Tag: Daily Art Moment

Categories
Discover Learn

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

Categories
Discover Learn

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

Categories
Discover Learn

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

Categories
Discover Learn

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

Categories
Discover Learn

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

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Joe Feddersen

Two upright rectangles, side by side with a narrow white border on all sides and separating the two. Bands of color softly blend to compose the background. The layers from the top are blue, purple, peach, creamy white, turquoise, creamy white, and pale lavender, blending to purple at bottom. In some areas, the bands seem to match up from one panel to the next; in other areas they are slightly misaligned. Overlaying these bands of color in the upper two-thirds of the painting are scattered lace-like formations suggesting clouds. The lower third of the painting containing the creamy white, turquoise, and purple bands are mostly free of clouds. Long, thin, diagonal lines streak from top left to bottom right over the entire painting. The lines change color depending on position over other colors: pink over purple, white over peach, burgundy over blue, and so on.

“Coming upon Joe Feddersen’s Blue Horizon, from the series Rainscape feels like the perfect embodiment of our elongated spring in the Pacific Northwest, and much like the very weather we are having this week. Blue Horizon captures the opulent layers of the dawn sky as indirect sunlight scatters the soft hues to layers of delicate…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Scarabs

Nine color photographs of very small carved sculptural scaraboids arranged in a 3 by 3 grid.

“In ancient Egypt, scarab beetles symbolized dawn, life, and rejuvenation. These associations made the scarab beetle the most popular shape for amulets and personal seals. Other auspicious forms were also used as amulets. The annual floodwaters of the Nile River Valley could be a force of destruction but also regeneration. Amulets in the shape of…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Erika Stone

A vertical, rectangular, black-and-white photograph, featuring a young, light-skinned child at center. She leans, arms folded across her upper waist, on the inside of a patched and worn screen door, gazing through the screen and outside to the photographer/viewer. The interior space behind her is dark and without detail. The light gray door frame is seen along both the bottom and right edges of the image. A worn, chipped doorknob is on the door frame to the left of the figure at shoulder height. Her head is turned to the left, her chin touching her right shoulder. Her bobbed hair is chin-length with short, uneven bangs, and she wears a sleeveless, printed shirt. Dark areas appear on her mouth, nose and chin suggesting a scrape from a fall.

“This well-known photograph by Erika Stone is new to our permanent collection. Made in 1956, it echoes the present-day photographic trend of incorporating windows and doorways into portraits. These apertures provide access to people while also symbolizing boundaries or barriers. They protect the health of both artist and subject, highlight the current need for physical…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Bue Kee

Portrait of a young, light-skinned Asian man, facing left in three-quarter view. He has a small mouth, his lips pursed, thin dark eyebrows, high cheekbones and a long thin nose. His brownish eyes are fixed in an intense gaze off to the left. He has a brown, full head of hair brushed back and elongated ears. Brushstrokes are visible in his hair and skin. Light catches the bridge of his nose, his cheekbones forehead and chin. Some areas reveal the weave of the canvas on which the portrait is painted. The figure wears an off-white collared shirt, with a blue-gray vest with horizontal brushstrokes of white and gold creating texture. A necktie depicted in red, blue and gold brushstrokes is visible at the throat. The background is a rich mustard gold color achieved by multiple brushstrokes filling the entire space.

“Bue Kee’s ‘Self-Portrait’ is currently a part of the exhibit, Portraiture from the Collection of Northwest Art, and it is a work I am eager to see again in person. Kee worked in a variety of mediums including painting, ceramics, and photography. Born and raised on a farm outside of Portland, Kee was Chinese-American. Despite…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Payne Studio

A black-and-white photograph of a young African American woman standing turned to the right in a three-quarter view, head facing forward, gazing directly at the viewer. She wears a white, floor-length gown with high neck and long sleeves. Her hair is swept up, piled on the crown of her head, and adorned with several flowers. Her expression is neutral, her head slightly tilted to the left. She holds a large, full bouquet of roses, carnations, and ferns whose long stems are tied with a ribbon. The flowers are angled down toward the floor while the stems point up and away from the viewer. The bottom of her gown ends in several tiers of ruffled flounces. Behind the figure is a painted backdrop depicting drapery and part of a stone mantel. A wide, tan border surrounds the long, rectangular portrait, showing bumped and creased corners and staining at bottom. A handwritten inscription reads: “1st blk. graduate // from high school // in Hastings, Nebraska // about 8 yrs. before grandma Nonie”. A logo reading “Payne Hastings, Nebr” is printed in the bottom right corner of the border.

“Most U.S. colleges, universities, and high schools (and, increasingly, preschools and grade schools!) hold commencement ceremonies in May and June. Photography has long played a part in commemorating the celebrations that mark these significant educational milestones. This year, cameras are especially important, since they’ll be used to help graduates participate in online commencement ceremonies, while…  Read more