Tag: Julia Dolan

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Daily Art Moment: Valentine’s Day

Sage Sohier, Gordon and Jim with Gordon’s Mother Margot, 1987, pigment print, 15 9/16 x 23 in. horizontal b&w photo with hot flash depicting 3 figures seated on a floral couch, the central male with his right arm around the elderly woman and left arm reaching out to male seated further away who is grasping it in both hands.

The Feast of St. Valentine’s Day has been celebrated in many different ways for well over a thousand years. No matter how you may feel about our contemporary version of Valentine’s Day, which tends to center romantic love, this can be a helpful reminder that love and connection are critical to our humanity. Photography has…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: William H. Walker

Image description: The New Year’s Edition (of the Oregonian), William H Walker, gelatin silver print, image 7 x 8 3/4 inches, sheet 7 1/16 x 9 ¼ inches. This black and white photograph depicts a newspaper vendor and customers at an outdoor newsstand on the sidewalk of a rainy street. At center right, a makeshift table holds mounds of large rolls of newspaper broadsheets. Three oversized broadsheets hang from the table and are half the length of the figure bent over the table. The figure, standing at the photo’s center, wears long dark overcoat and trousers with a hat. Behind them and to the left stands another figure, again in dark clothing and hat. The newsstand sits on the angled sidewalk which runs from the lower right to the upper left of the photo. Further down the sidewalk at far left is a streetlamp and another newsstand table heaped with rolled papers. In the distance, at far left another dark clad figure approaches. The background appears misty and the sidewalk shines with the fallen rain. At right, the hazy outline of buildings across the street are just discernible.

Curiously, this photograph is one of only two in the Museum’s permanent collection that includes “New Year” in its title. Made by Portland-based photographer Will Walker, it depicts people selling and purchasing copies of the New Year’s Day 1918 edition of The Oregonian. Thanks to @multnomahcountylibrary and its online research resources, I looked through the…  Read more

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2021’s Top 5 Episodes of Art Unbound

Art Unbound has been the Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center’s official podcast since March 2019. Originally launched as The Portland Art Museum Podcast, Art Unbound not only celebrates creative community members of Portland and its surrounding areas, but also those from around the world. 2021 has been a huge year for the podcast,…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Lewis W. Hine

Image description: Lewis Hine, Making Stockings, gelatin silver print, 4 1/2 x 31/2 in. Vertical rectangular black-and-white photo of a young girl in profile sitting on a wood chair slightly tilted back that faces left, her hands and quiet concentration focused on a factory machine with stockings draped from it. She wears a dark dress, light apron, her hair appears to be in a low bun, and her lap is full of stockings which spill over to the floor and create a heap to her right. The background is out of focus and suggests disorderly conditions.
Lewis W. Hine (American, 1874-1940), Making Stockings, 1915, gelatin silver print, image: 4 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in; sheet: 7 in x 5 in, Bequest of Fae Heath Batten. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 1997.58.73

I think of photographer Lewis Hine every Labor Day. He was deeply affected by the long hours and low pay he earned while working to help support his widowed mother and siblings during the 1890s in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Hine first learned photographic processes around 1904 in New York City, where he also became active in…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Dan Powell

Image description: The Dalles, Oregon, Dan Powell, 1989, gelatin silver print, image: 12 11/16 x 15 7/8 inches; sheet: 16 x 19 7/8 inches. A black and white photograph featuring a drive-in movie screen and a bare tree amid an austere hilly, landscape. The movie screen occupies the upper left quadrant of the photo and shows the screen in a three-quarter view. A triangular structure supports the screen and its crossbar construction creates further triangular shapes. A small leafless tree stands near the screen and its darker branches cover most of the surface of the white screen. A dark wooden post and wire screen fence starts at center left and juts into the space behind the tree. The surrounding ground is strewn with bare branches and scrub grass. In the distance at right center and even with the bottom of the movie screen, the Dalles Bridge crosses a portion of the Columbia River. Low-slung, far-off hills bisect the photo in half. The top half of the photo shows a pale sky with light, wispy clouds.

Drive-in theaters were a staple of American popular culture during the mid-twentieth century. According to the New York Film Academy, more than 4,000 drive-ins dotted the landscape during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in rural locations. By the 1970s and 1980s, smaller automobiles, the emergence of the VCR, and other factors like the rising value…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Ansel Adams

Image description: Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, Ansel Adams, 1941, (negative) printed later, gelatin silver print. A black and white, landscape photograph showing a moon in a dark night sky over mountains, a church and graveyard. The photo is divided roughly in half with the top portion holding the dark, almost black sky. Towards the center of the work the sky lightens, and wispy clouds stretch across the photo. An almost full moon sits just left of center in the lighter sky above the light gray clouds. A snow-peaked mountain range sits under the clouds with scrubland below it. At far left a pueblo-style church with steep flat walls rises in the foreground topped with a small white cross. Low lying outbuildings and trees continue across to the right side of the photo where they meet with a cluster of crosses and headstones. Each cross is slightly different, and all seem to reflect the light and show up brightly against the darker background. Dark scrubby bushes continue to the bottom of the photograph.
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941; print date: 1965–75, Photograph, gelatin silver print, 2018.2730, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Tonight’s waxing gibbous moon has me thinking about how folks love to photograph the moon, and how difficult it is to capture this celestial orb in a way that matches what we feel when we observe it with our eyes. One of the most famous photographs of the moon is currently on view at the…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Marian Wood Kolisch

Ansel Adams, Marian Wood Kolisch. A photograph of Ansel Adams posing as two individuals take photographs of him in front of an enormous tree trunk. This portrait-oriented photo shows the figure of Ansel Adams standing at lower right and two photographers positioned at lower left and lower center. The photo is dominated by the huge trunk of a tree that dwarfs the figures. It sweeps from lower left across the photo and upwards to the upper right, displaying craggy, highly textured bark. At left in the background, evergreen trees in a forest setting are seen. Adams, an older white man with glasses and a white beard, stands at the base of the tree wearing a cowboy hat, light colored jacket and shirt with dark trousers and boots. He stands with his right hand in pocket and his other hand resting on his left knee. He has a camera on a strap around his neck and holds another in his left hand. At right, we see two photographers; the one at far left has short dark hair and a beard wearing a long sleeved top and pants. The figure is adjusting a camera on a tripod. At lower center, another photographer is seen from the back wearing a jean jacket and jeans, seemingly bent over a camera and tripod.

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

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Daily Art Moment: Bobby Abrahamson

Kat, from the series North Portland Polaroids, Bobby Abrahamson, gelatin silver print, image: 13 5/16 x 10 1/16 inches; sheet: 14 x 10 15/16 inches. A portrait oriented, black and white photograph of an individual seen through a storefront window arranging produce and smiling directly at the viewer. Their dark hair is pulled back, and they have dark arched eyebrows, a dimple on their right cheek and a beauty spot on their left above their mouth. Their smile is warm and welcoming. They wear a short-sleeved t-shirt under a dark apron. Their hands reach down in front of them to arrange a large bowl of olives amid bunches of grapes, small boxes of cherries and other kinds of produce. The figure is flanked by small store signs. One elaborately framed one to the left reads “Bakery Harvest Festival”, to their right is an out of focus sign in the background and one is directly in front of the figure and advertises “Rolls” and “Thanksgiving Dinner”. At top left a neon sign is partially seen. It reads “…El Food” and “…O-Nuts”. Across the lower section of the photo, a horizontal streak of white is visible, possibly a light reflection on the store window. Behind the figure are elements of the shop: a paned glass window and doorway. A narrow uneven white line along the outer edge of the photo frames the scene.

Earlier this week, public-facing workers throughout Oregon became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. These are the folks who have kept shelves stocked, food prepared, systems running, buses moving, and packages delivered (among so many other visible and hidden jobs) during a dangerous and anxious time. This additional, positive step toward a healthier future makes me…  Read more

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Exhibition Installation, Pandemic Style: Ansel Adams in Our Time

Julia Dolan, Ph.D., The Minor White Curator of Photography  In late January, we installed the magnificent exhibition Ansel Adams in Our Time. While we continue to follow state mandates and wait for lower COVID-19 transmission numbers, we look forward to welcoming visitors back to the Museum when it is safe to do so. We’ve had…  Read more

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Podcast— Ansel Adams: In Our Time

Coming soon to the Portland Art Museum is a special exhibition featuring the work of esteemed photographer Ansel Adams and the contemporary photographers he influenced. On this episode of Art Unbound, Julia Dolan, The Minor White Curator of Photography, speaks with the exhibition’s originating curator, Karen Haas, MFA Boston’s Lane Senior Curator of Photographs. Julia…  Read more