Author: Michael Smith

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The Northwest Film Center’s 44th Annual Portland International Film Festival

First Wave Programming Revealed March 5–14, 2021 (PORTLAND, OR) — The 44th Portland International Film Festival (PIFF 44) is proud to announce the first wave of titles and special events. Taking place March 5 – 14, 2021, PIFF 44 is a program of the Portland Art Museum’s Northwest Film Center, one of the oldest and…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Fern Coppedge

“Little House Next Door” by Fern Coppedge. Oil on board, 11 ¾ in x 9 ¾ in. Vertical oil painting with thick broad brushstrokes with layers of color framed in a thick gold frame with two small gold lines near the corners on each side. A brown two-story house with a one-story addition to the right sits in the middle of the painting surrounded by five trees with long, bare, bending branches, and landscape covered in snow. A small snow-covered stoop extends past the blue front door which is flanked by blue windows on each side on both stories. The A-frame roof is covered in snow and has a chimney extending at the top on the right. The one-story addition on the right has a blue front door with a window to the right. On the right side of the building a large stone chimney extends past the roof and is flanked by two thin tall windows. Snow covers the yard which is bordered by a gray stone wall. A small bush stands in the corner of the yard. The gray and white sky is visible beyond the trees and a swath of dark vertical strokes resembles mountain landscapes in the background.

Many of us have likely gotten to know the streets we live on a bit better this year as we take walks in the neighborhood or spend time looking out our windows while we try to stay close to home and maintain social distancing. Or maybe life has shifted in a way that means our…  Read more

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Portland Fine Print Fair 2021 Goes Digital

January 22–February 8 Buy and browse online at westcoastprintfair.com By Mary Weaver Chapin, Curator of Prints and Drawings As with so many things this past year, the Portland Fine Print Fair (PFPF) is pivoting online. I am thrilled that we’re able to play a part in keeping this event going. For me, the Museum, and…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Larry Rivers

An Outline of History, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, color lithograph and screen print on paper, 41 x 32 inches. A horizontal rectangular depiction of our country’s Founding Fathers, seen outlined in brightly colored silhouettes on a cream ground. The figures are grouped, seated and standing, in familiar poses seen in illustrations of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Each figure has a line radiating outward from it with some of the figures having a name in addition to the line. At left is the first grouping showing some figures seated in the foreground and others seated in the background. They are made up of outlines in green, blue, yellow, bright pink, brown and dark grey. The lines are smudged within the outlines to give the figures a shadow of color. Names attached to some of these figures are: Rob Morris, Benjamin Harrison, Elbridge Gerry, Roger Sherman, Thomas, Lynch and Benjamin Rush. The center group features several standing figures and one seated figure. They are Sam Adams, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. The figures are outlined in burnt orange, green, pink, blue and brown. The last grouping at right, shows seated and standing figures in gray, purple and blue in front of a green figure seated at desk in the background near other figures in yellow and brown. These are labeled William Paca, Stephen Hopkins and Lewis Morris. The lower quarter of the print is a very pale green providing a base for the figures. The artist’s signature is at lower right.

Something about the diagrammatic silhouettes and obscured labels in Larry Rivers’s An Outline of History hit differently when I came across it in PAM’s Online Collections today. The shapes and composition are so familiar that I instantly recognized the moment in American history. Yet I still imagined a multitude of alternative narratives filling the negative…  Read more

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Reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr. , resources & an equity update

On the left is a black and white photo of five dark-skinned individuals and one light-skinned individual, dressed mostly in black, holding hands in a line on a white and gray marble courtyard with bushes and the glass wall of a banquet room behind them. Large red and black letters on the top right read “Don’t worry, we’ll hold hands again.” A logo on the bottom right includes a red round COVID-19 cell consisting of a center circle with lines that have bulbous ends radiating out from it. Black letters read “Resist COVID. Take 6! A social studies 101 project. resistcovidtake6.org”
Resist COVID/ Take 6! a public art project by Carrie Mae Weems in partnership with the Portland Art Museum, City of Portland, and Multnomah County Health.

Approaching this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I am called to gather my thoughts more intentionally on what this day offers us in this particular moment in time. As one of the few Black stories acknowledged in US history books throughout childhood, the work of Dr. King cements him as a fixture in political…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Mary Adams

Strawberry Basket by Mary Adams (Mohawk, Canadian), 2 inches x 2 inches, ash splints and commercial die. This tiny basket with a lid is a natural golden color overall and topped with a decorative loop handle that is dyed green to imitate leaves and a stem. The whole basket has a bumpy texture due to the weave of the materials. The weave creates rows of small looping circles that hug the surface with the open ends of the loops facing outward. They are tilted slightly downward on the body of the basket and more upward on the lid. Around the edge of the lid, where it meets the body of the basket, the weaving materials are bound together with a splint spiralling around the edge. It looks very much like an unripe strawberry with the dark shadowy centers of each of the loops resembling rows of seeds.

At two inches by two inches in diameter, this piece by Mary Adams (Mohawk, Canadian) feels quintessentially “small but mighty” and so full of intricate beauty. In these fraught days, we invite you to spend some time writing in this spirit of “small but mighty,” knowing that each of us has a mighty role to…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Hank Willis Thomas

Keep the Faith Baby, Hank Willis Thomas, 16 x 16 inches, letterpress on Coventry rag paper. A square print featuring the words “Keep the Faith Baby” surrounded by a black outline on a white background. All letters are capitalized with “Baby” in red, bold font and the rest in gray font. “Keep” appears on the first line, “the faith” on the middle line and “Baby” on the bottom line.

Back in November, we closed the national tour of the PAM-organized exhibition, Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… The works in the exhibition stick with me and I continue to be moved by Thomas’s art that tells us so much about the history and the present in our country. Throughout the last year, I’ve…  Read more

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Poster Project unveils new resources for learning and inspiration

We are thrilled to share seven new educational posters added to the popular Poster Project. With generous support from the PGE Foundation, the Portland Art Museum has created a set of posters every year since 2015 featuring works across our permanent collections. Our goal has always been to provide educators and students with inspiring and…  Read more

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Brushstrokes Walk-Through Video

This giant outdoor sculpture is not only an inspiring pop of color, but it is one of the artworks that’s free to view whether or not the Museum is open. Narrated by Sara Krajewski, the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator Of Modern and Contemporary Art, this video explores the history behind Roy Lichtenstein’s series of…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Kitao Shigemas

The First Month: New Year Visits, The Seven Herbs Ceremony, 9 12/16 x 7 ½ inches, color woodblock on paper. A vertical rectangular print divided into two scenes diagonally by a zigzagged line. The top half is further divided into a left half and a right half. The left shows a female figure dressed in a mauve and red kimono with her black hair pulled back in an elaborate hairstyle. She stands on a veranda looking through a doorway to an interior. Behind her are white gift boxes stacked on green tatami flooring. At right, a young man in a mauve and green patterned kimono writes on a sheaf of paper that is tied to a small pine tree. Behind him, another man, carries gifts while looking off to the right. This man is bald on top and wears a green kimono with a sword tucked under his arm. At top right, a rectangle contains Japanese writing. The lower half of the print is separated from the top by a zigzagged diagonal line that starts above center left and continues to below center right. The scene below shows a man at left seated in front of a low table while chopping vegetables. He is bald and wears a mauve patterned kimono and holds a chopping tool in his hand while gesturing to a guest that has arrived. Next to him are a pile of vegetables on one side and on the other, a candle in a tall stand. The guest, at right, is an older woman wearing a green kimono and holds a daikon radish. She is approaching a set of steps that leads to the area with green tatami flooring the man sits upon. Behind the man are two female figures, one kneeling and gesturing towards the visitor, the other standing. They both wear kimono and are positioned near an open doorway. Beyond the doorway a blossoming tree can be seen against a black night sky.

This print is one of 12 split-screen compositions that represent each month of the year. Much like writing resolutions or eating black-eyed peas, The First Month shows activities associated with New Year celebrations. At the top, a handsome young man writes New Year greetings on a sheaf of paper tied to the decorative pine. A…  Read more