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Write Around PAM: Jason Hill

Image Description: Photo of eight Black dancers posing in a multi-level human sculpture on a gray stage in bright white light. Four dancers form a foundation. One in the center with black calf-long leggings and a black tank top stands with legs apart, toes pointed. To the right another dancer wears a red tank top and black leotard. They stand on their left toe with their right leg extended behind. The dancers behind embrace the leg and rest their heads on it. To the left of the central dancer with legs apart is a dancer with bright red leggings. Their left foot is extended behind and right foot forwarded and angled to the right. They lay their head on the center dancer’s shoulder. To the left is a dancer wearing a black leotard and a brightly colored shirt with puffy sleeves. It has multiple rounded rectangles in teal, blue, and red, with white and red accents. The dancer stands on their right leg, left leg bent with toes extended behind their back, with their arms outstretched and fingers gently curved. Behind the line of dancers, a single dancer wearing light gold shorts with black dots stands on their toes, facing the audience with left arm extended, palm out, fingers raised upward, but gently bent. At the right end of the line of dancers is a dancer wearing a black leotard with short sleeves. They stand facing the right with legs apart, toes pointed. They hold another dancer on their left leg. This dancer’s right leg extends over the base dancer’s shoulder as that dancer holds the left thigh and ankle. The dancer looks upward, wearing black briefs and a red sports bra with white sides and white and black striped base, leans to the right, left arm extended, right arm bent at the elbow with palms facing out and fingers gently bent. Behind, a dancer on the ground wearing a black speedo leotard and a large puffy black and red scarf holds the shoulder of the dancer in the full black leotard with their right arm and extends their left arm upward, palm facing forward, fingers extended.
Jason Hill, Lion King, 2019, Pigment-based inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist.

Jason Hill is an artist and educator currently living in Portland, Oregon. He took this photo in winter 2019, during a day in Eugene with the off-Broadway cast of The Lion King. “I am most amazed by the discipline, momentum, and grace of dancers,” he says. “These images are a testament to the power and…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Dan Flavin

Image description: Untitled (to Donna) 2, 96 ¼ x 96, fluorescent light. An installation of fluorescent lights positioned in a corner consisting of two bright yellow lights running horizontally at floor and knee level and two fluorescent lights running horizontally at each end with the light component facing the wall. The horizontal lights are bright blue at the right and mauve at the left. All four lights cast their colors on the corner walls and floor.

Artist Dan Flavin used only fluorescent tube lights arranged to create light, color, and space. He explained, “One might not think of light as a matter of fact, but I do. And it is, as I said, as plain and open and direct an art as you will ever find.” untitled (to Donna) 2 illuminates…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Zhang Hongtu

Image description: After Shiato’s Landscape Album: Shitao-Van Gogh, from the series Ongoing Shan Shui. Zhang Hongtu. 2002. Oil on canvas. 48”H x 36”W. Colorful landscape of a river, plant-covered rock surfaces, a path leading to a building, and large mountain peaks in the background with fluffy white clouds above. There are thirteen columns with five black Chinese characters along the top with three red seals and four columns of several smaller black characters on the left with three red seals below. Multiple colors are layered together with distinct brush strokes. The clouds are fluffy and made up of white strokes with yellow, purple, and blue mixed in, and darker blue outlines. Below five rock peaks that are thin and rounded on top can be seen behind a large hill covered in greenery. At the base is a field of tall green reed-like plants. At the edge of the field is a white two-story structure with a dark brown roof. A white solid fence with golden vertical beams spaced evenly throughout sits in front of the structure with an arch that opens in front of the structure. A single tree with long branches and a few sparse leaves grows at the arched entrance. Yellow, gold, orange, and brown strokes are layered to create the ground around the fence. On the left and right borders, tall rock faces stretch nearly the length of the canvass and have various colors of greenery growing on the surface. Below, blue, green, and white dots make up the body of water that runs through the landscape. The reflection of the rocks and greenery can be seen in the water. On the right a narrow brown pathway with black steps runs between the rugged, plant-covered rocks. The brush strokes create a sense of movement throughout the painting - as if the clouds are rolling by and the greenery is blowing in the wind.

Zhang Hongtu’s Ongoing Shan Shui series explores categories of “East” and “West” in a distinctive way, reflecting his own life lived in two cultures. Here, he reimagines an album leaf by the great seventeenth-century artist Shitao—a small work in ink on paper—in the brilliant colors and brushwork of the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Take…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Jeppe Hein

Image description: Please Participate. Jeppe Hein. 2015. Neon tubes and transformers. 88 inches x 210 inches. Words in white neon mounted on a white gallery wall in seven rows. The lettering is simple and approachable in all capitals. The words are: Row 1: Please. Row 2: Participate, Be, Grateful, Enjoy, Focus. Row 3: Meditate, Feel, Open, Up, Interact, Smell. Row 4: Try, Breathe, Forgive, Wish, Be, Aware. Row 5: Smile, Wonder, Dream, Taste, Do, Yoga. Row 6: Kiss, Love, Yourself, Search, Relax, Touch. Row 7: Sving, Choose, Your, Way, Expect, A, Miracle. Below nine, white, rectangular transformers sit on a shelf below the words with electrical cords connecting each one to several words. The upper left corner of the image shows an opening in the wall and light from the gallery above.

We are venturing into a new year, and while our resolutions may not last, our intentions can, especially with the help of a pen and paper. Danish artist Jeppe Hein is known for creating playful, interactive works. His Please Participate feels like a great place to start. Take a moment to sit with this piece.…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Maurice Denis

Image description: Maurice Denis. Color lithograph on tan paper. Image/sheet: 13 13/16 in x 10 3/4 in. A colorful cover of sheet music collection. A young child plays the piano, reading the music by candlelight. At the end of the piano another child plays a violin. Blue letters at the top read “Concerts du petit frère et de la petite soeur”. Blue letters at the bottom left read “par André Rossicnol”. The piano is dark brown and the sheet music has red and black notes. Four canceles extend over the keys on rose and gold colored candle holders. The young pianist has wavy, chin-length blondish brown hair, light skin, is outlined in red, and is wearing a light colored long-sleeve dress with red polka dots. The child plays and looks down at their fingers. The young violinist has long wavy blondish brown hair with a red bow above the right ear. They are wearing a blue and white striped shirt with a large white color and solid blue body. They are outlined in the same red that makes up their violin. They play while looking up at the sheet music on the piano. The background consists of layers of blue and orange groups of short lines. Part of a divider or door is seen to the right, consisting of a red wooden frame with an x in the middle and sheer fabric. The floor consists of red, blue, and cream checkered tiles.

As many of us gather this weekend with our households, extended family and friends, or even just our furry companions, we will center time together, and may even take a moment to sing, play games, watch a movie, or go for a walk. This piece by Maurice Denis, featured in the current exhibition, Private Lives,…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Anne Truitt

Image description: Anne Pruitt. Bonne. Acrylic on wood. 81 1/4 x 18 x 18 inches. A vertical sculpture consisting of a tall, rectangular column on top of a slightly smaller, square base. The top eighth of the sculpture is bright, winter white. The middle section, about five eighths of the work, is a deep, navy blue. The lower section is medium blue. The colors are cleanly differentiated, creating distinct segments. About one foot above the ground, midway through the medium blue section, a thin lip distinguishes the base. The paint has been applied evenly and smoothly.
Anne Truitt (American, 1921-2004), Bonne, 1963, acrylic on wood, 81 1/4 in x 18 in x 18 in, The Clement Greenberg Collection; Museum Purchase: Funds provided by Tom and Gretchen Holce. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2001.1.148

As we officially welcome winter with the solstice this week, we invite you to spend some time with Bonne by Anne Truitt. This sculpture carries the energy and colors of this season—the smooth blue of an ice-covered pond, the deep blues of a winter storm, the white blanket of freshly fallen snow. We encourage you…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Frank Okada

Image description: 1. 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 (American, 1931-2000), Consanguineous, 1969, oil on canvas, 72 in x 72 in, Museum Purchase: Caroline Ladd Pratt Fund. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 71.4

As we enter winter, the days shorten, and at least here in the Pacific Northwest, the cloud cover grows. Soaking up moments of light and sun feels even more important for our mental health. We’re appreciating this painting by Frank Okada, on view in the Hoffman Lobby. The work evokes such a strong feeling of…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Dyani White Hawk

Dyani White Hawk (American and Sičangu Lakota, born 1976), Wówahokuŋkiya | Lead, from suite Takes Care of Them, 2019, screenprint and metallic foil, image: 44 in x 21 1/4 in; sheet: 55 3/8 in x 32 in, Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Graphic Arts Council and the Native American Art Council. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2020.5.1a

Dyani White Hawk’s suite Takes Care of Them was inspired by the Lakota practice of four veterans being asked to stand and face each of the four cardinal directions during the wabléniča ceremony, a ritual welcoming adoptees and formerly fostered individuals back into the tribal community. In many Native cultures, veterans are revered as modern-day…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Pierre Bonnard

Image description: Family Scene. Pierre Bonnard. 1892. Color lithograph on paper. Image: 21.7 x 26. 7cm; Sheet: 27.9 x 39.6 cm. This lithograph features a tightly cropped view of three members of the artist’s family: his father, his sister, and between the two, the infant grandson. Against a flat tan background, the older man on the left appears in partial profile with just one ear and part of one eyeglass lens visible. His curling white and beige hair, which grows at the side of his bald head, trails out of the frame. His thick white beard adds texture to the print, in contrast to the flat black and tan clothing that is barely visible in the lower left-hand corner. The baby is the main focus of the piece. His round, hairless head has upward slanting almond-shaped eyes, a pug nose, and a mouth opened in a small “O.” Both chubby hands are curled in fists and his white swaddling gown encircles his head from the level of the eyes and continues flowing downward and off to the right side. The baby’s mother grips him with her left hand. Only her outstretched arm and part of her head are shown along the right side of the piece with the rest of her body disappearing out of the frame. Her head, filling the upper right corner of the print, shows both eyes, her nose, and a lock of hair rendered in heavy black paint.
Pierre Bonnard, Family Scene, 1892. Color lithograph on paper. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange), 570.1951. Digital image c The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource. NY. 2021 Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

As the current Private Lives exhibition makes clear, the Nabis artists loved depicting children. Not only were they part of the artists’ intimate family circles, but children also offered an example of how to view the world with a fresh perspective. Drawing inspiration from Pierre Bonnard’s Family Scene, we invite you to write from the…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Marie Watt

Image description: Companion Species: Ferocious Mother and Canis Familiaris. Marie Watt. 2017. Reclaimed wool blankets, embroidery floss, and thread. 108 in x 217 in. A long rectangular work composed of numerous other horizontally oriented rectangles. Each rectangle contains a word embroidered in red thread on various shades of cream to pale tan cloth in assorted stitches and styles. Some of the largest words are Ancestor, Myth, Love, Voice, Fighter, Custodian, Gratitude. Smaller words include Seeker, Care, Watcher, Legacy, Healer, Advocate, Interpreter, Wild, and Catalyst. Interspersed among the words are rectangles made of striped blankets in red, green, yellow, and black.
Marie Watt (American and Seneca, born 1967), Companion Species: Ferocious Mother and Canis Familiaris, 2017, reclaimed wool blankets, embroidery floss, and thread, 108 in x 217 in, Museum Purchase: Funds provided by The Ford Family Foundation and Dr. Loren Lipson. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 2017.106.1

Seneca artist Marie Watt created Companion Species: Ferocious Mother and Canis Familiaris with the help of over 200 people who participated in two sewing circles. These collective efforts generated a powerful piece filled with energy and hope. The holiday season can be a time of collective joy and togetherness; it can also be a painful…  Read more