Portland Art Museum & Northwest Film Center at home.
This joyful, exuberant painting is an example of the rich vocabulary of auspicious symbols in Chinese art. The combination here of flowering peonies with pink crabapple and white magnolia blossoms, for example, can be understood as a visual-verbal rebus meaning “May your noble house be blessed with wealth and honor” (yutang fugui). The lively, full… Read more
One of the finest objects in our Korean art collection is one of the smallest, at only 4 inches high. This exquisite celadon cup forms the shape of an open flower with six petals. Crackles in the glaze were caused as the vessel cooled after firing. Underneath the crackles, you can see graceful, lightly carved… Read more
It has been more than one year since Write Around Portland and the Portland Art Museum began collaborating on weekly, art-inspired writing prompts to sustain our souls and our sense of connection during the pandemic. Write Around Portland staff and writing workshop facilitators have created over 60 writing prompts inspired by works in the Portland… Read more
![[Image description: Arbre (Tree), Minami Keiko, 11 7/16 x 11 7/16 inches, color etching and aquatint on paper. A square print depicting a highly stylized landscape featuring a large tree, a cloud, and a partial sun. The large tree begins at center bottom, its thick trunk rising and splitting into a wide V shape. The black bark is depicted as short vertical dashes grouped and layered at the trunk’s sides to convey depth. In the space left by the V-shaped branches are three oversized leaves placed side by side. The one in the middle has a pointed top while the other two have rounded tops. They are larger than the tree’s trunk and are composed of a multitude of smaller etched leaves over vertical dashes. Enveloping the large leaves and the upper branches is a muted green shape resembling a circle with the top edge depressed into itself. The circle contains more vertical black dashes. A line drawing of a bird is perched on the top right of the green shape. Above, a thin cloud composed of horizontal dashes appears. Just off center at upper left, a half circle resembling a partial sun is composed of concentric dashes. The background is a pale gray and resembles woven fabric.]](https://nwfc.pam.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Minami-Keiko.jpg)
Minami Keiko’s etchings offer the magic of fairy tale-like, narrative settings. Her fine touches on the printing plate and understated colors result in delicate, sometimes whimsical scenes. For me, she is often sweet without being cloying. Yet some prints hint at a deeper and more mysterious sense of ennui, loneliness, or alienation. Minami was orphaned… Read more
Even though the official start of spring is still a week away, we can feel the shift in the season. This piece by Fujikasa Satoko feels like a perfect embodiment of springtime—bursting forth, flowing, bringing energy and light into our days. A celebrated Japanese ceramicist, Fujikasa transforms clay into astonishing creations that appear lighter than… Read more
Titles offer insight into an artist’s vision and add layers of meaning to an artwork. Japanese printmaker Azechi Umetarō often took inspiration from his experiences mountaineering, as we see in this print, Yuki otoko (Man in Snow). He made dozens of woodblock prints of similar subjects. His human figures in the snowy mountains are often… Read more
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
The arrival of a new year gives us an opportunity to pause, to set intentions, to be open to the expanse of time and space all around us. This piece by Katsumata Chieko, offers a way to enter into that expanse, that openness, that empty vessel of a fresh start, while also being mindful of… Read more
In 2021, the Year of the Ox begins. 1829 was also an ox year. Poets in Mino province commissioned the artist Keisai Eisen to design this special print to commemorate the new year. Privately commissioned prints like these are called surimono and feature expensive materials and techniques. This small ox figurine, sitting on layered futon… Read more
The Portland Art Museum is pleased to announce that Jeannie Kenmotsu, Ph.D., has been appointed as The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Asian Art. Dr. Kenmotsu, who joined the Museum’s curatorial staff in 2017 as Japan Foundation Assistant Curator of Japanese Art and was promoted to Associate Curator in 2019, has also been serving… Read more