Many new exhibitions will open at local museums in Oregon this year, ranging from historic French bronze sculptures to paintings inspired by the Qur’an. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, trying to impress an artsy friend or are attempting to live up to your New Year’s resolution to be more cultured, the Emerald has a breakdown of art exhibits to catch at three in-state museums.
Portland Art Museum (Portland; 1219 SW Park Avenue)
One of the new exhibitions for 2017 at the Portland Art Museum is “Rodin: The Human Experience” (Jan. 21-Apr. 16). One of the most heralded minds in art, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is known best for his bronze sculptures. Much of his work focuses on realism and the human form — rare for his time period as other artists were concerned with idealized mythology or historical events.
On display in “Rodin: The Human Experience” are studies from The Burghers of Calais and The Gates of Hell, two of his better-known works. The exhibition features some of Rodin’s renowned portraiture, including depictions of the writers Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac, the composer Gustav Mahler and the artist Claude Lorraine.
“There is no substitute for seeing these works in person to understand the fascination with the expression and movement of the human figure that made Auguste Rodin the first truly modern sculptor,” said Brian Ferriso, the Portland Art Museum’s Director and Chief Curator.
Another imminent Portland Art Museum exhibit is “Constructing Identity” (Jan. 29-Jun. 18). This exhibit combines creations from contemporary African-American artists and historical pieces from the 1930s through the Civil Rights era.
Artists featured include Henry Ossawa Tanner, a widely respected painter from the 19th and 20th century; Elizabeth Catlett, printmaker and sculptor who broke through numerous barriers for female African-American artists in the 20th century; and Romare Bearden, whose collages of African-American life in the 1960s helped popularize collage as an art form.
“Along with Constructing Identity, we’re celebrating African-American art through public programs including artist conversations, jazz, poetry, film and more,” Ferriso said. “We are exploring the power of art making to shape how African Americans both see themselves and are seen by the world.”
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917), Head of Pope Benedict XV, modeled 1915; Musée Rodin cast 10 in 1978. Bronze; Georges Rudier Foundry; 10 x 7 x 9 1/2 in. Lent by Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (Eugene; UO campus)
The JSMA is featuring a timely show tackling the relationship between American culture and Islam. “Sandow Birk: American Qur’an” (Jan. 21-Mar. 19) is a decade-long project by Sandow Birk of his individual gouache paintings of text from the Qur’an in elaborate script.
Drawing from his Southern California base, Birk uses a style of script based on Los Angeles graffiti tags. He juxtaposes these passages in front of scenes from contemporary American life, representing the connections between lessons found in Islam’s Holy Book and American culture. The exhibition displays approximately 200 ink and gouaches paintings and is accompanied by a 400-page book.
“Through his scholarly research and travel to countries with significant Muslim populations Sandow Birk gained an appreciation of the richness and diversity of Islam and its practice today,” said Jill Hartz, JSMA executive director and in-house curator of the exhibition in a press release. “He then conceived of this project, which aims to build a bridge or dialog between Islam and American life for the purpose of appreciating our shared humanity.”
Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Salem; Willamette University campus)
The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is ringing in the new year with “Louis Bunce: Dialogue with Modernism” (Jan. 21-Mar. 26), a large exhibition compiling the works of the Oregon artist. It looks back on the former painter and printmaker’s 57-year career through 49 paintings acquired from collections across the US.
“Portrait of Louis Bunce,” (1955, gelatin silver print, collection of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University, gift of Mutsumi and Gerald Robinson.)
“Bunce was Oregon’s archetypal modern artist of the mid-20th century,” said Roger Hull, Professor Emeritus of Art History and senior faculty curator at Willamette University in a description of the show. “He was deadly serious when it came to art-making and engaged with it all: Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Post-Modernism, and at the end of his life, almost operatic Romanticism.”
The exhibition displays Bunce’s range of style throughout his career. Bunce’s painting under the Works Project Administration (WPA) in the 1930s inspired his inventive Surrealist forms in the 1940s. The picturesque landscapes of Oregon also pushed him to nature-based Abstract Expressionist work in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, he experimented with hard-edge geometric compositions and Pop-related imagery while his late works feature light-saturated seascapes.
Louis Bunce, “Burned Land No. 2,” 1951, oil on canvas, 45″ x 22 7/8″, collection of Olivia Leiken Schmierer. The inspiration for this painting was the “Tillamook Burn.”
