Portland Art Museum & Northwest Film Center at home.
On this episode, Brian Ferriso, The Portland Art Museum’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, has a conversation about directing a museum during a time of civil unrest, a climate crisis, and a global pandemic with his counterpart at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, Normandy, Sylvain Amic. This episode is part of a series brought to you… Read more
In an effort to increase communication and transparency around equity and inclusion work at the Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center, the Equity Team will be sharing semi-regular updates here on the blog. We are committed to bringing the entire organization along on the path of racial equity learning and change. We acknowledge, however, that… Read more
How do you feel when you look at this photograph of the Grand Tetons and the Snake River? Today and over the coming months, our Write Around PAM prompts will take inspiration from the Ansel Adams in Our Time exhibition currently on view at the museum. Adams took breathtaking landscape photographs of the American West,… Read more
Education was a central component of Ansel Adams’s photographic practice. He established the fine art photography program at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1946, the first of its kind in the country. Six years prior, in 1940, he started teaching photography workshops. These group educational experiences, often held in Yosemite National Park, became yearly… Read more
![[Image Description: Family (Mother and Child). Romare Bearden.. 1980. Color screenprint on cream wove paper. 18in H x 14 in W. A Black mother sits on a brown chair with her right arm around her child who is wearing a blue dress and white shoes. The mother has short curly black hair with brown highlights and a yellow square coming out the back, white triangular earrings, a reddish brown nose and lips, a dark blue long sleeve dress with light blue outlines with a white shirt underneath, a reddish orange apron, and light brown shoes. Her eyes and nose are outlined with blue lines and her hands are large and appear more dimensional than the other parts of her body. Her left hand rests on her knee and her right hand is held with thumb and third finger touching while resting on the child’s elbow. The child has short dark curly hair with a white triangle coming out the back and white eyes. She stands with her left side resting on her mother’s apron looking towards the right side of the print. Her arm bent at the elbow, palm open and facing up. A bright blue wall is behind the chair with a painting with green hills, trees, white sky, and blue clouds with a light gray frame. There is a dark blue shape under the painting that resembles an arched entryway. The chair is sitting on a floor consisting of light gray, dark gray, and blue rectangles - some vertical and some horizontal. The angles are such that it creates somewhat of an optical illusion.]](https://nwfc.pam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Romare-Bearden-1200.jpg)
As we celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, we invite you to think of a person who has been a strong maternal presence in your life. It could be your mother, grandmother, auntie, close friend, teacher or other care provider, another parent, guardian, or person close to you. Someone who embodies the care and love and… Read more
![[Image description: Requiem for a Ponderosa Pine, Anne Appleby, each panel 44 x 44 inches; overall: 90 x 90 inches, oil and wax on canvas. Four square panels, each a different color, grouped to form one larger square. The panels are arranged two over two. At top left, the first panel is a deep green and at top right the panel is reddish-purple. Bottom left contains the blackish-brown panel next to the faded orange or cantaloupe colored one at bottom right. The squares are hung so they are separated by narrow strips of the wall behind them. The panels appear to be solid blocks of color but closer inspection reveals subtle variations of shades and depth of color.]](https://nwfc.pam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Anne-Appleby-1200.jpg)
Living in the Elkhorn Mountains in Montana, Anne Appleby has spent years closely studying the ecology, and more specifically, the trees that surround her land. Known for her “grid” paintings, Appleby paints the changing colors of trees that define their characteristics through seasons. Requiem for a Ponderosa Pine examines the variations of colors of a… Read more
![[Image description: Cheyenne artist, Blanket, 73 ¾ x 55 ½ inches, wool, glass beads. A rectangular, leaf green blanket with a narrow strip of beading running lengthwise along the middle. The blanket shows some discoloration where the fabric has faded and its edges are frayed where the stitched binding has come away. Stretching across the work, a narrow strip of white beading is punctuated by five blue beaded squares that are flanked on either side by slim yellow and red stripes and rows of blue beaded triangle shapes. Four round white beaded circles with blue crosses are interspersed between the squares. Pairs of long beige cords emanate from the circle centers, some lay stretched across the beading, some are coiled.]](https://nwfc.pam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Cheyenne-Blanket-1200x884.jpg)
Green is a color infrequently seen in most collections of Plains material, which makes this beaded trade blanket all the more striking. The wool blanket, probably received from a trader in exchange for other goods, was embellished in the same manner as a tanned animal hide: a long, beaded strip was attached along the middle,… Read more
As warmer weather approaches, we are all dreaming of lazy summer days. This recent acquisition by Derrick Adams captures the pleasures and poignancy of timeless summer afternoons. Using 68 puzzle-cut woodblocks, seven runs of screenprint, and fabric collage, Adams depicts a young boy resting on a gigantic inflatable swan in an expanse of blue water.… Read more
Years previously to making this work, I met Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon of the band Sonic Youth. Ranaldo introduced his music to me by inviting me to a concert the band was giving in Boston. The band’s 1988 album “Daydream Nation” became a beautiful, resolute, and illuminating source of inspiration. I sought to sustain… Read more
Ravens hold special significance and symbolism in many cultures and traditions, and especially in the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest, as seen here in Shaun Peterson’s Circling Ravens II. These birds are woven into art, into storytelling, into deep personal and cultural connections. Peterson, whose Native name is Qwalsius, uses the phrase “traditional… Read more