently completed a strategic planning process, identifying short-term and long-term goals for the institution and reaffirming the core values and mission of the Museum.
"Through this process we have reaffirmed the core values and mission of the Museum with a focus on what we want to do and how we want to do it," said Ferriso. "With this fundamental understanding, we were ready to create a brand that reflects our past successes and our future goals."
The Museum engaged Ziba Design, a renowned Portland-based firm that is a global leader in branding and product development. Through extensive interviews with Museum staff and trustees, residents, visitors, and members, Ziba learned that a number of people were not aware of the broad range of quality programs offered by the Museum.
Based on this research, a brand strategy was developed to reflect the essence of the institution. Ziba's design team created a visual identity that clearly communicates the many facets of the Museum. The iconic anchor for the new mark is a large, bold, "P" that serves as a portal—a window—into the Museum. In its application, the collections, exhibitions, and programs will be framed.
"The Museum's new brand is authentic and bold, paying homage to our past while also increasing the visibility of this vital 119-year-old institution, connecting it in an emphatic way with our 21st-century audiences," said Ferriso.
Based on the new brand, the Museum's communications will have a new look and voice, including changes to the members magazine, collateral materials, signage, and more.
The goal of the new brand is to bring together the Museum's past with its future, connecting the institution with current and new audiences.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Allure of the Automobile at the Portland Art Museum has been drawing record crowds for a summer exhibition. The exhibition is the first time the Museum has allowed photography (without flash) in its special exhibition galleries and thousands of visitors have already shared their photographs online and through social media.
Special Session for PhotographersBy popular demand, the Museum will offer a two-hour, limited access session exclusively for photographers. Tickets to the session will be limited to the first 40 photographers who purchase tickets. The limited number of people in the galleries will allow more space to set up shots of the exhibition's sixteen amazing automobiles.
Members of the Museum's staff will serve as tripod grips for those photographers wishing to use a tripod. Limited flash photography will be allowed.
The Allure of the Automobile Photo SessionSunday, August 14, 10 a.m. to NoonPhotographers with tripod: $50Photographers without tripod: $45
Hoods Up!The Museum will offer a rare opportunity to view many of these extraordinary automobiles with their hoods up and engines exposed. Loan agreements require the Museum to limit the times that hoods may be open for viewing. Special tickets required for this event are limited and available online.
Hoods Up!Sunday, August 21, 4 p.m. - 7 p.m.$25 per person
Tickets to both events are limited and must be purchased in advance at www.portlandartmuseum.org.
PORTLAND, Ore. — During the opening celebration of the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, Museum Director Brian Ferriso announced Seattle artist John Grade as the recipient of the prestigious $10,000 Arlene Schnitzer Prize. The prize winner is chosen by Ferriso and the Museum's curators and selected from the seven artists featured in the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards.
"John Grade's rigorous conceptual framework articulated by beautiful and elaborate sculptural forms distinguished his art among the other objects. We are honored to have this deeply committed and skilled artist receive the second Arlene Schnitzer Prize," said Ferriso.
A longtime Northwest resident, Grade has traveled extensively and his exposure to diverse cultures has deeply shaped his artistic vision. The land, and its propensity for change, has had a profound effect on his work. His often massive, site-related constructions involve the passage of time and performance while engaging natural elements and random change to ultimately complete his sculptural works.
The centerpiece of his installation in the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition is Fold (2011). With its intricate lacelike gridded form it mirrors patterns found in nature such as honey combs, metamorphic rock, and cross-sections of wasps nests. The sculpture also references the ancient grave sites and eroding villages Grade observed during his world travels shortly after his 1992 graduation from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Constructed of wood and resin that the artist pre-tested to determine its attraction to termites, the sculpture was designed to be transported to a termite infested area, and buried. It is one of a number of such works currently buried around the American west. Grade's work sends an eerie reminder that even mankind's most ambitious works may eventually succumb to nature's forces.
Grade's sculptures, documentary photographs, and videos have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationwide and in Europe including at L'H du Siège, Valenciennes and Foret Domaniale de Raismes, France; Fabrica, Brighton, United Kingdom; Boise Art Museum, Idaho; Bellevue Art Museum, Washington; Davidson Galleries, Seattle; and Cynthia Reeves Gallery, New York. He has earned numerous grants and awards including an Artist Trust Foundation fellowship, an Andy Warhol Foundation Award, and a Tiffany Foundation Award. In 2010, he won the prestigious Willard L. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. This prize, like the Arlene Schnitzer Prize, is bestowed upon a young artist whose work exhibits "great promise." He has received a number of grants during his career including grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation (twice awarded); the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; City of Seattle, City Artists Program; 4Culture (awarded four times), King County Project Grant; and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
Grade will lead a tour of the installation and talk about his work on July 15 at 6 p.m. at the Museum. Information and tickets are available at portlandartmuseum.org.
About the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards(through September 11, 2011)The second Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition showcases seven exceptional Northwest artists. The exhibition explores the work of Chris Antemann, John Buck, John Grade, Jerry Iverson, Susie Lee, Megan Murphy, and Michelle Ross.
Inaugurated in 2008, the exhibition and awards recognize outstanding contemporary art and artists from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. The exhibition recognizes both emerging and established artists and builds on the Museum's commitment to the Northwest's visual arts community. Artists are selected based on quality, innovation, relevance to community or global issues, continuity of vision, and dedication to studio practice.
PORTLAND, Ore. — This summer it will be hoods up and tops down at the Portland Art Museum. The Allure of the Automobile will bring 16 of the world's most luxurious, rare, and brilliantly conceived automobiles to the galleries of the Museum. From the avant-garde 1937 Hispano-Suiza owned by French apéritif baron André Dubonnet to the ultra-cool convertible 1957 Jaguar XK-SS roadster once owned by Hollywood legend Steve McQueen, the exhibition spans the 1930s to the 1960s and showcases developments in automotive design and engineering.
The exhibition is the first to consider the stylistic development of cars in the context of prominent design movements such as Art Moderne and Postwar Modernity. Visitors will learn about the contrasts between European and American design and the significant changes in automotive styling and engineering before and after World War II.
Visitors will be able to consider the cars in a variety of ways: the artistry of the design, the marvel of the engineering, and the drama of the unique stories behind the cars.
Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see feats of design and engineering that are truly rolling works of art.
The exhibition experience is enhanced with an audio tour featuring Jay Leno. Download the free App on iTunes or rent an iPod Touch at the Museum. The exhibition is accompanied by a beautiful catalogue documenting each of the cars with stunning photography and essays.
Organized by the High Museum of Art and curated by Ken Gross, the exhibition has been reconceived for Portland.
1930 Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting CoupeLent by Jolene and Bruce McCawBellevue, Washington
1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special RoadsterLent by Lee and Joan HerringtonBow, New Hampshire
1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver ArrowLent by Don Williams and the Blackhawk Collection Danville, California
1937 Hispano Suiza H-6C "Xenia" CoupeLent by Merle and Peter Mullin and the Peter Mullin Automotive Museum Foundation Beverly Hills, California
1931 Duesenberg SJ Derham Convertible SedanLent by Tom and Susan Armstrong Issaquah, Washington
1937 Bugatti Type 57S AtalanteLent by William E. (Chip) Connor II Deepwater Bay, Hong Kong
1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS "Teardrop" CoupeLent by Arturo and Deborah Keller Petaluma, California
1953 Porsche 550, PrototypeLent by Miles Collier and the Collier Collection Naples, Florida
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C2900B Touring BerlinettaLent by Jan and Mary Shirley Bellevue, Washington
1954 Plymouth Explorer Sports CoupeLent by Margie Petersen and the Petersen Automotive Museum Los Angeles, California
1948 Tucker Model 48 TorpedoLent by The LeMay Family Collection, Compliments of LeMay—America's Car Museum Tacoma, Washington
1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR RoadsterLent by the Mercedes-Benz Museum Stuttgart, Germany
1957 Jaguar XK-SS RoadsterLent by Margie Petersen and the Petersen Automotive Museum Los Angeles, California
1961 Ferrari 250 GT Comp./61 Short-wheelbase BerlinettaLent by Bruce and Raylene Meyer Beverly Hills, California
1959 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray PrototypeLent by the General Motors Heritage Center Warren, Michigan
1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato CoupeLent by David and Ginny Sydorick Beverly Hills, California
EXHIBITION ADMISSION:Tickets will be timed for entry.
Tickets are available at the Museum box office or at portlandartmuseum.org.
To download high resolution images and news releases from the Portland Art Museum, visit the Press Office section of our website: http://www.portlandartmuseum.org/about/news/
PORTLAND, Ore. — The second Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition showcases seven exceptional Northwest artists. The exhibition explores the work of Chris Antemann, John Buck, John Grade, Jerry Iverson, Susie Lee, Megan Murphy, and Michelle Ross, and is accompanied by a catalogue and exhibition-related programs. The artists' work ranges from delicate, figurative porcelain vignettes to heroic-scale sculpture, and from film and video installations to glass and mixed-media painting. At the exhibition's opening celebration, one artist will be awarded the $10,000 Arlene Schnitzer Prize. The prize winner will be selected by the Museum's curators and Director Brian Ferriso.
Inaugurated in 2008 to recognize outstanding contemporary art and artists from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, this ambitious program was developed to highlight both emerging and established artists. The exhibition builds on the Museum's commitment to the Northwest's visual arts community. A wide range of regional arts professionals nominated artists on the basis of quality, innovation, relevance to community or global issues, continuity of vision, and dedication to studio practice.
The exhibition will be on view in the Julie Neupert Stott Gallery and the Jackie and Jerry Inskeep Gallery. Organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art. Funded in part by The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowment for Northwest Art, Mary C. and Gregory K. Hinckley, The Intermec Foundation, Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, John and Joan Shipley, Tonkon Torp LLP, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Northwest Art Council of the Portland Art Museum. Support for Northwest Art has also been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation's American Art Renewal Fund.
Opening CelebrationSATURDAY, JUNE 18, 6 P.M.View the exhibition and celebrate the Contemporary Northwest Art Award recipients and the announcement of the Arlene Schnitzer Prize, at a reception in the Fred and Suzanne Fields Ballroom.
$15 members; $20 non-members; reservations required. Tickets available online and on site.
Northwest Awards & Biennials: A Panel DiscussionSUNDAY JULY 17, 2 P.M.Whitsell AuditoriumBonnie Laing-Malcolmson moderates a lively discussion about Northwest art and how best to recognize the art and artists of the region. Panel includes Rock Hushka, chief curator at the Tacoma Art Museum and Bruce Guenther, chief curator and curator of modern and contemporary art, Portland Art Museum.
$5 members; $12 non-members. Seating is limited. Advance tickets available online and on site.
Series: Artist Talks & ToursJUNE 16, JULY 8, JULY 15, AND JULY 226 P.M. LECTURE; 6:45 TOURMiller Gallery & Exhibition GalleriesJoin Contemporary Northwest Art Award artists as they talk about their work and lead tours of the exhibition.
$5 members; $12 non-members. Space is limited to the first 45 ticket holders. Advance tickets available online and on site.
Chris AntemannJOSEPH, OREGONInspired by 18th-century porcelain figurines, Antemann's work examines and parodies traditional gender roles. Her ceramics espouse a Rococo decadence that is oddly contemporary and feminist. She earned her MFA in ceramics from the University of Minnesota and her BFA in ceramics and painting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She has exhibited extensively in the United States and China. She is the 2010 First Place Winner of the Virginia A. Groot Grant.
John BuckBOZEMAN, MONTANAWell known for his politically astute sculpture and large-scale woodblock prints, Buck received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from the University of California, Davis. Museums across the country, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum have works by Buck in their collections. The subject of numerous exhibitions, Buck has received a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Award.
John GradeSEATTLE, WASHINGTONA long time Northwest resident, Grade has traveled extensively and his exposure to diverse cultures has deeply shaped his artistic vision. The land, and its propensity for change, has had a profound effect on his work. His massive sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and museums nationwide and in Europe. He has earned numerous grants and awards including an Artist Trust Foundation fellowship, an Andy Warhol Foundation Award, and a Tiffany Foundation Award. He received his BFA from the Pratt Institute in New York.
Jerry IversonBIG TIMBER, MONTANAIverson lives and makes his art in a rehabilitated log cabin and barn. The vast, stark strength of the landscape surrounding his ranch contrasts with his concern over tumultuous world affairs and finds metaphorical representation in his explosive compositions. His multi-media, sumi ink paintings have been in numerous exhibitions including two appearances in the Tacoma Art Museum's Biennial. Iverson received his BA in philosophy from St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
Susie LeeSEATTLE, WASHINGTONLee's time-based work uses video and sound to engage the viewer in a mental dialogue concerning life's transitory nature. She addresses issues of permanence and loss by creating compelling physical objects. Her work integrates her background in molecular science with her studio practice. She holds a BS degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University. She received her MFA from the University of Washington and has exhibited in museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Megan MurphyHAILEY, IDAHOMurphy's paintings can be found in public collections including the Yale Art Museum Collection, Boise Art Museum, and the Microsoft Collection. Her concern for our fragile natural environment is literally reflected in the media she chooses to employ. Combining photographs with mirror and layers of paint and text that she repeatedly applies and rubs away, Murphy creates a surface that is partially reflective, opaque, and transparent. Her work has been exhibited across the country. Murphy holds a BFA from Marylhurst University and an MA in theology from Mt. Angel Abbey, Saint Benedict, Ore.
Michelle RossPORTLAND, OREGONRoss holds an MFA degree from Washington State University and a BFA from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Her abstract painting vacillates between a desire for restraint and destruction. Her work has been exhibited throughout the region. Ross teaches at Portland's Oregon College of Art and Craft and has received numerous awards including an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Oregon Arts Commission. She has held residencies at the American Academy in Rome, New Mexico State University, and the Vermont Studio Center.
Holly Andres, Chris Antemann, John Buck, Jaq Chartier, G.Lewis Clevenger, James Coupe, Tannaz Farsi, Anna Fidler, Justin Gibbens, Charles Gill, John Grade, Robert Hanson, Sean Healy, Jerry Iverson, Arnold Kemp, Scott Kolbo, Cynthia Lahti, Isaac Layman, Lead Pencil Studio: Annie Han & Daniel Mihalyo, Susie Lee, Megan Murphy, Jenene Nagy, Ryan Pierce, Michelle Ross, Heidi Schwegler, Susan Seubert, Eric Stotik, Sherrie Wolf
"There is no separation between objects and subjects."—Daniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology, University College, London
PORTLAND, Ore. — Drawing from material culture, thing theory, anthropology, museum education, and traditions of storytelling, Object Stories, the Portland Art Museum's new installation, is an open-ended exploration of the relationship between people and things, the Museum and the community, and the subjective and objective.
Opening on March 5, Object Stories invites people and their objects into the Museum to tell stories about things that matter to them—whether a postcard, military medal, or childhood toy. These objects and stories will be captured and published to an onsite and online digital archive, where they will comingle with recorded personal stories about Museum objects. An installation of Museum objects will accompany the digital archive.
By putting ordinary things and the public at the center of its inquiry, and calling attention to the things we overlook in our lives, Object Stories ruminates on the ways objects make us as fully as we make objects, and the myriad ways objects speak to and shape who we are—our ideas, emotions, values, relationships, and aesthetics. Object Stories offers new possibilities to shift the relationship people make with museums, reshaping the institution as an organic, ever-growing repository made collectively by us of our stories and objects, mundane and exalted, personal and subjective.
See stories and learn more about how to tell your object story: objectstories.org.
Opening CelebrationCelebrate the public opening of Object Stories with screenings, storytelling, and readings by the initiative's initial community partners Northwest Film Center, Miracle Theater Group, and Write Around Portland on Saturday March 12, 2 p.m.
ObjectivityA funny, fast-paced night of spirited storytelling and fibbing around objects with Portland celebrities and "mystery guests." Moderated by novelist and humorist Marc Acito. Will the real object please stand up!Friday April 22, 7 p.m.
Generously funded by a Museum and Community Connections grant from the Metlife Foundation, Object Stories seeks to actively engage the broad public, and diversify Museum audiences. The initiative's main components are a video booth and gallery, storytelling workshops with Write Around Portland, videos created with Miracle Theatre Group, and an opening celebration in which workshop participants and the public are invited to come together to celebrate the power of storytelling and the opening of the public gallery and booth.
Object Stories is a collaboration between the Museum and the Northwest Film Center; initial programming was in cooperation with Write Around Portland and the Miracle Theatre Group; design and fabrication provided by Ziba Design, Fashionbuddha, and EyeLevel. The project is generously supported by the Metlife Foundation, the Lehman Foundation, and the Kress Foundation.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Today the Portland Art Museum announced the recipients of the 2011 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards:
Their work ranges from delicate, figurative porcelain vignettes to heroic scale sculpture, and from film and video installations to glass and mixed-media painting.
"The Portland Art Museum's commitment to collecting and exhibiting the art of the region dates to our founding nearly 120 years ago," said Museum Executive Director Brian Ferriso. "It, therefore, gives the Museum great pleasure to reaffirm that dedication with the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, which is part of a larger evolving strategy of collecting, presenting, and educating our audiences about contemporary Northwest art and artists."
Recent and new work by these seven artists will be featured in the exhibition opening June 11 which will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue and Museum programming. Each award recipient will receive an honorarium. During the exhibition's opening celebration, one artist will be awarded the Arlene Schnitzer Prize, a $10,000 cash award named in honor of philanthropist, patron, and life trustee Arlene Schnitzer. The prize winner will be selected by the Museum's curators and Ferriso.
Inaugurated in 2008, the exhibition celebrates outstanding contemporary art and artists from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. Arts professionals, including educators, curators, and critics, in the five states were invited to nominate artists on the basis of quality, innovation, relevance to community or global issues, continuity of vision, and dedication to studio practice. Nearly 300 artists were nominated and 241 chose to submit application materials. Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art reviewed the materials, selected 28 finalists, and conducted studio visits before choosing the seven award recipients.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Organized by the Portland Art Museum, the exhibition Riches of a City: Portland Collects celebrates arts patronage in Portland and the influence these collections have on the Museum. Opening on February 5, the exhibition features more than 230 objects from some 80 private collections in the city. The exhibition title references a quote from C.E.S. Wood, a founder of the Museum and arts patron: "Good citizens are the riches of a city."
For nearly a year, four of the Museum's curators have been exploring local collections of photography, prints, drawings, silver, Asian art, European art, and modern and contemporary art, uncovering exceptional objects including works by Degas, Picasso, Lautrec, Miro, and Warhol.
The curators visited with more than 150 collectors and considered hundreds of objects. The works in the exhibition reveal a variety of collecting interests and passions and give the public a rare glimpse behind closed doors. The diversity of objects also reflects the diversity of collectors from long-time residents to new citizens and from individuals with large collections to some with a handful of objects.
Some of the objects in the exhibition have been shown at the Portland Art Museum or other institutions in the past but most will be exhibited publicly for the first time.
"This exhibition provides an excellent opportunity for the Portland Art Museum to fulfill one of its core responsibilities, which is to place great works of art within the public realm either through temporary exhibition or by adding to the collection in perpetuity," said Brian Ferriso, the Museum's director.
Art collectors can have a strong influence on a museum's permanent collection, and the Portland Art Museum is not an exception. More than 80 percent of the Museum's permanent collection has come from generous gifts of art from collectors. From Portland's earliest years, citizens have collected the art of their day from Egyptian scarabs and Ethiopian crosses, Japanese prints and Chinese ceramics, English portraits and French Barbizon School paintings. These collectors brought these exotic works back from their travels to Portland. Many of these private collectors would be the founding members of the Museum and lend their artworks to the early exhibitions of the Portland Art Association. In its 117 year history, the Museum has organized 20 exhibitions highlighting private collections in the region.
Riches of a City is the most ambitious of these exhibitions historically, not only with the number of objects but also the diversity of mediums on display. The exhibition installation is organized almost like a museum within a museum. Bright yellow end walls key the visitor that they are entering different sections where objects share a common subject, technique, or theme. This organization allows visitors to consider ancient Asian art in relationship to contemporary prints or works of photography through multiple generations, or artists who were influenced by other artists. For example, the Schnitzer Sculpture Court presents a three generation look at mid-century American art through paintings and sculpture.
The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated, full-color 12 page softbound catalogue which celebrates Portland's community of collectors, documents every object, and highlights singular objects. Riches of a City is organized by the Portland Art Museum and curated by Bruce Guenther, chief curator and curator of modern and contemporary art; Maribeth Graybill, Ph.D, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art; Julia Dolan, Ph.D., curator of photography; and Annette Dixon, Ph.D., curator of prints and drawings.
WHEN: February 4 – May 22, 2011
WHERE: The Jackie & Jerry Inskeep Gallery, the Julie Neupert Stott Gallery, and the Maribeth Wilson Collins Gallery
ORGANIZER: Organized by the Portland Art Museum
CURATORS:Bruce Guenther, chief curator and curator of modern and contemporary artMaribeth Graybill, Ph.D., The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian ArtJulia Dolan, Ph.D., curator of photographyAnnette Dixon, Ph.D., curator of prints and drawings
SPONSORS:The Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank, Mary Clark, Maribeth W. Collins Endowment Fund, Judy C. and Martin Kelley Endowment Fund, Laura S. Meier, The Mark Family, Andrée Stevens, Mr. and Mrs. William, A. Whitsell, Nani S. Warren, The Boeing Company, Brooks and Dorothy Cofield, Prudence Miller, Travers Hill Polak and The Walter Clay Hill and Family Foundation, Dr. Alton and Celia Wiebe. Jim and Susan Winkler, The Acorn Fund of OCF Exhibition Series Sponsors: The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Ziba Design, PLANAR, The Collins Foundation, Mary C. Becker, Nancie S. McGraw, Pat and Trudy Ritz, Eric and Ronna Hoffman Fund of OCF, Maribeth Collins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Arlene and Harold Schnitzer, Julie and Peter Stott, Ray Hickey Foundation, PGE Foundation, Larry and Jane Viehl, NW Natural, Vibrant Table Catering & Events, Anonymous Media Sponsors: KGW NewsChannel 8, Kink.FM, The Oregonian
PORTLAND, Ore. — The second Thursday of each month offers the opportunity to explore objects in the Portland Art Museum's permanent collection through the inspired lens of a local artist. Participants depart at 6 p.m. from the Hoffman Lobby. Talks are followed by a lively happy hour discussion with the artist, featuring complimentary food and wine, until 8 p.m.
On February 10, artist Kristan Kennedy will discuss Renoir's sculpture Venus Victorious. The bronze sculpture is on view in the Museum's Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art.
Kennedy selected this work because of the show she curated at PNCA and her own work. She'll discuss the history of the object and its initial controversy. According to Kennedy, her talk will consider the ambivalence/reverence of "classical" sculpture and representations of the body and her own interest in the repetitive nature of art making and the obsession with certain motifs, such as nudes.
Kennedy is the Visual Art Curator for the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA). Her work was included in both the 1999 and 2006 Oregon Biennial exhibitions at the Museum. She is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery.
$5 members, $12 non-members. Space is limited to the first 45 ticket holders. Advance tickets available online and on-site.
Namita WiggersMARCH 10Namita Wiggers is the curator at Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art. A former studio art jeweler, she was an instructor at Columbia College, Chicago, a senior researcher at e-Lab, and coordinator of public programs at Blaffer Gallery at University of Houston.
Jelly HelmAPRIL 14Jelly Helm is principal of Jelly Helm Studio, a small creative studio in Old Town/Chinatown that produces art projects, community events, and storytelling for clients. He was formerly executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy and founder/director of W+K 12, Wieden+Kennedy's experimental in-house school.
Brian LibbyMAY 12Brian Libby is a Portland writer, photographer, and filmmaker. Libby's award-winning short films have screened at the Northwest Film & Video Festival, Portland International Film Festival, and London's Exploding Cinema. Libby's photographs have been published in a variety of publications and were exhibited in a critically acclaimed 2003 show at the American Institute of Architects.
Click here to watch video selections from previous Artist Talks.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Today, the Portland Art Museum announced the finalists for the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, an awards exhibition celebrating contemporary art created in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. The finalists are:
About the FinalistsThere are 29 artists, but two artists work collaboratively. There are 14 women and 15 men with ages ranging from their 20s to over 70. Two are from Idaho, two are from Montana, 16 are from Oregon, and eight are from Washington.
The Selection ProcessRegional arts professionals, including curators, scholars, dealers, writers, artists, and critics were invited to nominate visual artists based on the quality of their work, innovation, skill, continuity of vision, commitment to their practice, and level of development in their career. The Museum received 296 nominations and invited the nominated artists to submit application materials. Of the nominated artists, 241 submitted materials for consideration.
Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art, reviewed the nominees' materials and selected the finalists. She will continue reviewing the artists' work through studio visits during the next several weeks. She will eventually select five to seven artists to be recognized with the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards. These artists will be featured in the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards exhibition opening June 11.
About the Contemporary Northwest Art AwardsThe exhibition and awards program will honor artistic merit and potential while providing an in-depth and scholarly presentation of work of artists working in the Northwest. The award recipients will be honored with an exhibition, a full-color catalogue, exhibition-related programming, and a modest cash award. One of the award recipients will be further recognized with the Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the amount of $10,000. The finalists announced today will be recognized in the catalogue.
PORTLAND, Ore. — For a limited time—now through January 31—visitors to the Portland Art Museum will have a unique opportunity to view four major canvases by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The four paintings are hung in close proximity in the Museum's Impressionist galleries and offer insight into the artist's practice over three decades. Claude Monet's Waterlilies (1914-15) is arguably the centerpiece of the Museum's permanent collection and one of the most popular for visitors and members. Thanks to a loan from a private collection, visitors will also see Monet's companion painting, Nymphéas (1914-1917), an oil painting of the same group of waterlilies in his beloved pond and garden at his home in Giverny, France. The paintings are installed near the Museum's two other Monet paintings, River at Lavacourt (1879) and Le Chateau d'Antibes (c. 1888), in the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art
"The chance to study two masterworks conceived and executed with the same palette in the same place, perhaps a few days apart is a unique opportunity," said Bruce Guenther, chief curator. The canvases open up Monet's investigations of light and color and illustrate the potential for such different resulting energies in the works."
While the companion Nymphéas, will remain on view until April 31, the Museum's Waterlilies will be part of a major exhibition at the Wadsworth Antheneum in Connecticut beginning in February and running through June 12. Because of its popularity, the Museum has only loaned the painting some seven times in the past fifty years.
"Monet's Water Lilies: an Artist's Obsession will be an excellent scholarly look at Monet's late period organized by one of our FRAME (French Regional American Museum Exchange) partners who have been helpful in past projects of the Museum including The Dancer and La Volupté de goût," said Museum Director Brian Ferriso.
During his lifetime, Monet painted some 300 oil paintings depicting his water garden and Japanese bridge at his home in Giverny and they were the main focus of his practice during the last years of his life. He once observed, "It took me time to understand my waterlilies. I had planted them for the pleasure of it; I grew them without ever thinking of painting them."