Author: Michael Smith

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Daily Art Moment: Yasuo Kuniyoshi

A vertical, rectangular painting of a young, light-skinned woman sitting in a chair with an accordion in front of her. The figure and instrument are at center and take up the bottom three quarters of the painting and almost the full width. The figure has dark wispy hair that falls across her forehead. She rests her head on her left hand. Her left elbow rests of the corner of a large accordion. Her right arm and hand lie across the top of the instrument. The accordion obscures the lower torso and legs of the figure. It consists of the bellows depicted in gray, olive green, and black, streaky brushwork sandwiched between brown keyboard with grill and end piece. Part of a brown braided wicker chair that she sits on can be seen at the left. She wears a long-sleeved, pink, high-necked top. The figure’s body faces front, her head turned partially to the left, her eyes half closed. She wears a somber expression. The background shows a bare, grayish-blue wall over a taupe base and brown floor. Brushwork is rough and seemingly random with visible finger smudges and brush strokes. The artist’s signature appears at top left in cursive writing in dark gray paint.

“American painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi created portraits of women throughout his career. His early languid female figures and whimsical circus scenes drew on American folk art and his encounters with European art on two trips to Paris in the 1920s. But by the late 1930s, his earlier dreamy, sensuous girls are replaced with women alone, deep…  Read more

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Curators in Conversation: Triple Candie on the exhibition Being Present

The Portland Art Museum is an extensive resource of the art history of the Northwest. Our Crumpacker Library houses several archives, and one of the most sought-after is that of the Portland Center for the Visual Arts, an ambitious contemporary art gallery active from 1972 to 1987. PCVA showcased avant-garde visual and performing artists and…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Carrie Mae Weems

During this time, it is important we all take moments to pause. Writing is a great tool to reflect, de-stress, #breakforjoy, and heal. Using this work by Carrie Mae Weems as inspiration, here are two prompts to help you get going. You can choose one, both or follow your own adventure.  Set a timer for…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Cherokee Mask

Sculpture depicting a straight-on view of a dark brown, painted wooden face of a buffalo with a long snout. Carving marks are visible over the entire head, especially on the snout, nose, and eyes. Prominent round nostrils in the rectangular nose end the broad snout. A row of six teeth are visible below the nose. Two small round eye holes, spaced close together, sit between two thick, pale tan horns tipped in black. These sit on either side of the eyes pointing inward. Dark, nearly black fur tops the head; the fur is longish and wiry, standing up in places from the head. Lighter brown fur is positioned just above the eye holes. Two patches of buffalo hide are positioned below the eyes just before where the snout begins.

“Some objects in our collection are a bit of a mystery because they were acquired with limited documentation. One of our challenges as curators is to determine if the information in our records is correct. This Cherokee mask is dated between 1850 and 1900 which is a broad range of dates during which there was…  Read more

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Poster Project: Shiva Natarāja

Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by spending some time with this graceful south Indian sculpture of Shiva Natarāja, featured in the Poster Project. The great Hindu god Shiva is the deity who destroys the cosmos so that it can be renewed again. Shiva has many aspects or forms. Here he appears as Natarāja, who…  Read more

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Film and New Media Happy Hour

An online gathering of regional filmmakers holding conversations around COVID-19. Fridays at 4 pm on Zoom. Next Film and New Media Happy Hour is Friday, May 29, 2020. New Opportunities in VR & Experiential Storytelling with special guests MICHEL REILHAC, Filmmaker, Experiential Artist and Head of VR, Venice Biennale and René Pinnell, CEO & Designer,…  Read more

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Daily Art Moments: Albert Besnard

Black etching on cream paper depicting two light-skinned women sitting at a table seen from about the waist up. The first woman is at far left, seen from the side, her body facing right but head turned to look to the viewer or artist. She has a cap of dark hair parted in the center, dark arched eyebrows, and large, dark eyes. Her nose is narrow, she has high cheekbones, a small mouth, and pointed chin. Her dark, voluminous, puffy sleeve takes up most of the bottom left corner. Areas of the cream, unworked paper depict the gathers and folds of the huge sleeve. Her thin, pale forearm extends from the huge sleeve and ends in a bony hand that rests on the edge of a table, holding a black feather. Her companion is at center, facing front, head resting on her hand and tilted to the right, her elbow on table. She appears to be looking to the left at the other woman. She has lighter hair and her face appears slightly hazy as if seen through smoke. Line work radiates off head combining her hair with the swirling background, creating a feeling of movement. A large, tall carafe sits at right on the table. It has a short, squat body with a long neck that reaches up to nearly the top right of the work. The entire work is composed of very thin linework, hatched and crosshatched to achieve shading and texture. A wide unworked border surrounds the scene.

“In late nineteenth-century Paris, morphine, a powerful opiate, was both legal and widespread. Although addiction afflicted all classes of society, artists were particularly fond of depicting fashionable women as part of the decadent underbelly of the city. In this etching, Besnard depicts two glassy-eyed morphinomanes (morphine addicts) relaxing into a stupor. The carafe on the…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Victor Jorgensen

A black-and-white photograph of three light-skinned, young men. The central figure sits on a doctor’s examination table, turned three quarters to the left while having plaster applied to his left arm. He stares off to the left, his hair spikey and messy, his facial expression somber. He is shirtless and having his arm, crooked at the elbow, set from shoulder to fingers in a plaster cast. Excess plaster is slathered and splattered on his neck, chest, and stomach. He wears a band on the ring finger of this left hand. At left, another young man is seen from the side, his head bent slightly forward, light from above cast on his face. He is using a cloth on the patient’s arm. He has dark short hair, wears a loose-fitting shirt with the sleeves rolled up. At right, another young man is cutting away the rough edge of the plaster on the patient’s shoulder. This man sits on the table with the patient, his back to us, the sleeves cut off his shirt, a small white cap on his head. The background shows a supply cabinet and bunks. Light streams down from the top right corner of the photo.

“#MemorialDay, a solemn American holiday, commemorates those who have died while on active military duty. The central figure of this photograph, taken on board the naval hospital ship USS Solace by Portland’s own Victor Jorgensen during WWII, later succumbed to his battle wounds: According to Jorgensen, ‘Pfc. A. Check of London, Kentucky, caught machine gun…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Marilyn Levine

Photo of a sculpture representing a deep brown leather handbag. Viewed from the side, a rectangular handbag with both ends and middle collapse inward as if half empty. A highlight on the outward bulge of the main body of the bag is represented in a lighter color. A shoulder strap lies draped across the main body and lies next to the highlight. Hardware and rivets attach the strap to the main body of the bag at each end. A flat pocket with a flap is on the right end of the bag. Seams and stitching are clearly visible and a zipper puller is at the top center of the bag.

During this time, it is important we all take moments to pause. Writing is a great tool to reflect, de-stress, #breakforjoy and heal. Join us for another mini-writing exercise focused on the people we are spending our days with (or are feeling separated from), using this piece from Marilyn Levine as inspiration.   First, imagine a…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Odilon Redon

Vertical off-white rectangle with various shapes scattered throughout a background of lighter crosshatching, shading, and abstract sketching. Two of the three largest shapes appear in the lower half of the rectangle. The first, positioned in the center, roughly forms the shape of a backwards C. The bottom of the C suggests a fishtail with fins. At the top, the shape seems to turn back on itself resulting in a face-like shape with eyes, situated on the inside of the curve. To the left of this shape is a heavily outlined circle suggesting an eye with upper and lower lids. A tail trails off to the left of this circle. The third large object is located in the top half of the work at right. It too suggests an eye, this time bulging with a small off center pupil-like shape surrounded by heavy line work. Scattered elsewhere are much smaller eye shapes, some with lids and lashes. The background is unevenly shaded with light and dark areas.

“Symbolist artist Odilon Redon was fascinated by the microscopic world that surrounds us. His fantastic prints, drawings, and paintings often feature bizarre depictions inspired by the unseen universe. His goal, he said, ‘consists in bringing to life … improbable beings and making them live according to the laws of probability, by putting—as far as possible—the…  Read more