Tag: Daily Art Moment

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Daily Art Moment: Édouard Vuillard

Image description: Vuillard, Interior, Mother and Sister of the Artist, 1893, oil on canvas. This painting is crowded with busy patterns and two women looking out towards the viewer. The young woman on the left wears a hunter green, yellow and white plaid dress and is leaning against the wall while bending forward at the waist as if to stay in the painting. The wall behind her is patterned of many colored splotches including white, crimson, yellow and dark green. Despite competing patterns the young woman almost blends into the wall, save for her pale face and hands. An older woman is seated on a chair in the middle of the space. She is wearing an all black dress and her pale face and hands offer contrast. The rug beneath them is a tan color and appears to have a subtle pattern to it. At the back of the room, in the corner, is a warm brown wooden dresser with drawers and on the far right of the scene, next to the seated woman is a round table covered with a brown, yellow, orange and cream patterned tablecloth. On top of the table sits a large wine bottle, an empty white plate and a crumpled white napkin.
Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868–1940), Interior, Mother and Sister of the Artist, 1893. Oil on canvas; 463 x 56.5 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Saidie A. May, 141.1934.

Artist Édouard Vuillard found inspiration from the people closest at hand, as seen in our current special exhibition, Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, 1889–1900. Vuillard’s mother, Madame Marie Vuillard, was a constant in her son’s life and in his art. More than 500 paintings in which she is depicted,…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Trude Parkinson

Image description: Emerging Zodiac, 2021, oxidized silver leaf and Renaissance wax on paper, 17 ⅜ x 42 in. Horizontal rectangular composition of 7 abstract human silhouettes in motion rendered in rusty brown, verdigris, purple, yellow against a blank background of 2 brownish patina paper with wrinkles and frayed or burnt edges. From left to right, the figures appear captured in motion, arms or legs outstretched and cloaked in a large garment that at times appears as wings.

Emerging Zodiac is an exceptional example of Parkinson’s work and her dedicated interest in the human body in relation to the greater cosmos. The model of the dancing figure is artist Eiko Otake, a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist who has performed several times @picapdx. Inspired by Otake’s movements, Parkinson has documented these performances. Emerging Zodiac is…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Private Lives

Image descriptions: 1. Pierre Bonnard, Child with Lamp. Lithograph on cream paper of a young child playing with toys on a small red table with a lamp. The background consists of of a rose pink color with dark brownish green hatched lines. The light-skinned child with rose pink hair is wearing a white shirt with blue dots. The child grasps the edge of the table with their left hand and rests their right arm on top of the table. The child’s head is tilted to the right and faint, loose brown lines make up the child’s facial features. The child holds red and blue toy stagecoaches. The lamp in front of the child has a dark green cylindrical base and a large dark blue shade that has a cream strip on top with a repeated pattern of dark blue x’s. A round dark green fixture holds the shade at the top and a white pole extends up out of the shade. Red and blue organic lines radiate from the white pole layered over the rose background.
Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867–1947), Child with Lamp, ca. 1897. Color lithograph on China paper; image: 33 x 44.9 cm. Museum Purchase: Ella M. Hirsch Fund, 41.11.6

After resetting the clocks and settling in for a dark winter, I am reminded of the many scenes of lamplight in the exhibition Private Lives: Home and Family in the Art of the Nabis, 1889–1900. Families gathered around oil lamps, candles, or the hearth in tenebrous Parisian apartments. Each artist in the exhibition brought a…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Francisco de Goya

1. Mucho hay que chupar (There is plenty to suck), plate 45 from the series Los Caprichos, 1799, etching, plate: 8 1/16 in x 5 7/8 in; sheet: 11 5/8 in x 7 11/16 in. Three ghouls or goblins huddle together over a basket of infants. The ghouls have grotesque faces with exaggerated gaping mouths, sunken eyes, and gnarled hands. They are draped in light colored fabric while gesturing to a small box or open book in their hand. At their feet is a handled basket filled with what appears to be small babies. Two bats appear over their shoulders at right. Wings are outstretched in flight. Shadows at left balance the scene. “Mucho hay que chupar” appears along the bottom.

When it comes to bats, gremlins, witches, and bogeymen, it is hard to beat the graphic work of Francesco de Goya. In honor of #Halloween, I offer you four prints from our collection acquired in 2019. All four hail from Los Caprichos (Caprices), a series of 80 enigmatic, satirical, and frequently bizarre etchings published in…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Lynnette Haozous

Image descriptions, clockwise from left: 1. A collage of three photos showing the artist Lynette Haozous and her assistant, Andrew Benally working on a mural. The first photo takes up the space on the left and features Haozous standing on a motorized lift painting the eye of a partially painted figure on the museum wall. Haozous stands on the red lift facing left, her right hand holding a brush touching the wall. Haozous is a Native American woman with dark hair swept back into two braids. She wears a gray sleeveless top and jeans with a dark shirt tied around her waist and black sneakers. A pot of blue paint sits at her feet. The mural taking shape on the wall portrays the head and shoulders of a larger-than-life figure with long hair in blue and gray. The figure is set against a bright yellow background with a halo-like shape around the head. Light blue four, pointed stars with white circle in their centers surround the figure. Two more photos are stacked on the right. 2. The top features the mural in progress with a table, ladder, and motorized lift in front of it. The mural’s central figure is the head and shoulders of a figure with long straight hair rendered in blues and grays. The figure gazes directly ahead, with facial features and clothing rendered in light blues on white. A darker blue halo is around the head within a much larger bright yellow organic cloud-like shape. Layered over this are light blue four-pointed stars in rows on either side of the figure. To the left of the figure, four dark blue, pyramid shaped triangles outlined in white are stacked on top of one another. The top and bottom triangles have large white dots in their centers and the middle two have red dots. To the right of the figure are four more pyramid shaped triangles, this time with red center dots and standing on their sides. The floor beneath the mural is covered with drop cloths. 3. The final photo at bottom right shows the artist and her assistant in the foreground with the completed mural in the background. Assistant Andrew Benally, a Native American man, stands at left, smiling. His hair is pulled back and he wears a black t-shirt with a figure in white wearing a feathered headdress. The artist Lynnette Haozous, stands at right, also smiling at the camera off to the right. She wears her hair back in braids, a plaid shirt and peach t-shirt. Behind them the mural is displayed next to a window with natural light.

Last week was an exciting week at the museum with artist Lynnette Haozous, and her assistant Andrew Benally, here from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were on hand to install Into the Sun, her temporary mural in the gallery for our upcoming exhibition, Mesh.” As a muralist, Haozous is often invited to create work that is…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Frank Okada

Consanguineous, Frank Okada, oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches. A square abstract painting featuring bold colors on a largely deep yellow ground. The lower left corner holds an arc of undulating stripes that dip slightly in their center. The stripes alternate from vivid red to orange then back to red again. A rectangular shape composed of trapezoidal shapes and stripes juts downward into the center space from the top center. The rectangle sits at an angle slanted to the left. It begins with a brilliant blue at the middle top of the painting followed by a thin stripe of deep red, then a dark olive-green trapezoid. A golden yellow that matches the background color follows, forming another trapezoid. It is followed by a cream trapezoid separated by narrow golden yellow stripe from a pale gray trapezoid shape. The textured golden yellow ground is bisected horizontally two thirds of the way down from the top. The upper portion of the painting is the largest segment with the bottom third containing the red and orange arc and three more golden yellow segments. The segments differ slightly in hue. The lightest is at left next to the red/orange arc. The remaining two segments continue to the right with a thin, sharp uneven streak of cream interrupting the yellow ground from the lower right edge. Brushstrokes are clearly visible with the edges of the shapes being slightly ragged and uneven.

Frank Okada once described his work as being “dedicatory in nature.” He said, “My parents, through good and bad times, always placed the first portion of newly cooked rice before their modest Buddhist shrine, dedicating that portion to the memory of those past and as an abiding affirmation of their faith. Occasionally, in thoughts conjured…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Pierre Bonnard

Image description: Pierre Bonnard, The Square at Evening, 1899, Color lithograph on cream paper, 16 x 20 ⅞ in. A large group of people walk through the square alongside stage coaches in front of large buildings with bright light shining from the windows. Heavy, layered strokes make up the images with details that are difficult to differentiate. A light-skinned woman wearing a black cape, large black hat with feathers protruding from the top, and red bows in her hair faces away from the viewer and takes up a two-thirds of the bottom of the lithograph. To the right a tall, thin, light-skinned man with a mustache and black coat and hat walks towards the left side of the lithograph. Behind him a shorter, thin woman with light skin looks downward and carefully steps forward while wearing a long black dress and a black hat. Yellow light reflects in the puddles around her. Behind her to the right two stage coaches drive off the paper. A large group of figures that cannot be distinguished mill about in front of the lighted windows of the large buildings. Four windows on the second floor are illuminated with reddish orange lights.

After a hot, dry, summer, I cheered the recent return of rain to Portland. More than 100 years ago, French artist Pierre Bonnard captured the magic of a rainy night in Paris. In the foreground, a woman with a plumed hat trimmed with red flowers moves to the right. Behind her, another parisienne gingerly steps…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Shirley Gittelsohn

Shirley Gittelsohn (American, 1925–2015), Family Portrait, 1977, oil on linen, 72 in x 144 in, Gift of the Families of Shirley Gittelsohn and Ernest Bonyhadi. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2017.49.1

Shirley Gittelsohn’s Family Portrait is featured in the current exhibition, Portraiture from the Collection of Northwest Art. The painting depicts her adult children, the family pets, her relaxed husband, herself, and their Cannon Beach gathering place. I’ve been drawn to different details of this piece over time, most recently focusing on Gittelsohn’s self-portrait. She is…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Sun Yi

Image description: Birds and Flowers, Sun Yi, hanging scroll; ink and color on silk, painting: 48 1/2 x 27 3/4 inches; mounting; 92 1/2 x 34 inches. Detail of scroll depicting two birds perched on flowering branches. A brown bark covered branch bisects the work from upper left slanting down the lower right. A male bird grips the branch at left, grey plumed tail held high while it bows its blue capped head at its mate at lower right. Its wings are bright blue, body gray and beak, legs and feet a brilliant red. They perch among creamy white magnolia blossoms and buds, tiny pale pink crabapple blossoms and leafy greenery. A large peach magnolia blossom with its many layered, ruffled petals is at lower bottom next to a violet peony bud. The scene is set against a khaki background.

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

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Daily Art Moment: Nez Perce artist

Image description: Doll, Nez Perce artist, hide, beads, cloth and hair, 12 x 7 3/4 x 1 1/8 inches. A cloth doll clothed in a beaded hide dress with dark brown hair in pigtails. The doll’s creamy tan face shows wear and has beaded features. Single black beads sandwiched between two white beads compose the eyes, two black beads make up the nostrils and a longer line of red beads topping a shorter row make the mouth. Brown hair is gathered in two pigtails with yellow beads on either side of the head. The doll’s arms stand straight out from the body and have rounded ends representing hands. The doll wears a long hide dress in the same creamy tan as the body that has fringed cuffs and hem. A bright blue beaded necklace with four long peach and white shells is stitched around the neck. A sky-blue beaded belt with long ties wraps around the waist. Two bright blue beaded patches at the hips have hide tassels. Alternating yellow and black beaded diamonds appear just above the fringed hem. The doll wears hide leggings embellished with sky-blue beads and moccasins beaded in yellow and bright blue. The doll appears worn and much loved.

With the school year beginning, I began to think about children and how objects such as dolls are so universal. This Nez Perce doll was surely made for children in the image of women in her community. The clothing is composed of the same materials her relatives wore: soft hide for the dress, leggings, and…  Read more