learn - Portland Art Museum

Stop Asian Hate

michaelsmith — Fri, 19 Mar 2021 23:33:09 +0000

The staff of the Portland Art Museum and Northwest Film Center are deeply saddened and angered by the murder of eight people, including six Asian American women in the Atlanta, Georgia, area on Tuesday night. Together we mourn the senseless loss of these lives and condemn the sharp rise in racist, anti-Asian violence and hate crimes throughout the country this past year. Anti-Asian racism is embedded in our country’s history and includes government-sanctioned, race-based legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act of the late 19th century, and the forced imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II. More than two-thirds of the Japanese-Americans incarcerated in the WWII internment camps were American citizens. The racist language and jokes emanating from the nation’s highest government offices have reinforced anti-Asian sentiment. We acknowledge the pain and hurt that the Asian American community is in from this constant discrimination, particularly Asian American immigrants, service workers, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We cannot allow for more lives to be stolen due to racism. We must address our history and work to dismantle white supremacy in the present moment. We invite you to learn more about the many injustices Asians and Asian Americans have faced throughout this country’s history—and continue to encounter today—and take action to support the Asian American communities in Oregon and throughout the nation.

Members of the Museum’s equity team have compiled a list of online resources, but we know there are many more. See below for ways you can learn more and then stand in solidarity with our Asian American neighbors.

Stop Asian Hate Resources for Learning and Support

LOCAL

Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)
Japanese American Museum of Oregon
Portland Chinatown Museum

Oregon Historical Society Resources:

Chinese Americans in Oregon

Japanese Americans in Oregon

ACCOUNTS TO FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM

invisibleasians

Resources shared include:

Stop AAPI Hate

Heart of Dinner

Asian American LEAD

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)

advancing_justice_atl – (Link tree to resources)

advancingjustice_aajc – (Link tree to resources)

hateisavirus – (Link tree to resources)

OTHER RESOURCES

NBC News

Anti-racism resources to support Asian American, Pacific Islander community

Resources shared include:

“Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning” is a collection of essays published in 2020 about the nuances of the Asian American experience

“Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White” examines stereotypes, such as the perpetual foreigner and the model minority myth, and tackles issues including affirmative action, immigration and interracial marriage

Self Evident: Asian American’s Stories is a podcast that aims to challenge assumptions about Asian Americans

PBS’ Asian Americans is a five-part documentary series on the history of Asians in America.

#AsianAmCovidStories is a YouTube documentary series exploring Asian Americans’ experiences and challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.

CNET

How to help the Asian American community: Donations, educational resources and more

Resources shared include:

Asian Mental Health Collective

Human Rights Campaign

Anti-Asian Violence Resources

Kaiser Permanente Northwest

Resources and ideas shared include:

Learn about recognizing depression in others at findyourwords.org.

Visit the Asian Mental Health Collective website.

Report xenophobic, bias, or discriminatory incidents:

In the Portland area: Portland United Against Hate and Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon

Outside of Portland: Oregon Department of Justice

In Washington: Washington State Human Rights Commission and/or other local civil rights organizations

Hollaback! Trainings & free bystander guide

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Back to School Resources

michaelsmith — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 16:54:57 +0000

Welcome to a new school year unlike any other! Here at the Museum, we feel sad that we will not see throngs of students jostling to get in the front doors—at least for the foreseeable future. But we are excited to connect with educators, parents, and students at all levels through distance learning resources and virtual programs. Visit the Educator Resources page to deepen your knowledge of art at the Museum through the Poster Project, including teacher-created lessons and activities in language arts, social science, science, and art. Encourage students to reflect on and express their experiences through art and writing prompts at Journal On! and Write Around PAM. Explore new online exhibitions, videos, and learning resources for Volcano! and Art and Race Matters and look for additional exhibition-related curriculum in the coming weeks.

We know that, during these difficult times, teachers and school districts have made social-emotional learning a priority. We believe the arts can play an important role in helping all of us, students and educators alike, to develop internal resilience and to create community even in a remote learning environment. We’ll explore this subject on October 1 in our first Educator Workshop of the year, and in the coming weeks, in partnership with Create More, Fear Less, the Museum will launch a series of artist videos exploring creative practices for building emotional resilience and perseverance.

Finally, while we are not currently able to schedule class visits due to COVID-19 restrictions, we do encourage older students and educators to visit the Museum independently and younger students to visit with their families. (You may want to print and bring along our Gallery Bingo Cards for use in the Native American and Impressionist galleries.) Reserve your tickets and learn about the Museum’s safety protocols.

Thank you, teachers and families, for continuing to integrate the Museum into your students’ learning! We are grateful to be part of your community.

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1,001 art kits and counting: Sharing an extraordinary time through Journal On!

michaelsmith — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 18:02:12 +0000

Last spring, as it became clear that the pandemic shutdown would stretch through the summer and beyond, and that most in-person camps would be canceled and pools closed, PAM Learning and Community Partnerships staff gathered over Zoom with Carolyn Hazel Drake, Portland Public Schools Visual Arts district leader, and Kathleen Lane, Program Director at Create More, Fear Less, to brainstorm ways we could support families and engage children remotely. In a typical summer, the Museum galleries are lively with kids and teens from Portland Metro Arts, Boys and Girls Clubs, Adelante Mujeres Chicas Youth Development Program, p:ear, Vibe, and other programs. This summer, we would need to bring the arts to them.

We decided to launch Journal On!, a project that encourages children—and people of all ages—to keep a journal for art and writing reflecting their experiences of these extraordinary times. We created an online gallery, a virtual journal, where people could contribute to our shared story of this unique moment in history. We invited local artists to create one-minute videos to accompany weekly prompts. “What will you remember most from this time?” Artist Binta Loos-Diallo shared a sketch of the chicken coop she built in her yard. “How could you tell the story of this time through an object you see every day?” Artist William Hernandez showed us the soccer ball he kicks with his sons and the mural they painted on their bedroom wall.

Tatum, 5, Zoom Kindergarten

Rae T., 11

One of the first gallery entries came from Tatum, 5. A vivid blue sky looms over a large, red heart with a jagged line through the center. A blond girl with a deep frown, dropping an object (her computer?) into a trash can. “I hate the Zoom kindrgartin,” Tatum has written in large letters over the center of the drawing. (You are not alone, Tatum!) Rae T., 11, offered a counterweight a week later, reflecting that “Through this time I found an amazing community online that shared my interests and understood me. But I lost connections with true friends, too.” Adult artists also contributed beautiful sketches, paintings, and collages in response to the prompts, providing windows into the daily lives of people throughout the region.

Joy Kloman, I sketch every day. Drawing in the morning helps me focus and start my day with intention.

Gigi Little, 51, Spiral 1-4, from prompt 5: How Would You Capture this Moment in Color and Form?

Thanks to the generosity of the Miller Family Foundation, the Museum was able to provide sketchbooks and drawing materials to youth throughout the Portland Metro region to support participation in Journal On! Working with Portland Parks & Recreation and other partners, we identified sites where the kits would have the greatest impact, many in East County school districts, such as Parkrose, Reynolds, and Centennial. The Miller Family’s gift supported the translation of all Journal On! resources into Spanish, making the project fully accessible to our region’s many Spanish-speaking youth and families.

William Kendall, Art Program Coordinator, p:ear.

Through the Journal On Project, our young preschool learners were able to take their creative skills to the next level. We as a class met once a week through the summer and practiced our public speaking skills and learned how to describe what art meant to us while creating it. Having our whole class focus on one singular prompt helped open up the world of interpretation and personal experiences and how one’s intersecting identity is important to name at a young age.

The families and our staff loved being part of this project. Thanks again for all the support with providing such a beautiful project where our communities can come together and process through art this historical period.

—Dora Lisa Chavez, P-3 & Ready, Set, Go Program Coordinator, Salish Ponds Elementary and Fairview Elementary Schools, Metropolitan Family Service.

Eliseo Flores, Youth Development Program Manager at Centro Cultural in Cornelius, shares, “Our Summer STEAM program focuses on developing our next generation leaders through the possibilities of high tech, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Thanks to the art kits supplied by the Portland Art Museum our students were able to develop their skills in creativity and ingenuity making them more equipped and well rounded for their future.”

The Museum distributed 1,001 art kits this summer and has hundreds more in the works for the start of the school year. Journal On! will be adapted as curriculum that connects the arts and social and emotional learning as students resume school with distance learning in September. Meanwhile, the online gallery remains active. Please continue to share your work there and through Instagram @journal_on_everyone, and stay tuned for more!

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Daily Art Moment: Elizabeth Malaska

michaelsmith — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 21:42:11 +0000

“Elizabeth Malaska has continued her focus in painting with a feminist view exploring the place of the female body. Oftentimes looking to art history and the female form, Malaska nearly always references these moments while contextualizing them through a contemporary lens. Through this way of work, Malaska addresses the gaze, the subject of power and vulnerability, and the body as a changing site that reflects both social and political consequences. In Still Life on War Rug, Malaska’s central figure is taken from the central figure of Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. However, the figure is upside down. Similarly to Picasso’s painting, the woman is distorted and her gaze is directly upon the viewer. A cold, pink hue dominates the banal mid-century interior space and in the foreground; underneath the figure is an Afghan war rug. Though Malaska states that she is conceptually, diametrically opposed to Picasso’s use of the female figure, what is shared here is a sense of confrontation and dislocation of the figure to the space. Often, Malaska’s figures are not whole—they do not line up or meet to create a harmonious body. For the artist, these moments where the lines of the figure do not meet up are the areas that open up a space of vulnerability, for empathy, or even anxiety. In Still Life on War Rug, the figure is forceful, and as she lies on this rug, the entanglement of war takes on the shadow of our longer wars throughout time, such as the violence of sexism, imperialism, or racism. As Malaska notes, ‘Embedding the war rug in a bunker-like yet domestic mid-century space points to the degree to which ongoing war has been and continues to be America’s praxis. As it’s always happening somewhere else, to someone else we can ignore it. But what is repressed does not disappear. Perhaps that is one message of the figure’s precarious and utterly unsustainable position.’”

—Grace Kook-Anderson, The Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Curator of Northwest Art

View the work in our online collection

Elizabeth Malaska (American, born 1978). Still Life on War Rug, 2016. Oil, Flashe, charcoal, and graphite on canvas. Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Endowment for Northwest Art, 2017.104.1 © Elizabeth Malaska

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Daily Art Moment: Claes Oldenburg

michaelsmith — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 20:32:12 +0000

“We all deserve a treat during the dog days of August, and who better to serve it up than artworld prankster, Claes Oldenburg? Oldenburg humorously transforms familiar things through shifts in scale and media. In this work, the fleshy letters that form a melting ice cream bar recall his soft canvas sculptures from the previous decade. The artist notes that ‘swollen letters signify the affluence that advertises a good store’; his witty melding of language and food points to the importance of language in the marketing of consumer foodstuffs. Bon appetit!”

—Mary Weaver Chapin, Curator of Prints and Drawings

View the work in our online collection

Claes Oldenburg (American, born Sweden, active United States, born 1929). Alphabet in the Form of a Good Humor Bar, 1970. Color lithograph on paper. Gift of Mr. Ronald Shindler and Mr. Lowell Shindler, 81.107.2 © Claes Oldenburg/Coosje Van Bruggen

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Museum Supports Youth Art Experiences This Summer

laurabartroff — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 17:21:00 +0000

This month the Portland Art Museum will begin to distribute several thousand art kits to youth throughout the Portland region as well as into more rural communities of the Columbia River Gorge. The art kits complement Journal On!, a recently launched community art and writing project developed in partnership with Portland Public Schools and Create More, Fear Less.

The Journal On! project, which launched online in June, is a way to channel children’s energy, creativity, and emotions during this extraordinary time. An art journal provides release, connection, grounding, and the opportunity to develop a meaningful and enriching creative practice during this time of confusion, anxiety, and distance from the people and activities we love. It is an ongoing reminder that we have it in us to get through difficult times. A call to us all to find our way forward and keep going. The bilingual Journal On! website is available in both Spanish and English.

The abrupt transition to distance learning during the Spring, and greatly reduced options for summer activities has thrown into relief the immense inequities that students in our region experience. Many parents and families are struggling to work and look after their children, and families for whom English is not the first language have been particularly hard hit.

Teachers have told us that it’s essential to provide students with both hands-on materials and digital resources. When schools closed this spring, PPS Arts teachers created 3,750 art kits to distribute at the 15 nutrition hubs, where families in the free and reduced lunch program picked up meals. The kits “went like hot cakes,” according to the district leader. Demand was much greater than the district budget could supply, and that is where the generosity of the Miller Family Foundation comes in. Through a recent $50,000 donation from the Miller Family Foundation, the Portland Art Museum will be able to assemble nearly 2,000 high-quality art kits over the coming months to continue to provide to students in need.

The kits are meant to support participation in the Journal On! project and include an artist-quality sketchbook, graphite pencil, eraser, pencil sharpener, glue stick, colored pencils, origami paper, and pastels. “We are so grateful to the Miller Family Foundation for providing us with the resources to work with our partners in communities across the region to get art materials to kids and teens and encourage them to share their experience of this time through Journal On!,” said Hana Layson, Head of Youth & Educator Programs in the Department of Learning & Community Partnerships at the Museum. Art kits will be distributed through community partnerships with Portland Parks and Recreation’s Summer Lunch & Play, SUN Schools, REACH programs, and Centro Cultural, among others.

The donation from the Miller Family Foundation continues their long-standing support for broad access at the Museum and arts experiences. The Museum’s quarterly free days are supported by the Miller Family Foundation. “We are so glad to be able to help kids access art beyond the Museum walls this summer,” said Mark Miller. “The pandemic is causing such upheaval for so many members of our community, and we are grateful to work with such caring and creative partners to offer this resource.”

Students are encouraged to visit journalon.org to watch video prompts by local artists to spark their creativity and get ideas for their own art journals. They can upload photographs of their art for inclusion in the Museum’s new online Journal On! gallery, creating one enduring art journal, made up of many, to capture our shared story of this unique moment in history.

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Daily Art Moment: Auguste Rodin

michaelsmith — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 14:58:37 +0000

“In honor of #BastilleDay, I offer you one of the greatest French objects in the Museum’s collection. Rodin conceived and modelled it in 1879 for a public monument to commemorate the defense of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871). It depicts the battered Spirit of Liberty shrieking a call to arms above the body of a mortally wounded combatant. The sculpture pulsates with energy thanks to Rodin’s alternating expansion and contraction of the outer profile as well as his dramatic zigzag composition that extends from the broken wing to the feet of the man struggling to rise to the call. Rodin’s design was rejected and he later wrote that it ‘must have seemed too violent, too strident.’

Rodin’s expression of raw emotion has great universality. Four decades after he conceived the sculpture, it was chosen and enlarged for a monument to the defenders of Verdun against German attack in World War I. This year, it resonates in light of American, French, and larger world movements championing true liberty and justice. It might also represent our frustration and agony as COVID-19 continues to kill. While the pandemic has scuttled the celebration of Bastille Day 2020, we will look forward to the Alliance Française’s annual festival in Portland in the years to come. Vive la France!”

—Dawson W. Carr, The Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art

View the work in our online collection

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917). La Defense, also known as The Call to Arms, model made in 1879; cast ca. 1910. Bronze. The Evan H. Roberts Memorial Sculpture Collection, 78.1

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Daily Art Moment: Guercino

michaelsmith — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 20:11:14 +0000

“Drawings give us an intimate look at artists at work. Among the finest drawings in the Museum collection is this sheet by Guercino, one of the greatest draftsmen in the history of art. He drew habitually and was a natural virtuoso in a broad range of media, but favored working with a goose-feather pen dipped in brown ink as in this work.

The drawing, a study for a painting in the National Gallery, London, shows the artist thinking with his pen, furiously probing the subject with looping, calligraphic strokes and dashes of wash as he searches for contours and drama. Note how the drapery seems to flutter. The sketch epitomizes the immediacy and vivacity of drawing at its best.

While Guercino was known for his generosity to the poor, he rarely gave his drawings away. They were retained for his workshop and were left to his nephews and pupils, Cesare and Benedetto II Gennari, who sustained the studio for another generation. The distinctive dot-and-dash borders were added when the collection was broken up.”

—Dawson W. Carr, The Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art

View the work in our online collection

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) (Italian, 1591–1666). Elijah in the Desert Fed by Ravens, ca. 1619/1620. Pen, ink, and ink wash on paper. Gift of Sally Lewis, 2005.75.2

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Daily Art Moment: Lorenzo Triburgo

michaelsmith — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 20:51:13 +0000

“I began ‘Transportraits’ when I came out as TransQueer in 2008—a time before the proliferation of trans representations we see in dominant media today (for better or worse) and before any kind of ‘tipping point.’ I felt the need to create positive representations of trans-masculinities and to address the false notion of gender as ‘natural’ and the myth of US American masculinity—rooted in the conquering of ‘the West and Manifest Destiny, and mythologized in late nineteenth-century painting. I thought to myself, ‘How better to conjure and critique the sublimity of the landscape than with Bob Ross paintings’?!?! I followed instructions from Bob Ross’s ‘The Joy of Painting’ to create my first oil paintings, each of which would serve as a unique backdrop for the thirty portraits in the series.

My sincerest gratitude extends to all the people who graciously gave their time to sit for a portrait and courageously lent their likeness to this project. Although trans existence is not safe and it is not easy (although, make no mistake, it is filled with its own joys and delights), the people who are presented in these portraits made a decision to be out. It is because of this willingness that ‘Transportraits’ can contribute positive representations of trans existence in a cultural climate lacking these affirmations.”

—Lorenzo Triburgo

View the work in our online collection

Lorenzo Triburgo (American, born 1980). Valley Waterfall (Erin), from the series Transportraits, 2008 (negative); 2011 (print). Pigment print. Gift of the Artist in honor of Terry Toedtemeier, 2011.46 © unknown, research required

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Daily Art Moment: Katsushika Hokusai

michaelsmith — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 21:04:40 +0000

“Last summer I hiked to Ramona Falls in Mt. Hood National Forest for the first time—and immediately thought of this print. Water cascades down the rocks, forking into powerful branches before spilling out in a fine, ethereal spray. Below, pilgrims on their way to nearby shrines at Nikkō stand transfixed. At right, two figures climb the steep slope for a better look at nature’s brilliance. This is one of Katsushika Hokusai’s most extraordinary print designs. It comes from an ingenious series issued in 1833–34 of famous waterfalls throughout Japan. It was made at a time when travel was becoming increasingly accessible and landscape—especially ‘famous places’ (meisho)—were a popular subject in woodblock prints. Hokusai’s waterfall prints followed the success of his celebrated #ThirtysixViewsofMountFuji, published two years before. Hokusai was in his seventies at the time.”

—Jeannie Kenmotsu, Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art & Interim Head of Asian Art

View the work in our online collections

Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849). Falling Mist Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province, from the series A Tour of Waterfalls in Various Provinces, 1832/1833. Color woodblock print on paper. The Mary Andrews Ladd Collection, 32.441

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Daily Art Moment: American flag

michaelsmith — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 01:20:16 +0000

“Monuments are on my mind. As we are seeing statues of racist historical figures being toppled in cities across the country, my thoughts jump over to the American flag. A singular symbol of the idea and the ideals that the United States represents, it also speaks of our history of oppression and the constant fight to attain a reality that upholds democracy, freedom, equality, and justice for everyone. I selected artworks by Gordon Parks, Fritz Scholder, Deborah Faye Lawrence, Jasper Johns, and Corita Kent to offer reflections on the experiences of conflict and hope wrapped up in this object. Thank you for taking a look.”

—Sara Krajewski, The Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art

Fritz Scholder (American, born 1937). Bicentennial Indian, from the Kent Bicentennial Portfolio: Spirit of Independence, 1975. Color lithograph on paper. Gift of Lorillard, 76.4.12

Jasper Johns (American, born 1930). FLAGS II, 1973. Screenprint on J. B. Green paper. Gift of a private donor, 2013.8.61

Deborah Faye Lawrence (American, born 1952). New Preamble, 2008. Canvas, paper, wood, steel, copper, and recycled U.S. flags. Gift of the artist and Catherine Person Gallery, Seattle, 2012.85.1

Corita Kent (American, 1918–1986). flag of my home, 1976. Color screenprint on wove paper. The Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Graphic Arts Collection, 92.94.271 © Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles, CA

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Daily Art Moment: Elizabeth Catlett

michaelsmith — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 00:17:32 +0000

“Not all art belongs on walls. Artists’ books are designed to be held by the viewer, creating an intimate and tactile relationship between the art and the onlooker. Often paired with text, artists’ books are a hybrid artform combining fine art, literature, and bookbinding. In ‘For My People,’ artist Elizabeth Catlett pairs six lithographs with Margaret Walker’s powerful poem of 1942 on the Black experience in America. Together, Catlett’s words and Walker’s text explore hope and despair, as well as the simple joys of life. Walker ends ‘For My People’ with a call to action that is as relevant today as it was in 1942: ‘Let a new earth rise. Let another world be born. Let a bloody peace be written in the sky. Let a second generation full of courage issue forth; let a people loving freedom come to growth. Let a beauty full of healing and strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits and our blood. Let the martial songs be written, let the dirges disappear. Let a race of men now rise and take control.’ You can read the full poem at poets.org/poem/my-people. What are your hopes for ‘A Second Generation’?”

—Mary Weaver Chapin, Curator of Prints and Drawings

View the work in our online collections

Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, 1915–2012). A Second Generation from For My People, 1992. Illustrated book of six lithographs with text by Margaret Walker; bound in imported red Japanese linen over heavy boards, housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box. The Carol and Seymour Haber Collection, 2008.73.9a,b © unknown, research required

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